Conplura enim in finitimis insulis simulacra postea fecere, sicut in Delo, quibus subiecerunt carmen, non vitibus tantum censeri Chion, sed et operibus Archermi filiorum. So Pliny of Bupalus and Athenis (HN 36, 12). It may be worth trying to reconstruct the Greek epigram read by Pliny or rather his authority.

We could do with an epithet for XIoϛ in the pentameter, an unessential word that would be omitted by Pliny in his prose version. The regular epithet for Chios is παιπαλόεσσα:—

(Od. 3, 170.) (H. Hymn. Ap. 172).

That gives the pentameter.

In the hexameter we need an equivalent for vitibus. άμπέλοις will not scan, and the diminutive άμπελιοις is not in tone; σιαφυλῆισι would be uvis or racemis, not vitibus. οἱνάνθαι or οἱνάνθης might do, but Prof. D. S. Robertson suggests oïνηισι and I am sure this is right. So ούκ οϊνηισι μόνον. Mοῦνον, however, is the Ionic form, not ndvov. But we do not know that the epigram was composed by an Ionian. Simoriides, an Ionian of Ceos, uses μόνος; in his skolion for Skopas (Dieh1 4, 7, protected by the metre), but I do not press this, and if anyone objects to μόνον, let him read οῦκ οοἰνηισ᾿ οἰον.

Now we need a verb. I cannot think of a word that is an exact equivalent of the censeri, and at the same time has the right scansion and construction. Censeri in the sense of ‘ to be famed for,’ ‘ noted for,’ is a favourite verb in Silver Latin, as may be seen from the Thesaurus, and I take it here to be a matter-of-fact translation of some poetic expression, such as κλέοςᾶρνυται, suggested to me by Mr. A. S. F. Gow.