In the Museum of the Society of the Friends of the Sciences in Wilno is preserved a stone thus registered in the inventory-book: ‘No. 556/4—slab with Greek inscription bequeathed in 1910 by Jan Szwański.’ The Keeper of the Museum asked me to decipher this inscription, and as I supposed that it had not been published, he kindly granted me the permission to take a photograph of it and to publish it.
The inscription is engraved in 7 lines on a slab of smoke-discoloured marble, the dimensions of which are: height, 0·22 m.; breadth, 0·26 m.; thickness, 0·06 m.; height of letters, 0·02 m. The middle part of the front surface is so much worn and has become so smooth, as if by long attrition, that there remain no traces whatever of the deeply engraved letters. There is also a serious breakage at the right-hand margin which has carried away the last letter of l. 2 and damaged two letters of ll. 2 and 3. The lowest part of the stone is broken off in such a manner that only the top of the right-hand portion of l. 7 remains. All mutilations and gaps seem to be very ancient, and no damage of recent date is noticeable. The back has been left rough. The accompanying photograph (fig. 1) shows the actual preservation of the stone, while the following facsimile, based upon a squeeze (fig. 2), represents the legible letters and the remaining portions of the damaged letters.