In studying the Linear Scripts of Minoan Crete, the first requisite is an agreed ‘signary,’ a customary order of the signs, with a numeration by which they can be quoted, at all events until their phonetic values are ascertained. Hitherto, everyone who has written on these scripts has had a signary-order of his own; and, at the risk of adding momentarily to this chaos, here is an attempt to arrange the signs of both the A- and the B-Scripts in an order which will be easy to memorise, because it will be based upon a classification of the signs by their forms and apparent origins.

Though Sir Arthur Evans described the Linear Scripts in general terms in Scripta Minoa I, 1909, he reserved detailed discussion to Vol. II, which was still unpublished at his death in 1940. But in The Palace of Minos I, in 1921, he printed a tabular numerical list of Script A, and in Vol. IV, in 1936, a similar list of Script B. Unfortunately, neither list is quite complete, and though there are many obvious resemblances between the two sets of signs, the numerical order of the two lists is different; so that it is difficult to construct vocabularies of the sign groups which can be cross-referred. In both lists he seems to have begun with the signs which more or less resembled letters in the Greek alphabet, but this principle of classification soon failed him. He grouped signs resembling animals and cereal crops at the end of Script B, but left other pictorial signs unclassified and mixed with purely linear forms. In The Palace of Minos IV, 681–2, is outlined a classification into phonetic, idiographic, commodity-signs ‘relating to various properties,’ and administrative signs; but it was not developed in detail.

These two remarkable chalices come from surreptitious diggings in the eastern necropolis of Marium and were acquired by the Cyprus Museum, the first in 1944 and the second in 1947. The first of the two has been summarily described and illustrated in my Guide to the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia, 1947) 54, pl. XIV, 1, but I avail myself of this opportunity to describe both of them in greater detail in honour of the author of A History of Cyprus, to whom the Island owes a great debt of gratitude.

As already stated, the two chalices come from the eastern necropolis of Marium. We know that this town possesses two necropolises, the eastern and the western, both of which have been repeatedly the scene of intensive excavation: by Ohnefalsch-Richter (1885–6), the Cyprus Exploration Fund (1889–90) under the direction of Messrs. Munro and Tubbs, the Cyprus Museum under the direction of the late Curator M. Markides (1916) and, finally, by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition (1929). Since then no scientific work has been undertaken in this area, although, as already hinted, surreptitious diggings, mostly in the eastern necropolis, have taken place periodically.

An Attic cup of Siana shape, said to come from excavations in Rhodes, was presented to the British Museum in 1906 by Sir Henry Howorth (Pl. II). The lip is decorated with a wreath—interrupted above the handles—of alternate purple and black ivy-leaves set in two rows, one point-upwards, the other point-downwards, on a central horizontal stem. The reserved band on which the figures and handles are set comes immediately below the lip, save for a narrow black stripe; the rest of the bowl is black, but divided by a horizontal band of tongue-pattern; the tongues, pointing upwards, are alternately black and purple, except in two places where two blacks accidentally come together. Black underlies the purple and the white everywhere, except under the purple tongues, but the white, used only for women's flesh, has almost entirely disappeared. The interior is plain black. The date will be before 560 B.C.

Let us look at the two scenes which appear one on each side of the cup: they are roughly drawn, but vigorous and interesting: begin with that which, as I hope to show, comes first in time (Pl IIIa). On the left, a woman is seated to right on a stool: she is dressed in purple; her hair is loose and she holds her left hand to her head in an attitude of grief, with which the gesture of the open right hand well consorts. On the right of the scene, another woman stands to left beside a naming altar (Pl IIIe). Her dress is a black peplos. She wears a broad belt, the upper band of which consists of a repeating Ѕ pattern; her hair is gathered into a small knot on the nape of the neck, and in her hands she holds out by its handles a liknoh, from the front end of which three corn-stalks project. Within are shown other objects; the scale is so small and the drawing so poor that it is not possible to identify them all: some are probably fruits, the central one almost certainly a phallus.

The white lekythos reproduced in Fig. 1 and Pl. IV is not a recent find. A rough sketch of it, sent from Athens by Urlichs, was published by Emil Braun in Annali dell' Instituto for 1842, pl. L. The vase itself appeared in London at the Norfolk House sale in 1937 (sale catalogue no. 71), and was acquired by me shortly after. It is by the Achilles Painter, number 163 in my list of his works (ARV. p. 644), and belongs to his later middle period, between 440 and 430 B.C. Forty-two and a half centimetres high, it is one of his largest lekythoi, the same height as his well-known' lekythos, with a warrior and a seated woman, Athens 1818 (Riezler pl. 36, whence Pfuhl fig. 543: ARV. p. 643 no. 135). It has a false bottom, like a good many other white lekythoi, and the vent-hole made necessary by this construction is just visible in Fig. 1, on the left, half-way between the lower border and the base-fillet. The other false-bottomed lekythoi by the Achilles Painter have the hole in the same part of the vase. Figures and patterns are drawn in glaze-paint, thinned to brown and golden-brown. A few details are in matt colour, red and black, now much faded. In the middle is the monument, a tapering stele, with gable and acroteria, standing on two steps. Three sashes, in dull black, are tied round the stele. A chaplet, tied into a round, rests on the lower step and leans against the upper; another such chaplet, loose, passes round the foot of the stele and hangs down over the upper step. These objects are often represented both round the heads of revellers and at the tomb or in the basket of offerings brought to it, and other lekythoi by the Achilles Painter show the same arrangement of them as here.

