Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/33

 INSCRIPTIONS XXIX owing to the greater accumulation, and consequently to the greater destruction of inscriptions which took place at Athens, that fewer archaic ones are to be found there than in the islands. Many of the statues and inscriptions earlier than the Persian war which remain to us owe their preser- vation to the use made of them, together with other debris, as the substructure of new buildings on the artificially raised and levelled summit of the Acropolis (Prof. Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, pp. 239, 242 fif,). The literary or poetical value of Greek inscriptions is not great. Few, like the epitaph of Simonides on Arche- dice (Thuc. vi. 59), bear the stamp of a great mind. To revert once more to our homely simile, they may be said to stand in the same relation to the works of the great lyric or dramatic poets, as the poetical or other effusions found in churches and cathedrals to the masterpieces of English literature, though preserved by Greek moderation and good taste from the absurdity and eccentricity of their modern counterparts. Two fragments in verse, and one in prose, touch us with the common feeling of humanity : C. I. A. 463 (written /?ouo-Tpo<^i?Sov) : — [EiT dcTToJs Tis avrjp ctTC ^eVos | aX(X)o^O' l(jiV, TeT(T)i;^ov oiKT6/3a|s, avSp' ayadov, TrapiVw, cv TToXifJAO I (ftOifxivov, V€apa.v rj^-qv 6i;s cr(x)(fipwv y w Ovyarep. — Cp. also p. xciv. Two Other inscriptions have found their way into the Anthology. The first is attributed by the collector without much foundation to Anacreon.