The twenty-fifth chapter of the Aristotelian Constitution of Athens contains a circumstantial account of the overthrow of the Areopagus, which differs from the accepted version of the same affair in ascribing an important, though not the foremost, part in the attack to Themistocles. The newly discovered version does not, it is true, stand entirely by itself. But it is found elsewhere only in an argument to the Areopagiticus of Isocrates, written probably by a sixth-century Christian. As between the argument and the papyrus, it is the latter that alone can give any serious historical value to the former. But what is the historical value of the account in the Constitution? If it is true, then, as was recognised at once by Kenyon in his editio princeps, it revolutionises the history of the later part of Themistocles' career.

From the tenth Pythian ode of Pindar we learn that both the Aleuadae, who had their seat of power at Larissa, and the Skopadae, lords of Crannon, once called Ephyra, were descendants of Heracles. These families are chiefly known to us through the poets, and in the case of the Skopadae, from the passage in the Protagoras of Plato in which a poem of Simonides is discussed. The statement of Theocritus, that the great families of Thessaly would be buried in obscurity but for the songs written in their honour, is amply justified:

The Aleuadae are more conspicuous and more often mentioned than the Skopadae, who were the younger branch of the Aleuad family, as the Kreondae are the younger branch of the Skopadae at Krannon. Both families appear to have immigrated from Thesprotia. The eponym of the Aleuadae is one of the Thessalian heroes whose story brings them into connexion with the serpent, of whom the most famous is Asklepios. Of him Rohde writes: ‘In Wahrheit ist ursprünglich auch er ein in der Erde hausender thessalischer Ortsdaimon gewesen, der aus der Tiefe, wie viele solche Erdgeister, Heilung von Krankheiten, Kentniss der Zukunft (beides in alter Zeit eng verbunden) heraufsandte.’

J'espérais bien n'en plus parler; j'en ai parlé, jadis, assez longuement. Mais un important article, publié en 1915 dans l'Hermes par E. von Stern et dont je n'ai eu connaissance qu'en ces temps derniers, m'oblige à en dire encore quelques mots.

Il s'agit, une fois de plus, de ce Πτολεμαῖος ὁ Λυσιμάχου appelé aussi Πτολεμαῖος Έπίγονος dont fait mention un décret voté, en 240 avant notre ère, par les citoyens de Telmessos en Lycie; qui, par la faveur de Ptolémée III Évergètes, était devenu peu avant cette date prince souverain de Telmessos; et qui reçut des Telmessiens, en récompense de ses bienfaits, les plus rares honneurs.

While the number of crypto-Christians among the heterodox tribes of Asia Minor has probably been considerably exaggerated, it cannot be denied that crypto-Christians exist or that cases of forced conversion affecting large sections of the population can be cited. But under the Ottoman Turks at least there is very little historical evidence for conversion on a large scale in Asia Minor.

Exceptionally in the district of Trebizond we have both a credible legend of conversion and an existent population, outwardly Mahommedan, which seems in some cases to retain something from the more ancient faith and in others to practise it in secret. Of the first category may be cited certain villages in the district of Rizeh, which, though Mahommedan by profession, preserve some memories of the rite of baptism and speak, not Turkish, but Armenian.

Crypto-Christians proper, belonging to the Greek rite and Greek by speech, also existed till recent years in the neighbourhood of Trebizond: they were known generally as ‘Stavriotae,’ from a village Stavra in the ecclesiastical district of Gumush-khane. They are said at one time to have numbered 20,000 in the vilayets of Sivas, Angora, and Trebizond: now all have returned to the open profession of their faith.

Votive statues of the gods placed in the temples, forecourts or temene were common in Greece at an early period, and material evidence has proved that in Sicily and even in Italy there were numerous examples of the same custom. In Greece, a land rich in marbles, the sculptor's art rapidly developed and flowered into masterpieces which became the models for the western world. In Sicily, and even more markedly in Italy, regions which in the archaic period produced little marble or good, workable stone, the material chiefly used was clay; hence, owing to their perishable nature, comparatively few of the creations of these early masters have come down to us. Yet the Sicilian School had a great reputation and led the van for daring initiative and mastery of technical difficulties.

At the Library of the University of Michigan there is a waxed diptych from the Fayoum, secured for the University by Professor Kelsey while in Egypt in 1919. The leaves of the diptych are of wood, about ll¼ inches long and 8¼ inches wide, slightly hollowed out and coated with black wax on the inner sides. These inner sides are shown in the photographs which accompany this article (Pls. X., XI.). In explanation of the photographs, it should be said that they were taken with the aid of a strong artificial light coming from the left at an angle of 45 degrees. This has caused the incisions and depressions on the wax to reflect the light in such a way that they seem to stand out above the general surface of the wax. Thus the white blotches which appear on the first leaf are really hollows and not projections, as they seem to be in certain lights. It should also be stated that a transcription was made of this leaf before the wax crumbled away, probably owing to unfavourable atmospheric conditions, along the edge of the crack in the lower part of the leaf.

On March 31st, 1891, died Samuel Savage Lewis, librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and one of the original members of the Hellenic Society. To his college he left a large collection of coins, gems and miscellaneous antiquities, among them the following vases:

(1) Red-figured kotyle, from Castellani Collection.

Castellani Sale Catalogue (Rome 1884), p. 12, No. 67 (not figured).

(A) Goddess running off with youth, who holds a large lyre.

(Plate XIII.)

(B) Two youths in attitudes of alarm; one holds a double flute.

(Plate XIV.)

Under each handle is a large double palmette from which spring elaborate palmette and tendril ornaments on either side (Fig. 1).

Purple is used for the letters, the cord of the lyre on (A) and the hair fillets of the youths on (B).

Details are represented in the main by black relief lines; the less important body muscles of the youths by brown glaze lines.

Exactly ten years ago the Italian Government wrested the territory of Tripolitania from the Turks, and the hope was at once entertained that archaeology, safe from the blind fanaticism that had so seriously hindered former expeditions, might reap a rich harvest from the ruins of the famous cities of the Pentapolis, and especially from Cyrene. This hope has not been disappointed. I do not intend to study here the recent discoveries under the Hellenistic Temple of Apollo of the remains of the Temple celebrated by Pindar, nor to anticipate the prospects of discovering its stips votiva, or of finding the site of the earliest necropolis. To study the former we must await the completion and publication of the excavations; to justify the latter a far more settled state of the country is indispensable. I will therefore limit myself in this paper to the discussion of some of the numerous statues discovered that can be ascribed to the Hellenistic age.

Thanks to the kindness of its owner, Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill, I am able to describe a remarkable Minoan bronze object found in Crete, in the shape of a galloping bull with an acrobatic figure turning a back somersault over his back, both modelled in the round. Views of the group as seen in its original state from the front and side are given in Figs. 1 and 2.

The length of the bull at full stretch is 0·156 m., and the height of the group is 0·114 m. Beneath the forefeet of the animal is a metal attachment of angular form, upright in front. It must in some way have served the same purpose of holding the bronze in position as the tangs or nail-like projections visible in the case of many figurines of the votive class. The bull may have been held in some kind of framework, and it is probable that the hind-legs were fixed in a similar way.

The following report has been compiled at the request of the Editors of the Journal of Hellenic Studies and has been made as complete as the short notice given has allowed. I have to thank my colleagues of the Greek Archaeological Service and of the other foreign schools in Athens for the information, which they have so courteously placed at my disposal. Thanks are also due to the Managing Committee of the British School for permission to give a brief account of its latest work.