In 493 Ionian emigrants from Samos and Miletos, on their way to Sicily to found a new city there at the invitation of the Zanklaians, were persuaded by Anaxilas, just risen to power in Rhegion, to seize Zankle instead, which Skythes, its ruler, had left temporarily unguarded. Skythes seems to have been a dependant of Hippokrates of Gela, but Hippokrates, instead of ejecting the Samians, came to terms and left them in possession. Some years later (probably after Hippokrates's death in 491) Anaxilas in his turn occupied the city which now, under the name of Messene, became his headquarters until his death in 476. In spite of the aberrations of Pausanias (iv. 23, 4–10) the literary authorities provide the material for a consistent account along broad lines of the incident and of the events which led up to and followed it. They show some uncertainty over the date when the name Zankle was changed to Messene and over the identity of Kadmos, son of Skythes (Was Skythes always one and the same? was it ‘with’ or ‘from’ the Samians that Kadmos took over and settled Zankle?), but the general outline emerges clearly. On the other hand, it is often held that the numismatic evidence (and it is abundant) contradicts the historical tradition at many points; and C. H. Dodd who first crystallised it in a careful and closely reasoned article in this Journal, arrived at very different conclusions.

In the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1923–4, pp. 125–6, Pl. XLI, c Mr. H. Hargreaves published an ‘unidentified relief from Gandhara’ the subject of which has not yet been explained. The relief (fig. 1), which is believed to have come from one of the numerous mounds in the Mardan subdivision of the Peshawar district, was the property of Mr. F. V. Wylie, I.C.S. (now Sir Francis Wylie, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.) then stationed at Mardan. The scene represents on the left a woman rushing out of a gateway in an attitude combining horror with warning; her arms are uplifted; she is naked to the waist and wears anklets and necklets. Mr. Hargreaves suggested she wore a crenellated crown and might be a city goddess. She seems, however, only to wear her hair in the usual Indian fashion in a top knot. She is obviously expressing hosror at the scene on the right and imploring the participants to desist. The main figure on the right is a tall, fully robed man thrusting a spear into the chest of a horse which is mounted on wheels. Behind the horse is another similarly clothed male figure—young or at least unbearded—with his hands resting on the flanks of the horse and apparently thrusting it forward. Between these two figures is another, an elderly bearded man standing on the other side of the horse. The dress of the male figure is classical, indeed one might say Roman; certainly their footwear appears to be Roman. The lady, however, is depicted in regular Indian fashion. On the extreme right is a standing soldier holding a spear, much damaged. The faces of the male figures are all more or less damaged, but they are certainly laymen and not any of the familiar figures of the usual Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara.

Provenance unknown. Now in the Cyprus Museum, but with no record of acquisition. A rectangular sandstone block, both stone and inscription virtually complete. H. from 0·175 m. to 0·18 m.; w., 0·464 m.; th., 0·115 m. The surface, save for three long but shallow scratches, good. The alphabet is debased classical, notable forms being Ε and Η with the central stroke disconnected, Ρ with its top approximately rectangular. Letters, from 0·01 m. to 0·017 m. Squeeze. (Fig. 1.)

From its lettering this inscription is in all probability earlier than the reign of Hadrian and should belong to the second half of the first century. Tryphon and Philon are both names common along the south coast of Cyprus; but as an indication of provenance this fact must be used with great reserve.

The worship of Nemesis in Cyprus is not otherwise known to me, though Tyche with whom she is here identified occurs both at Chytri and at Paphos. An inscription tells of a dedication to the Fortune of Chytri under Philometor; another of how a certain Apollonia and her husband Patrocles were honoured, perhaps under Hadrian, as the founders of a Τυχαῖον and as the priests of the Fortune of the Metropolis Paphos. Here we do not find this limited conception of Tyche: the present inscription is an excellent and it seems an early illustration of the worship of Nemesis as a universal goddess, identified on the one hand with Justice, on the other with Fortune. In the theological and philosophic speculation of the second and third centuries these ideas are commonplaces. I am not aware that they have as yet occurred in the first.

