As a preliminary to the consideration of the changes introduced by Solon into the currency system of Athens, it will be well to review the situation which he had to face. He had found the farmers of Attica in a condition of hopeless insolvency owing to the burden of borrowed money, and had relieved them by a summary process of cancelling their debts: in effect, he had adjudged them bankrupt and then given them their discharges, so that they could start afresh with the moral guarantee of the State to support their credit, like any modern trader who has similarly gone through the courts. But it would have been of little use to do this unless he had at the same time provided some safeguard against the recurrence of the trouble: this had been so widespread that it must have been due to some cause which operated throughout the industry, not to the shortcomings of individuals; and, as the step which Solon took was to reform the currency, it is clear that in his view it was the currency which had been at fault.

The miniature head published here has not been described in detail before. It was found at Naucratis during the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1885–6, and presented by the Committee of the Fund to the British Museum in 1888. Its height, from the crown of the head to the flat base of the neck, is 59 millimetres; its length, from the tip of the nose to the circular disk at the back of the coiffure, is 56 millimetres. It is made of greyish-white clay, coated, except on the eyes and base, with a fine greenish-blue glaze; the eyes are left in the light colour of the clay, and the pupils do not appear ever to have been marked. The thin diadem and the earrings are glazed lemon-yellow, for gold. The earrings consisted originally of a thick ring with a conical pendant; both of these pendants have been broken away from the cheek, leaving only the rings intact.

The forehead is long and receding. The arching brows are sharply defined; and the eyes are large and wide open, with delicately drawn lids. The nose is straight, fine, and round-tipped. The mouth is very short and sinuous, with deep-set corners, and crisp, protuberant lips. The ball of the chin is very round; and underneath it is a full roll of flesh, with three more rolls on the neck, which is long and was evidently never attached to a body.

In the last long trimeter speech of the Prometheus Vinctus Hermes describes to Prometheus the future course of his punishment: he will be swallowed up in the earth, and then after a long interval of time brought back to daylight for laceration by Zeus's eagle. Hermes goes on (1026 ff.):

The only substantial variant is θεός τις F Tri. in 1027.

There is no proof that ancient critics saw any definite allusion here. The Medicean scholium is simply ( Paley) πεισομένου, an obscure note to which I shall return. Matthias Garbitius (1559), the first scholar quoted by S. Butler in his variorum edition of 1809, suggested that the reference was either to Hercules or, more probably, to ‘some other hero’ destined to free the human mind from darkness and doubt, perhaps a Sibylline vision of the Christian redemption. This last fancy was defended anonymously in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1796 and found a belated champion in F. A. Paley, on the eve of his admission to the Church of Rome, in 1846—‘Ceterum venturum esse Messiam et descensurum in inferos antiquitus praedictum quis hic non agnoscit?’ Later Paley silently dropped this theory.

The following notes and inscriptions represent part of the results of a journey made in the spring of 1904, supplemented and revised on a second visit paid to the same district in the following November. One inscription from Korone, a fragment of the ‘Edictum Diocletiani,’ I have already published (J.H.S. 1904, p. 195 foll.). I have attempted to state as briefly as possible the fresh topographical evidence collected on my tour, avoiding as far as possible any mere repetition of the descriptions and discussions of previous writers.

The literature dealing with this part of Greece is not extensive. I give here a list in chronological order of the more important works in which its geography and antiquities are discussed, and append to each the abbreviated title which I shall use for purposes of reference.

Alexandria. —At Kom esh Shuqafa the Graeco-Roman Museum under the direction of Alan Rowe carried out in 1941-2 supplementary investigations in the catacombs. These reveal that the catacombs and other tombs were cut out in a great semicircular rock plateau which originally rose to a height of fifty feet above the surrounding area. This had been obscured by the great mass of debris which had accumulated over and around the rock.

IONE Mylonas Shear claims in her article in JHS 2002 that two Mycenaean animal figurines from Ugarit, only one of which has been previously published, represent Mycenaean centaurs and are thus predecessors of centaurs of the historical period. It is quite clear, however, that both belong to the so-called ‘abbreviated group’ figurines, which consist of driven oxen – ‘plough’ (PLATE 8a) – or single chariots, as identified by E.B. French and further defined by me in my work on the terracottas from the Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina. In an abbreviated group there is only one animal instead of two, with one human, sometimes two, standing at the rear of the animal, in or behind a small or almost non-existent box or balustrade. According to what animal head is at the front of the figurine, either horse or bovine, it is an abbreviated chariot or, much more commonly, a driven ox. In the fully preserved pieces the head of the driver always faces towards the animal head.

The following observations were made during a general study of Greek horsemanship, but, being somewhat controversial and turning upon points of textual criticism and the interpretation of technical terms, they may perhaps be of interest to scholars rather than to the public.

(1) iv 2.

