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Two ‘Lost’ Greek Inscriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Summary

Two Greek inscriptions, originally discovered and published in the eighteenth century but subsequently ‘lost’, appeared at Sotheby's during 1970 in sales of inscriptions from the collections of the Earl of Lonsdale at Lowther Castle, The first, a list of magistrates and officials of the municipium of Rhegium, was found at Reggio Calabria in 1727, and the second, a metrical inscription from a fountain, was brought from Lesbos to England in 1748. Both have been acquired for the British Museum.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1971

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References

page 260 note 1 Michaelis, A., Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge, 1882), p. 487.Google Scholar

page 260 note 2 For details of the sale and present location of sculptures from Lowther Castle, see Ver-meule, C. C., ‘Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain’, American Journal of Archaeology, LIX (1955), 141–2Google Scholar and (with von Bothmer, D.) AJA LXIII (1959), 334–5.Google Scholar

page 260 note 3 Ancient Marbles, p. 497, no. 61.

page 260 note 4 For example CIL vi, 24010 and 28289 arenot noted as having been at Lowther Castle; they were sold at Sotheby's on 18 May 1970, nos. 166 and 168.

page 260 note 5 Decreasing letter-heights indicate lower status: the chief prytanis is distinguished from the synprytaneis and the haruspices, and nicely calculated reductions segregate the lesser officials and the servants. A. G. Woodhead informs me that such gradual diminution, not uncommon in Latin inscriptions, was adopted for some Greek inscriptions in the Roman period, especially where Roman influence was strong. This phenomenon is seldom reported in detail and would repay study.

page 262 note 1 Sicula, i, 10.

page 262 note 2 Ea nimirum aetate, non in suburbano quidem, sed quasi in ipso urbis pomoerio, quum coercendae meretricularum licentiae, poenitentium mulierum Gynaeceum magna cura a fundamentis exstrueretur, ibi repertum lapidem, Anglo Viro itineranti (nama nationis Britannicae Consule Willelmo Chamberlain Messanae commorante liberi commeatus litteras Dorvillius habebat) a Jesuitis, quibus tune aedificii cura erat, fuisse traditum …, Morisanus, p. 85.

page 262 note 3 Information received from the State Archivesin Haarlem and the Municipal Archives in Amsterdam. I am indebted to Dr. J. H. C. Kern for acting as intermediary in these enquiries.

page 262 note 4 Sicula, ii, 560.

page 262 note 5 CIL vi, 26229; d'Orville in Charitonem, p. 197, ‘apud me’.

page 262 note 6 Ancient Marbles, p. 495, no. 53.

page 263 note 1 Appian, De Bellis Civilibus, iv, 86.

page 263 note 2 Sartori, p. 138.

page 263 note 3 CIL x, 1, p. 4.

page 263 note 4 Sartori, p. 137; Rhegium IG xiv, no. 618; Naples IG xiv, no. 745.

page 263 note 5 CIL x, no. 6.

page 264 note 1 Pococke nos. 2, 5, and 20 = IG xii, 2, nos. 247, 244, and 248.

page 265 note 1 Description of the East and Some OtherCountries, vol. II, pt. ii (1745), 17. Richard Pococke, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., (1704–65) was an inveterate traveller, not only in Mediterranean countries (he went up the Nile as far as Philae andvisited Jerusalem, Baalbek, Cyprus, and Crete as well as parts of Asia Minor and Greece) but alsoin the Alps and in the less frequented parts of the British Isles. For further details see Dictionary of National Biography, xlvi, 12.Google Scholar

page 265 note 2 Ancient Marbles, p. 114, note 293: cf. Askew's note in Brit. Mus. Burney MSS. 402, which was finished in 1748 in Malta, where Askew was in quarantine after his Greek travels. Anthony Askew, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., F.S.A. (1722–74) was physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and Registrar of the Royal College of Physicians, but better known as a classical scholar. He had an enormous library of books and manuscripts. Among theother antiquities that he brought to England were three that later belonged to Charles Towneley and entered the British Museum with his collection: the marble grave stele of Xanthippos (B.M. Cat.Sculpture, no. 628), a portrait of Nero (B.M. Cat.Sculpture, no. 1887), and a Greek inscription concerning epheboi (B.M. Cat. Inscriptions, i, no.44; IG iii, no. 1165). See also D.N.B. ii, 192.

page 265 note 3 John Taylor, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A. (1704–66), was Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, Cambridge, and University Librarian before becoming Archdeacon of Buckingham and later Canon of St. Paul's. His nickname referred to his work on the Attic orators. He bequeathed his unpublished notes along with his books to Askew, who gave the notes on Demosthenes to Reiske. Other details of his life and career are recorded in D.N.B. lv, 440; it is there incorrectly stated that he was elected F.S.A. in 1759 and later Director:in fact he was Director from 1759, having beenelected Fellow in 1748.

page 265 note 4 Sale Catalogue, Sotheby and Co., 5 May 1871 no. 1065; Brit. Mus. Cat. Add. MSS. no. 27,909 E.

page 265 note 5 Autographum istud, ita inemendatum, aut saltem obscurum, hisce ipsis litteris domi apud eundem (sc.Askew] hodie conservari. Taylor's claim that histext was totally unemended is not wholly accurate, In the first line both Pococke's text and the earlier manuscript show that the letter after HH was already illegible, and it cannot therefore be claimed that the kappa read next by Taylor has disappeared only since his time. In fact there is hardly room at that point for a letter of that shape, and Paton's tau must be correct.

page 266 note 1 Buck, C. D., The Greek Dialects (Chicago 1955), p. 219.Google Scholar

page 266 note 2 Gött. Nachr. N.F. I (19341936), 114–15; IG iv, I2, no. 88.Google Scholar

page 266 note 3 So Boeckh, followed by Hiller von Gaertringen (p. 117) and Groag.

page 266 note 4 Paton, Bürchner, and Johanna Schmidt.