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the other." (p. 218). Now there is not througho of M. Boeckh's metrological investigations, a mor cise, or unimpeached testimony than this of He treats as merely approximative: and that too becaus coincide with a long tissue of calculations of his own assumptions as yet unsupported. If a statement of Hero is not to be trusted, the class of researches Metrologie is devoted will become utterly impracti better evidence can be procured.

The last four chapters of M. Boeckh's volume a an account of the various pound weights and sca throughout Italy-of the perplexing variations in the and copper money-and of the monetary estimates of Servius Tullius. They are chapters highly i respect to the Roman silver money, the clearest and that I know. He rejects and refutes the opinion that the debasement of the Roman standard was caus panied by an extraordinary rise in the value of co the diminished coins possessed as great a purchasing full-sized coins had possessed before. Whether the metal copper underwent any serious or continued reference to silver, may be a matter of reasonable d it is, that no such adventitious cause need be invol for the degradation of the standard. Such a proceed so nearly universal with governments both ancient that the contrary may be looked upon as a remarkabl

The limits to which this article has already not permit me to furnish any detailed remarks upor account of the Italian and Roman scales of weigh I will only mention, that since the publication of th another work of singular importance on the sam appeared in Italy, by the learned fathers Marchi "L'æs grave del Museo Kircheriano, ovvero le tive de' Popoli dell' Italia Media ordinate e des 1839." The collection of the Kircherian Museum rivalled in the number and completeness of its spe ancient Italian as grave, and enriched by many veries, has here, for the first time, been explained

»t throughout the whole
ons, a more direct, pre-
his of Hero, which he
too because it does not
s of his own, based upon
statement such as this
researches to which the
impracticable: for no

volume are devoted to s and scales of weight ons in the Roman silver estimates in the census highly instructive: in arest and most complete The opinion of Niebuhr, d was caused or accom

as

the

value of copper, so that purchasing power hether the value of the continued reduction in sonable doubt: certain ! be invoked to account

a proceeding has been ancient and modern, markable exception. Iready extended will ks upon M. Boeckh's weight and money. n of the Metrologie, subject has

le same

Marchi and Tessieri: ero le Monete primi

e

e descritte. Roma Luseum at Rome, units specimens of the many recent disc plained and reduc

to order, and connected with the inferences legitimately deducible from it.

Two of these inferences I will briefly glance at, inasmuch as they bear directly upon the positions maintained in M. Boeckh's Metrologie: in one case, in the way of confirmation—in the other, of contradiction.

M. Boeckh advances two positions; first, that the duodecimal division of the pound prevailed all over Italy; next, that the absolute weight called by the name of a pound was not the same throughout that country-heavier in some parts, lighter in others.

The second of these two positions has been placed beyond a doubt by the new facts set forth in the work of the two learned fathers. They have produced ancient cast copper-money of the Latins and Volscians, which belong to an as, or pound weighing 13 Roman ounces,-and coins of Hadria in Picenum, which indicate an as, reaching even to 16 Roman ounces. The ancient Etruscan pound, as far as we can judge by the coins published and authenticated, appears to have been the lightest in Italy.

But, on the other hand, the opinion of M. Boeckh, that the duodecimal division of the pound was universal throughout Italy, has been shewn to be erroneous. Amongst the people of middle Italy, north of the Apennines, a decimal division of the pound prevailed, distinguishing them from the people south of the same chain, who employed the duodecimal scale. Of the numerous coins belonging to the people south of the Apennines, not a single quincunx, or coin of five ounces, has yet been discovered: the complete series runs from the semis or six ounces downwards, omitting the quincunx-triens, quadrans, sextans, and uncia. On the other hand, for the coins north of the Apennines, comprising those of seven different townships, no semis has ever been found; the highest denomination below the as is the quincunx, below which the other coins appear just as in the duodecimal series. There is no way of explaining this very marked and uniform contrast, except by admitting a decimal division of the pound north of the Apennines. In Sicily, where the coa

9 See the valuable Dissertation of Dr. Lepsius, "Ueber die Verbreitung des

I.

Italischen Münzsystems von Etrurien aus, p. 74. (Leipzig. 1842).

3

lescence of the Grecian and Italian systems produc cation almost inextricable, a silver quincunx as wel appears to have prevailed: at least we find in the Epicharmus mention both of πεντώγκιον and ἡμίλι ix. 82). This double scale of weight, prevalent in gions of Italy, is a remarkable phenomenon; only fied, and as yet unexplained.

II.

HYMN TO ISIS.

GEOR

OUR collections of Greek inscriptions have rece riched by about one hundred and seventy new ones, wh published by Professor Ross, of Athens1. All of th found in the islands of the Ægean, which are still pr harvest, as many of these islands have not yet been exp these new inscriptions there are some of great histo several of them are in verse, and one among these h much the attention of continental scholars that ther three different editions of it. This is a fragment Isis, which was found in the island of Andros, and important document, inasmuch as it shows the worship of this Egyptian goddess in Greece, and at 1 the curious pantheistic views about this divinity, wł be a combination of the religious opinions of the E prevalent in the more western parts of the Roman

1 Inscriptiones Græcæ ineditæ. Collegit ediditque Ludovicus Rossius, Holsatus, &c. Fascicul. II. Insunt Lapides insularum Andri, Ii, Teni, Syri, Amorgi, Myconi, Pari, Astypalææ, Nisyri, Teli, Coi, Calymnæ, Leri, Patmi, Sami, Lesbi, Theræ, Anaphæ et Peparethi. Athenis, 1842. 4to.