‘It is not only to save the corn from being stolen that a safe stall is good, but because it becomes obvious whenever the horse is [not] carrying out his corn.’

This sentence evidently describes some clear symptom of disease, for Xenophon continues: ‘Should you observe this happening, you may know that the body, being overcharged with blood, requires attention, or is overtired and needs rest, or that barley-sickness (κριθίασις) or some other sickness is making its onset. Just as with men, so with horses, all diseases are easier to cure at the onset than when they have established themselves and been treated mistakenly.’

The nature of ‘barley-sickness’ (colic) is excellently explained in Delebecque's commentary, but that of the warning symptom is doubtful, and depends on the precise meaning to be given to ἐκκομίζῃ. The manuscripts insert a negative particle before it; this is deleted by modern editors on the evidence of Pollux i 209:

‘There is a disease of horses, barley-sickness and congestion of the blood through surfeit. And when they “carry out” their corn, then one must remove it and feed grass only, or some other light diet.’

The Periplus Maris Erythraei, written probably in the latter half of the first century ad, is a guide for merchants trading with eastern Africa, Arabia, and India. The anonymous author lists the various ports along the routes, indicating for each the facilities to be found and the objects of trade to be bought or sold there.

A few of the ports are well known and can be identified with certainty. Many which are also mentioned in other writers, such as Strabo or Ptolemy, can be identified with varying degrees of certainty. The most difficult are those that occur only in the Periplus. One such is Tabai, on the African trade route.

The purpose of this article is to present an account of the manner in which the changing styles of Greek Hellenism are reflected in later Etruscan reliefs. I have selected among the Etruscan urns and sarcophagi those reliefs which show in their style the closest reflection of Greek models; they are usually reliefs of superior quality, and can serve as fixed points around which to group other Etruscan reliefs. This method has one important advantage: it overcomes the difficulty created by the regional isolationism of later Etruscan schools. As is well known, Etruscan sculptors were apt to repeat the same composition in a great number of reliefs. An enterprising artist would create a new composition, usually by refashioning a Greek model. His colleagues in the same workshop, or at least in the same city, would copy him; and the process of re-copying might go on for several generations, resulting in ever cruder reproductions of the same design. Thus Greek compositions, long abandoned in their native land, could survive in Tuscany for a considerable length of time. And, in the case of later terracotta urns, re-copying even assumed a purely mechanical character. The original relief ‘A’ would be used to take a mould ‘B’; from this, in turn, new imprints would be taken; they, in turn, would serve as forms for new moulds.

The author discusses an inscription of the late fourth or early third century BC carved on a bronze plaque found in the first excavations at Dodona, on which a Zakynthian, by name Agathon, records a link of proxeny between himself and his family and the Epirote koinon of the Molossians, through Kassandra, the Trojan prophetess. The plaque is decorated by a prominent phallus with testicles, which the author interprets as referring to the continuity, past and future, of the γενεά of Agathon. Other explanations of the whole piece have been proposed, and the present essay is intended only to explore the possibility of this interpretation.

It is with some diffidence that I publish the following paper. It is indeed the result of considerable study of the literature of the subject, and of the best of a week's work on the spot last autumn. But unfortunately I never expected, when I went to Pylos, that I should have so much to say about it, and I took with me neither leave to excavate, nor appliances for measurements and photography. I feel therefore that my views can scarcely in the nature of things carry with them the same weight as those which Mr. Grundy has based on the detailed survey which he conducted under the auspices of the University of Oxford a week or two before my visit. I am afraid our conclusions on certain points may prove to differ. My documentary evidence is at present non-existent, and my measurements are one and all rough and approximate. I can only ask Mr. Grundy and the reader to remember that I spent more than forty hours exploring the ground, and that, as survey work was unhappily out of the question, I had thus ample time to form an opinion on the topography of what is after all a very limited area.

There is so much to record from Greece proper and the islands, that it will be necessary to omit Asia Minor from the scope of the present article. It has been a year of surprises, from the episode of the sponge-diver knocking at the door of the Minister of Education to report a shipload of statues lying under the sea, to the rediscovery of Aphaea, the unknown goddess who emerged the other day from the pages of Pausanias and Antoninus Liberalis to receive the honours due to her in the famous temple on Aegina.

In describing the results of excavations it is convenient to begin as I did last year with the prehistoric period and with Crete, where a number of workers, two Italians, two Americans, seven Englishmen, have been exploring early sites. The French School has not excavated there this year, but has organized a geographical expedition under the leadership of M. Ardaillon which is to make a much-needed survey of the island.

