The most remarkable characteristic of the temple built in the sixth century was the figure sculpture which surrounded the lower drums of the columns on one or both of the fronts. This feature was certainly not an architectural freak, and the band of figures must either have been thought of as a sculptured dado or derived from Egyptian prototypes such as the sculptured columns of Medinet Abou. Both antecedents may have influenced the choice, but the former was a sufficient and the more probable source. The sculptured dado was the first form of sculptured ‘frieze’; in ‘Mycenaean’ palaces dadoes of plain or sculptured slabs faced and protected the lower parts of crude brick walls. The two fragments of slabs with reliefs of oxen from Mycenae in the Elgin collection formed part of such a dado.

About three years ago I sent some slight notes on chryselephantine sculpture to the Journal, but withdrew them again for expansion. In the main they were intended to bring out the value, as evidence of the methods used in working ivory for statues, of a small ivory mask in the British Museum. The article by Signor Carlo Albizzati on an ivory mask in the Vatican, published in the last part of the Journal, offers a new occasion for calling attention to the London fragment. In the ‘Guide to the Second Vase Room’ by Newton and Murray (Part I. 1878) it was described thus: ‘No. 15, Part of a Mask. The forehead, cheeks, chin, and nose cut off with smooth joints; the sockets of the eyes empty: the base of the nose is broad, and the lips full and prominent, as in the Egyptian type; inside the nostrils are the remains of vermilion. The mask has probably been completed with other carvings fitted on at the joints and with eyes in some other material. Height 3½ inches. Bequeathed by Sir Wm. Temple.’ The wording of this suggests that the fragment was supposed to be a part of some ornamental composition, but it will not now be doubted, I believe, that it is a part of a head in the round which was made up of several pieces. Our fragment—the central part of the face—had next to it two side pieces to complete the cheeks and another for the chin.

There is no sort of textual corruption which cannot be abundantly illustrated from the MSS. of Strabo; but they stand almost alone in one characteristic—the multitude of lacunae. It is not a question here of mutilation on a large scale, such as the loss of most of the seventh book, nor of the omission of words or lines through such causes as homoioteleuton; these can be easily proved to exist, and probably there are many cases of them which we cannot now prove. But the peculiar lacunae of Strabo are due to a conscientious scribe, somewhere in the genealogy of the MSS., who had before him a copy in which from time to time he came across words or letters which for some reason he was unable to decipher; he has therefore left blanks corresponding in length to the missing letters. These lacunae have been recently discussed by Allen in C.Q. ix. 88. It is there shewn that they do not arise from any physical mutilation of the MS.; their cause must be left uncertain.

Gaps such as these were evidently likely to be filled up in course of time, as Allen says, ‘either by bringing the ends together or by inserting supplements.’ And in the case of Strabo such supplements were constantly at hand.

It is generally admitted that Bekker's Kb—Laur. 81, 11—is the best, as it is the oldest, authority for the text both of the Nicomachean Ethics and of the Great Morals. It is desirable therefore that the testimony of that manuscript should be presented to the learned public as accurately as possible. So far as concerns the Nicomachean Ethics, the reports of that testimony which are now available are chiefly the following: (a) Bekker's, as given in his academical edition of 1831, (b) Schöll's, as given first in Rassow's Forschungen über die Nikomachische Ethik, Weimar, 1874, at p. 10, sqq., and subsequently in Susemihl's editions, of which the third and last was edited by Otto Apelt and published in the Teubner series in 1912, and (c) Bywater's, as given in his Oxford text. Bywater's apparatus criticus is unfortunately what is called a select apparatus criticus.

The recently published vol. iii. of the late Jean Maspero's Catalogue of Greek Byzantine Papyri at Cairo contains a text (No. 67316, Plate VIII.) which is of considerable importance for the study of that palaeographical crux, the Greek papyrus protocol. It may be well to recall that the protocol was the official mark placed at the top of each roll of papyrus, the manufacture of which was a Government monopoly. When the practice was first instituted we do not know, but no protocols earlier than the Byzantine period have been discovered. Justinian's Nov. xliv. c. 2 forbids notaries to use any papyrus except such as has προκείμενον τὸ καλούμενον πρωτόκολλον, φέροντὴν τοῦ κατὰ καιρὸν ἐνδοξοτάτου κόμητος τῶν θείων ἡμῶν λαργιτιόνωνπροσηγορίαν, καὶ τὸν χρόνον, καθ᾿ο῀ν ὁ χἁρτης γέγονε, καὶ ὁπόσα ἑπὶ τῶντοιούτων προγράφεται