In Chapter II of his Folklore Studies, ancient and modern, Sir William Halliday gave a translation of a Byzantine carol in honour of St. Basil the Great, and with this a full discussion of the legend celebrated in the carol. This is a story of a contact between the emperor Julian the Apostate in his last campaign against Persia and St. Basil, and how Julian's death was brought about by the agency of St. Mercurius, a soldier who was martyred in the Decian persecutions. The legend is recorded in the life of St. Basil attributed to St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, and in this life it appears we may see the start of the whole story. The supposed author was a contemporary of St. Basil, but the document is rejected as apocryphal, and appears to be of the eighth or ninth century, a date which allows plenty of time for the accumulation of legend about a name so well known in Asia Minor as that of the great bishop of Caesarea. Sir William Halliday has translated the relevant passages: for convenience I here give a very brief summary of the parts of the story which most closely touch the carol.

The emperor Julian on his way to his campaign in Persia met Basil somewhere in the neighbourhood of Caesarea. Basil offered the emperor three loaves; angry at the smallness of the gift, the emperor sent him some hay in return; further angered by the fact that this gift gave the saint the right of pasturage on a certain meadow, he threatened on his return to destroy the city. Basil gathered his flock together, and they went to pray in the church of the Virgin on ‘Mount Didymus.’ The Virgin appeared, and called for the warrior Mercurius, who should go to Persia and slay Julian. Basil then went to the shrine of St. Mercurius, and found that the body was not there. This he announced to the people, and in seven days came the news of the death of Julian. Such very briefly is the legend as recorded in the Amphilochian life.

Sir George Hill, in his History of Cyprus, refers to a group of early churches in the Island in the following passage: ‘It seems improbable that any important buildings can have been put up during the periods of the Arab raids, that is, from the middle of the eighth century to 965. Churches, for instance, like those at Aphendrika, which have been attributed on the one hand to the sixth or seventh century, on the other to the “Romanesque,” would not have been built at a time when the population of places like Ayios Philon and Lambousa was moving inland to escape the raiders. Whether the earlier or the later date is to be preferred must be left to the specialists.' In a footnote, he recorded my own opinion that the vaulted basilicas of the Aphendrika type should be dated after the Byzantine reconquest. The purpose of this article is to present some evidence in support of that opinion. It concerns three ruined churches, all in the village lands of Rizokarpaso: the Panayia and Asomatos churches at Aphendrika, the site, which Hogarth identified as Urania, near the north coast 5 miles north-east of the village, and the Panayia at Sykha, some 6 miles south-west of the village, on the south side of the Karpas peninsula.

The treatment of Greek and Latin names in modern languages differs with the language; it may be worth while to seek reasons for the difference, it may bring out something of the history of classical learning in each nation.

In Italian and French the names, being really part of the language, have behaved much like other words and fall like them into the two classes, those which have changed their form in the mouths of the people in obedience to unconscious phonetic processes, and those which have been given convenient shape by the conscious action of the learned. Actually the distinction coincides almost exactly with the distinction between names made familiar by their Christian associations, and names occurring in profane history and literature. The literary names merely suffer simple changes, especially of termination, to bring them into line with the modern language. The Greek names are first Latinised and then if necessary assimilated. But if a historical person anticipates the name, e.g., of a saint, he may be treated familiarly. It is rather a shock to recognise in a Denys the tyrant of Syracuse, on the analogy perhaps of the Areopagite; St. Denis the first bishop of Paris has even lost, his y, but we keep it at St. Denys near Southampton.

A journey is only worth describing if the traveller's work has some exceptional significance. This condition was fulfilled when Sir George Hill and Sir Charles Peers toured Cyprus in 1934. On 18th March Hill first saw that island, the ‘Princesse lointaine’ of his studies thirty years before, and unlike Rostand's story the coming of Sir George as Rudel and Sir Charles as Bertrand had an outcome both happy and useful. The origin and purpose of the tour can be briefly stated.

Desiring advice as to the best means of improving the island's law of antiquities and of assisting the Nicosia Museum, H.M. Secretary of State for the Colonies arranged that Sir George, then Director of the British Museum, should visit Cyprus. Shortly before this, Sir Charles, Late Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments in H.M. Office of Works, had accepted an invitation from the ‘Cyprus Committee,’ an unofficial Association formed in 1933 by Viscount Mersey, to investigate the methods of caring for the ancient monuments of Cyprus and to suggest such changes as might seem desirable. By fusion of these missions into one, duplication of work was avoided.

