Total success in establishing a text for such a defaced document as the alleged decree of Themistokles can hardly be expected. The left half of the inscribed surface is so deeply scratched as to resemble a butcher's chopping block. There are so many scars, running in so many directions, that it is easy to imagine letters where we can be sure that none exists. For example, in line 8, but much below the inscribed surface, there are four strokes which seem to make a mu. In line 34 there are strokes in the shape of an alpha between the pi and eta of the word hyperesia. In both cases the ‘strokes’ are merely scratches. For this reason, this is one of the most treacherous inscriptions in Greek epigraphy to study by photography alone. And published texts which depend on photographs, of whatever number, should be treated with great caution.