Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/17

 INSCRIPTIONS xiii the word MYTIUENAION and the partially effaced Vl^- [POYjXOIS; clearly show that the inscription relates to the events recorded in Thucydides, iii. 50, Although the first impression excited in the mind by the appearance of the half-effaced lines is one of bewilderment and unfami- liarity, out of the chaos order soon begins to arise. The experienced eye detects in the shape of the letters, in the use of A A for A, of ^ for E, of for O, of P for P, of $ for X., of CD for (|>, of + for X, and similar variations, the earlier forms of the Attic characters ; and in the use of H for the aspirate, of E for El and H, of O for A and OY, of A for V, of U for A, of X5 for Z, of 4)$ for t, the old Attic alphabet, in place of which the Ionic alphabet was regularly adopted in the Archonship of Euclides, b.c. 403. There are some other parti- culars in which the earlier Attic usage differs from the later. In the older inscriptions, for EAFISI is written HEUri:^; (and in many other cases the initial aspirate is inserted), for -ESIOAN (3 p. imp. pass.) -O^OON (e.g. 27 rt Suppl.): there are assimilations of N, l<, and r, as in EMPOUEl, TOUUOn^TON, E^ITEUEI, ES- 2:ANIAI, EX4)YUE2;, MEAXPY^A, EAMME, and also refusals to assimilate, as in X:^YNMAXOI, OUYN- PlOr, 2:TP0NB[IX0^], (some appearing later); re- duphcation of ^, as in API^SITA; datives plural in A 511, HX., for -A 1 21, ceasing to occur in inscriptions during the 90th Olympiad, B.C. 420-417; datives in 0I5IIN for -OI5I, up to about e.g. 444; other forms, such as OUEIlON, the comparative of OAITON, which are found in inscriptions though not occurring elsewhere in Attic as known to us : — all these may be used as notes of time. We find however that some of the modern letters appear among the older ones before the archon-