Rather less than a century ago Morelli began a revolution in art-historical method by demonstrating that every painter has his formulae for rendering details—ears, eyes, hands, drapery-folds and so on—amounting to a personal system; and that, for attribution, a study of these minutiae affords a valuable check on, if not a sounder basis than, a general sense of style; or rather that the two together form the only sound basis. There is no rule of thumb. Formulae are the artist's servants, not his masters. They appear and vanish, change and merge, according to the development of his technique and style, the influences he undergoes, the speed at which he is working, all the circumstances of his art; but in much of any painter's work they will be found recurring; rarely, as a system, in another's. Morellian method can only be effectively used by one who, like Morelli himself, is sensitive to works of art not only as aesthetic achievements but as expressions of personality; but without the tools of his forging it is impossible for sensitivity alone to make much headway. The study of Italian painting before Morelli was a chaos of unchecked traditions and conflicting hunches. Despite fine work by Hartwig, Furtwängler and others, the study of red-figure vase-painting remained much the same (without the traditions) until Beazley brought to it a rare combination of sensitivity to personal artistic style with Morellian discipline.

The Purpose of this article is to present some of the available evidence for the persistence from late Mycenaean times into the early sixth century of ‘bull's-head’ vase handles, as first exemplified on the Warrior Vase from Mycenae (Athens 1426; plate V). The very similar handles on certain Cypriote vases now dated to around 700 B.C. suggest that a continuous tradition culminated, in this area, in a revival. For convenience I shall speak throughout of bull's-head handles, though in many cases it is open to question whether a bull or calf's head, or the head of a mountain sheep or goat was intended; and the same handles have been differently interpreted at different times. Generally when they appear on Cypriote vases it has been thought that a wild goat is intended, this being the principal wild animal on the island. In fact of course the modelling is often so perfunctory that nothing very convincing zoologically is achieved.

The war was responsible for my finding a number of interesting inscriptions and monuments in the heart of Asia Minor. I copied and sketched about two hundred, but as half of them have been previously published, I propose to deal only with the remainder here.

During the latter part of my three years' captivity, 1915–1918, with the Turks at Angora, the military authorities were hard pressed for fuel, and I was in worse straits myself for means of subsistence. Unaware of their actual predicament, I applied for work to the Commander of the Fifth Army Corps, at Angora, to enable me to earn enough wherewith to buy food. This resulted in Ismail Hakki Pasha, the Quartermaster-General at Constantinople, authorising the Commander to employ me. I was commissioned to make a geological report on the Angora Vilayet and to find coal for them. My work proved very successful; I found several outcrops of coal, copper, chrome, and indications of oil, and as a consequence received fairly liberal pay. This enabled me to save up sufficient money to escape via Samsoun to the Crimea a few months before the Armistice.

The first inscriptions seen by me were copied under restraint, but as time went on and supervision over my doings was relaxed, I was able to copy and sketch everything I came across, not only the numerous stelae at Angora, but those throughout the Vilayet, wherever I happened to be at the time.

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.

§ 39.—In contrast with the Silli dialect spoken in one place only, we have here to do with a dialect in use in many villages, in each of which it varies slightly. I leave out of account the dialect of Sinasos. As recorded by Archelaos it differs, or rather, since the purified language has made great strides in Sinasos, it differed widely from that of the Poutak Ovasi villages, chiefly however in being less corrupt, no doubt owing to long contact with Constantinople and the outer world. Mr. Archelaos assured me that the idiom now spoken at Tshalela and Potamia closely resembles this old Sinasos dialect. Of Arabison also I can say nothing; it is said to be a recent colony with a dialect like that of Misti. It would be of great interest to examine these northern villages, including Anakou and Silata, and with them the Lazic colonies north of the Halys, keeping especially in view the points of contact between Pontic and North Cappadocian, such as the tendency to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects in the declension of nouns, which is a mark of Pontic and is increasingly prominent in the Cappadocian dialects as one passes from the southern to the northern villages, the use at Sinasos of the Pontic κί as a negative by the side of δέν, the dropping of unaccented i and u and the preservation of the old possessive pronouns.

This war, in which Antigonus was faced by the triple alliance of Egypt, Athens, and Sparta with her allies, started with the decree moved by Chremonides in August–September of the year of the archon Peithidemos at Athens; the actual military operations began in the following spring. Peithidemos' year used to be put in 266/5; I gave my reasons in 1920 for putting it in 267/6, as had already been done by Professor A. C. Johnson. Recently Professor Dinsmoor has put Peithidemos in 270/69; the archon himself is a mere name and the tribe of his secretary unknown. Dinsmoor was trying to keep the tribal rotation undisturbed, and to effect this he shifted the archons Menekles and Nikias of Otryne (Nikias II) forward to 269/8 and 268/7; and as their years were war years he took these years to be part of the Chremonidean war and therefore put Peithidemos in 270/69. Subsequently Professor Ferguson followed Dinsmoor as to this; but he now puts Peithidemos in 267/6, for reasons different from mine, though he still retains Menekles and Nikias II in 269/8 and 268/7. Dinsmoor's proposal to antedate the beginning of the Chremonidean war by three years is so drastic that it needs careful examination; and before considering the archons in question I may briefly indicate some of the historical difficulties of the new view.