2 One by Welcker, i Museum, Neue Folge another by Th. Bergk, für die Alterthumswis p. 36, foll.; and the t edition by H. Sauppe, Distinxit, emendavit, Turici, 1842. 8vo.

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have recently been enew ones, which have been All of them have been are still promising anch t been explored. Among reat historical interest; these has attracted so hat there are already gment of a hymn to os, and is indeed an 3 the extent of the nd at the same time ity, which appear to the East with those Coman empire. The

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account of the discovery of this hymn is thus given by the editor: "Sequentem hymnum in Isidem reperi inter rudera antiquæ urbis, ad casam 'Iavván Aovxpéŋ. Tabula est oblonga, albi marmoris, quatuor columnis inscripta; sed titulum pessime habitum adeo festinanter transscribere coactus fui, ut difficiliora attingere non possem. Exscripsi igitur tantum Col. I et IV; verum sicui otium contingat, tabulamque commode ad lucem obvertat, crediderim etiam Col. II partem superiorem, et per totam fere Col. III dimidiam versuum partem, qua Col. Iv attingunt, legi et transscribi posse. Quo magis a præpropero explicandi conatu in præsentia abstineo; neque tamen apographum quamvis mutilum iis, qui linigeræ deæ religiones scrutantur, diutius invidendam esse duxi." From this account we see that Prof. Ross has published scarcely one half of the whole hymn: for even the first column is very much mutilated, and the last eight, or according to Welcker's more accurate examination, the last fifteen lines of the fourth are quite illegible on the stone. As each column contained forty-seven hexameter lines, the whole poem consisted of one hundred and eighty-eight. Professor Welcker, who, on his late excursion in Greece, also visited Naxos, endeavoured to read the second and third columns also, but they are in such a mutilated condition, that in the whole of these two columns not one of the lines is legible entirely; some lines are destroyed altogether, in others only a few words, or a part of one word only is readable, so that it would be scarcely worth while reprinting the fragments here. All that could be read, has been published by Welcker in the Rheinisches Museum, Neue Folge, ii. p. 438, foll. His subsequent examination of the first and fourth columns, published by Ross, has also shown that Ross' transcript is not everywhere correct, and the original stone in several instances confirms the conjectures of the editors. We shall, with a few exceptions, give the text of the first and fourth columns as constituted by Bergk, and subjoin the readings of the stone where he has made alterations, as well as some emendations proposed by Welcker and Sauppe. The parts enclosed in brackets contain the supplements of Bergk.

3-2

COL. I.

Αἰγύπτου βασίλεια λινόστολε, ὑλιγονοέσσας αὔλακος ἀρχαία μέλεται πολύπυρος ἀγυιά, σειστροφόρος Βούβαστος, ἀμαλλατόκοισί τε γαθομένα πεδίοισιν, ὅπᾳ στάλαν ἀσάλευτον 5 εἶσε φιλοθρέσκων ἱερὸς νόμος ἐκ βασιλήων, σᾶμα τεᾶς, δέσποινα, μοναρχείας, ἱκέταισιν λαοῖς ἀπύοισαν. Ἐγὼ χρυσόθρονος Εἶσις, ῥωμαλέα σκάπτροισιν, ὅσαν πυριλαμπέος ἀκτι ἀελίω σελάγεσκε βολαῖς φορβάμονα γαῖαν. 10 διφαλέως δ' Ερμᾶνος ἀπόκρυφα σύμβολα δέλ εὑρομένα γραφίδεσσι κατέξυσα, ταῖσι χάραξα φρικαλέον μύσταις ἱερὸν λόγον, ὅσσα τε δᾶμ ἀτραπὸν ἐς κοινὰν κατεθήκατο, πάντα βαθεί ἐκ φρενὸς ὑφάνασα διακριδόν· ἅδε τυράννω 15 πρέσβα Κρόνω θυγάτηρ, Εἶσις, δάμαρ εὐρυμα ἐμμὶ πολυζάλωτος Οσείριδος, ᾧ ποτε* νηδύν τὰν αὐτὰν ἀνέλυσα γενέθλιον, (ὰ πλοκάμοισι βριθομένα συβαροῖσι, λινόστολος.

8

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αἰπυνόω βασιλῆος, ὃν Ὠρανὸς ειγρες

20 θεσμοθέτις μερόπων, φῶς

οὐδ ̓ ἀπαμαυρώσει

ἐμπετάσει λα ἀστροφόροι θῆλύ τε γὰρ 25 ἐξέκαμον

3 The transcript of Ross is AINOΣΤΟΔΕΥΛ, which Welcker corrected into λινόστολε, σοί, and Sauppe agrees with Bergk in reading λινόστολε, τᾶ. The conjecture λινόστολε was found by Welcker to be the actual reading of the stone, and the next word in the inscription is as in our text.

4 The stone has AEIPALEO.

5 The inscription is ΤΑΙΣ ΧΑΡΑΞΑΣ,

which Welcker alters ραξα.

6 The stone has TY is retained by Welcker.

* The stone has ΩΠΟ 7 The stone has ΣΟΒ ΤΡΟΠΟΣ.

8 The reading of the ΛΗΙ ΟΣΟΝΩΙΛΙΝΟΣ 9 The stone has ΓΩΣ

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