The pottery found hitherto in Cyprus has been for the most part of a rude, local fabric, resembling both in its shapes and system of decoration the pottery of Egypt. The Greek element in the population of Cyprus and the frequent participation of outside Greeks in the affairs of the island might have been expected to leave some decided trace in the pottery. But this expectation had not been realised to any degree till last year, when excavations at Poli tis Chrysokhou brought to light an extensive series of Greek vases and other antiquities. Among the vases were the two here published.

The locality where these antiquities were found is supposed to be that of the ancient Marion, a town on the west coast of Cyprus, of which little is recorded except that it had been taken by an Athenian fleet under Kimon, on which occasion its inhabitants were treated with much clemency, and that subsequently it was destroyed by Ptolemy, on which occasion its inhabitants were removed to Paphos. At that time it was ruled by a prince called Stasioekos.

Every visitor of the Vatican Museum knows the fine statue of Aphrodite placed near the large staircase in the Sala a croce greca on account of its beauty as well as by reason of the fact that its lower half is covered with a drapery of tin. The greater will be the surprise of many of our readers, looking at our Plate LXXX., to see unveiled the secret charms of that figure, and they will ask how the goddess could be allowed to lay aside for some moments the garment forced upon her a century ago by a misplaced sense of pretended decency. We owe it to the persevering zeal of Mr. Walter Copland Perry to have found a means of obtaining such a cast for the Collection of Casts from the Antique in the South Kensington Museum, by the formation of which Mr. Perry has begun so happily to fill up a sensible blank in the artistic collections of the British capital. The British Museum is so astonishingly rich in first-rate Greek originals that we can easily understand how the importance of a museum of casts could be rather undervalued, and how to the University of Cambridge was left the merit of forming the first English collection of casts from the antique on a greater scale.

The appended inscriptions are the outcome of a short visit to Salonica in April of this year: the object that I had in view in going there was rather to hear and see on the spot the situation of ancient remains, the possibility and prospects of research, the attitude of the authorities and the general ‘lie’ and state of the country, than to investigate the actual antiquities of Salonica itself: however I copied or impressed as many Greek inscriptions as came to my notice in my short stay, the great majority being sepulchral of a commonplace order found in the foundations of houses in the Jewish quarter, and too frequently relegated to the stonemasons' yards to be cut up for modern gravestones. I have ranged first the three non-sepulchral inscriptions, the first being a mere fragment containing apparently part of an Imperial letter to the Thessalonians; the second a dedication by the city to the Emperor Claudius, and containing the titles and names of the chief magistrates; and the third, again a fragment, being a public document of the time of Antoninus Pius relative to certain κυνηγία, apparently left by will to the city or some religious foundation therein. If any of these have been previously published, I must apologise for my ignorance: but I cannot discover among the various records accessible here in Athens any trace of them; and indeed Salonica has been spared the archaeologist to a surprising degree. Where the stelae were sculptured I have briefly indicated the nature of the reliefs: there are a few others without inscriptions, but, as none of the sculptures are early or of merit, I have not thought it necessary to detail them.

In May of the current year, while Professor W. M. Ramsay, accompanied by Mr. H. A. Brown and myself, was travelling in the Tchal district, we were informed at Demirdjikeui of the existence of ruins in or near Badinlar, three hours away to the north. In a previous year Professor Ramsay had paid a hasty visit to this village and seen nothing of importance: on this occasion fortune favoured us: for, visiting the village a day or two later, we were guided on Whit Sunday to the site of a small temple situate on a conical eminence, which fell on the further side to the southern bank of the Maeander, which here enters on one of the narrowest passes of its gorge. Only the platform on which the temple had stood remained in situ, and very few fragments could we find of columns or cornice: such as remained of the frieze showed by their formal regular ornament the Ionic of Roman period. Overlooking the river was a vaulted tomb, and traces of sarcophagi were apparent among the heaps of grey stone covering the summit of the hill.

The stone bearing the following inscription was found by Mr. Theodore Bent last year at Limena in Thasos, built into the wall of a Byzantine church which was pulled down for the erection of a house. Mr. Bent made an excellent impression of the inscription, which he has kindly sent me; upon this the text is based. The inscription is entire on the right and at the bottom; the left and the top are mutilated. The existing portion measures just one foot in height, and nine inches in width. The surface is for the most part well preserved, and the readings are certain except at the beginning of lines 17—18, of which more will be said. The letters are engraved στοιχηδόν.