Cette phrase, qui se retrouve avec quelques variantes cinq fois dans l'Iliade et cinq fois dans l'Odyssée, me paraît n'avoir pas été expliquée jusqu'ici d'une manière satisfaisante; il s'agit, dans tous ces passages (Il. i. 465, ii. 428, vii. 317, ix. 210, xxiv. 623; Od. iii. 463, xii. 365, xiv. 75, xiv. 431, xix. 422) d'un repas, souvent accompagné de rites religieux, ou d'un sacrifice proprement dit. Pessonneaux traduit μιστύλλω par: diviser, couper en menus morceaux; Lang, Leaf et Myers: they sliced, ou cut up small, all the rest and pierced it through with spits; ou encore: they minced it (the ox) cunningly and pierced it through with spits; Voss: wohl zerstückte er das Fleisch und steckte es alles an Spiesse; ou: das Uebrige schnitten sie klein und steckten's an Spiesse.

Μιστύλλω signifie hacher, couper en petits morceaux, broyer, piler; μιστύλη, c'est le morceau de pain creusé en cuiller pour puiser les aliments liquides ou demi-liquides. On pourrait supposer que les morceaux de viande étaient assez grands pour être embrochés à la file les uns des autres, comme des perles sur une aiguille; cependant μιστύλλω semble indiquer une subdivision plus fine de la viande, une sorte de hachis; la traduction exacte serait alors, si cette hypothèse est admise: ils hachèrent le reste de la viande, le fixèrent sur des broches (et le firent rôtir avec soin). Mais comment peuton fixer de la viande hachèe sur une broche, ou autour d'une broche, sans qu'elle se détache et tombe dans le feu?

The scientific treatment of the Geography of Ptolemy (Γεωγραφικὴὑφήγησις) had made considerable progress during the last century, so that it seemed as if this work had been brought at least to a provisory issue. An edition arranged according to the demands of science and, as was to be desired, an edition that could be called final had not yet been produced, but there was reason to believe that the edition undertaken by the well-known editor C. Mueller in the great Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum, published by Firmin Didot in Paris, would come up to these expectations. However, owing to his death in 1893 it has remained unfinished. After Part I. had appeared in 1883, C. Th. Fischer, to whom the continuation of the work was entrusted, was able in 1901 to publish Part II., which had been found almost ready for the press among the literary remains of the deceased.

The publication of the Lydian inscriptions discovered by the American excavators at Sardis has long been eagerly awaited. Not only do the thirty-four which they found supplement in the most welcome manner the very scanty and fragmentary material hitherto known, but of especial interesl was the news that they included an admirably preserved bilingual in Lydian and Aramaic which, it was hoped, might solve the problems of the Lydian language. Unfortunately the Aramaic has proved obscure in some important places; yet, none the less, the bilingual must remain for the present the basis of all further investigation. Hence this volume may legitimately be approached from the Aramaic side by one who, however, is profoundly ignorant of the linguistic problems of Asia Minor, and the attempt may perhaps be made to handle it with special reference to the bilingual and its interest from the Semitic point of view.

The inscriptions here published were in the main copied by me during excursions made in the years 1912–1914. A few are reproduced from squeezes furnished by residents of Thyateira (Ak-hissar) and Smyrna who travelled much in the surrounding country. Of the texts from Philadelpheia (Ala-shehir) four (Nos. 1–4) came to light in 1913–1914 among the materials of the picturesque old Kursum-khane, the upper stories of which were being pulled down. These monuments, with five others (Nos. 5–9), were preserved at the official residence of the Metropolitan of Philadelpheia, by whose kindness I was enabled to take copies and squeezes.

Unless otherwise stated, these inscriptions are presumed to be unpublished, but owing to the present difficulty of obtaining foreign scientific journals, this point is in some doubt.

Early in the year 1911 a labourer working on the farm of Mr. Arthur Bull at Cottenham, near Cambridge, struck with his pick the fragmentary relief here published. Mr. Bull—to whom we are already indebted for much information and assistance in respect of the Romanised British stations in his district, not to mention many points in its more recent history—recognised at once the possible interest of the find and handed it over to me at the Museum of Classical Archaeology. The fragment came to light at a depth of some eighteen inches below the present surface of the soil, and appears to be an isolated relic, thrown out in all probability from a house formerly existing in the neighbourhood. I see from a passage in Lysons' Magna Britannia, to which my attention was directed by the Rev. Dr. H. P. Stokes, that Roger Gale, the antiquary (1672–1744), inherited a manor at Cottenham in 1728. His enthusiasm for ‘Greek and Roman bustoes’ is well known; and it is at least possible that this relief, acquired by him one cannot guess when or where, had at some later date, and by some less instructed owner, been cast away as a broken and worthless bit of marble. Be that as it may, the relief is worthy of serious study. I proceed to describe its material, shape, design, and stylistic qualities.