Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/100

 XCvi THUCYDIDES yLvrjfxa ToS' ^s ^PX^'i neio-toTparov iTTTrtou vlo<s ®riK€v 'AttoAAwvo? JIvOlov Iv Tt/xe'vet. He remarks that, though the letters were faint, it was still to be read — In nal vvv hrjXa. ecTTiv a/j.vhpoL<; ypa/x/xao-i. * // t's equally legible to fin's day, the marble on which it was inscribed having been accidentally discovered in a court- yard near the Ilissus, by M. Kumanudes, in 1877/ Newton, Essays on Art and Archaeology, p. 191. See also C. I. A. vol. iv. Suppl. i. 373 c. The marble slab is broken into two pieces, the half-word and word -TPAT02 HinniO being lost by the fracture. Beneath the inscription is a leaf moulding. Thucydides tells us that in his time the letters were already 'indistinct,' dfivSpoL. Yet there is no indistinctness in their present state, and they bear an old Athenian character, suiting the date. We may conjecture, either that they were plastered over after the fall of the Pisistratidae, and that the plaster gradually wore off: or that, at an early date, but after the age of Thucydides, they were restored without losing their antique form. [Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, § 56, suggests that the letters may originally have been coloured, and that the colour had faded by Thucydides' time.] A curious coincidence with the words of Thucydides is presented by C. I. A. 340. A pedestal of Pentelic marble preserves the words — EPOIKON 1 E^POTEIAAIAN Cp. Thuc. ii. 70, Koi vdTepov cTTOtKov? lavTwv CTrefMif/av es r^]V HoTiSatav Kai KaT(aKLaav. An inscription found at Dodona (date uncertain) shows that the savage Corcyraeans were not insensible to the need of unity among themselves : they ask ' to whom of Gods or heroes they should sacrifice and pray ' in order to attain it, — ®€bv T[y^^av ayaOav £7r[t] koi vcivra rot K[o]pKvpa[rot to) Ai T<3 Nau) Kttt TO. A[i]wra TLVL Ko. [^ewv ^] ijpwoiv 6vov[Tje<; koi £v;^[d/i,£VOiJ ofJiovooLev «[7rji rujyaOov.