Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/29

 INSCRIPTIONS XXV 321, Suppl. ii. and iii, 322 ; Newton and Hicks, p. 84 ff.); in a somewhat later inscription (C. I. A. 324) an estimate is given of the cost of the building, including the prices of the statues, the daily wages (in one case a drachma) of the men employed, and the quantities of the columns. And all these things, though the records of them are but fragmen- tary, come to us, not strained through books, but fresh from the chisel of the workman. We dig among the crumbling remains of antiquity, and out of these is gradually built up a real although very imperfect image of the past. It must not be forgotten, however, that inscriptions begin to grow numerous and legible as Hellas declines, and that the greater part of the notices preserved in them relate to the time, not of her glor}', but of her decay. The historian of Athens becomes aware that a long study such as Boeckh devoted to these ancient documents adds little to our knowledge of Greek history in the fifth century before Christ, but a great deal to that of Alexandrian and Roman times. He may add the warning that we must not antedate our knowledge, or transfer to the age of Pericles or Demosthenes institutions and forms of life which belong to succeeding centuries. The use of inscriptions was not unknown to Herodotus (i. 51, 187; ii. 106, 136, 141; iii. 88; iv. 87, 88, 91; v. 59-61, 77 ; vi. 14 ; vii. 228 ; viii. 82 and Thucydides (vi. 54 fin., 59; cp. v. 18 fin., 23 fin., 47 fin., 56 med.), and became more frequent among later Greek writers. Collec- tions were formed of them in the third and second centuries before Christ see Boeckh, CI. G. praef p.viii). Thus Philo- chorus the historian (fl. b.c. 307-261) is recorded by Suidas to have published eVtypa/x/xaTa 'A-mKa, Attic inscriptions. Polemo, a contemporary of Aristophanes of Byzantium (about 200 B.C.), and a famous man in his day, is said to have composed, among many other works, a book upon 'inscrip- tions in various cities ' (Athenaeus, x. p. 436 D, p. 442 E), and two other books, one 'on the votive offerings at Lace- daemon* (Athenaeus, xiii. p. 574 C), and another 'on the VOL. I. c