On pl. VI a and b are photographs of a pair of flint-lock pistols, dating from the end of the eighteenth century. On the top of the barrel, near the rear sight, they bear the inscription: H. W. Mortimer & Son, London. Gun Makers To His Majesty; and the maker's name is repeated, without addition, on the side, below the cock. The maker's address, 89, Fleet St., is engraved on the outside of the trigger-guard. The pistols are in good order: the springs of the cocks are as strong as ever, and the original flints and ramrods survive. There is, however, nothing remarkable about the pistols as pistols, either in design or execution. They are a good, sound brace, neither fine nor expensive. And when we have said that Mortimer is known to have been in business at this address in Fleet Street in or about the year 1780, we have given all necessary details regarding the weapons themselves.

Their interest lies in a short inscription on an oval brass plate screwed into the wooden stock of each pistol above the trigger, on the side remote from the cock (pl. VI c). This inscription runs: ‘Lord Byron's Pistols, given to me by Count Dionysius Salomos [sic] of Zante. 1834.’ The recipient of the gift, who composed the inscription, was Lord Nugent, Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands from 1832 to 1835. The donor was Dionysius Solomós, author of The Hymn to Liberty.

A generation or so back scholars were disposed to find in Asiatic Greece the origins of most of Hellenic culture and art: and though Panionismus is no longer as openly professed, belief in it is at least implicit in many more recent works. The purpose of this paper is to examine, so far as the evidence permits, the justice of the claim that Ionia was in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. the infants' school of Hellas.

It is prudent to begin with a definition. The term ‘Ionian’ has been used in various senses, and this has made for confusion. First of all it is limited to the geographical area of Ionia; then it is extended to include many of the Cyclades and even Euboea; thirdly, though not often nowadays, it may embrace Athens also; yet again it sometimes covers all the Greeks of the East Aegean—Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian. In this paper ‘Ionian’ will be limited to the geographical Ionia: and the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians of the East Aegean will be grouped together as ‘East Greek,’ according to current archaeological usage.

The argument of this paper is that the fort on the Euryalus at Syracuse was modernised by Archimedes, who is recorded to have been the chief military engineer or scientific adviser to his native city before and during the siege by the Romans.

The fort lay outside the populated area of Syracuse though within the walls. The town had originally been confined to an island between the two harbours, but soon extended on to the mainland of Sicily; the ground to the west was swampy, hence the suburbs necessarily spread up the Epipolae hill to the north. This hill forms a tilted plateau, 3½ miles long, which slopes towards the island, but is surrounded elsewhere by a cliff, except at the inland extremity where it joins on to higher country. Since the cliff afforded a strong line of defence, the town walls were eventually carried all round the edge of the plateau, making them 17 miles in circuit. This great extension was the work of the tyrant Dionysius I, in the year 402 and later; the need for it had been demonstrated twelve years earlier, when the Athenians captured the plateau and almost starved the town into surrender. The strongest part of the fortifications was necessarily at the inland extremity of the plateau, the one place where nature provided no obstacles. Here the highest ground runs off to the west in a ridge that rises into two gentle mounds, one of which was called Euryalus, meaning the ‘wide nail’ (or wart). The town-walls included only one of these summits, and upon it stands the fort in question, overlooking one of the main gateways of the city.

Archaeological activity has been resumed in the last two years despite abnormal conditions in Greece. Under Prof. A. Keramopoullos' direction the Greek Archaeological Service, seriously understaffed in consequence of the war years, is bravely confronting the problem of restoring its museums and monuments and administering a provincial ephorate now increased by the acquisition of the Dodecanese. The British and American Schools in Athens are open once more and many students have returned to pursue their researches. The British School has confined its field work to tasks of conservation in Knossos and Ithaca; but the Americans have resumed full-scale activity in preparing the ground for the new Agora Museum and intensified their study of previous finds at Corinth. The French School, with a full complement of students, has continued its investigations on a diversity of sites prior to the celebration (postponed by one year) of its Centenary in September 1947.

Field work on any single site (with the special exception of the Agora) has been confined to the employment of five workmen for thirty days—a measure designed to permit necessary works of conservation but to preclude fresh digging in view of the inadequacy of the Greek Archaeological Service. When this ban is lifted excavation in Greece will be resumed; and though activity may still be somewhat restricted because of banditry in the countryside and the unfavourable exchange rate, it is hoped that the year 1948 will show substantial results.

Much has been written about the bronze reliefs which decorated the ‘Chest of Cypselus’ at Olympia; but the general arrangements of them in five zones (Χωραί) being once established, the subjects of the reliefs in each have usually been considered separately, without regard to their relative position within a zone, or any rhythm or balance among them. Yet so important a work of art, of the date traditionally ascribed to it, was surely not a mere crowd of independent topics, unconnected by their general arrangement in a larger composition, however miscellaneous the occasions or personages which they represented. Earlier reconstructions are summarised and discussed by H. Stuart Jones, JHS XIV 30-80, PI. I.