speak of what has been already established by others, namely, the age and great merit of Onatas. I infer from the comparison of the passages, quoted from Pausanias, with our inscription, that the first line, which in the common Attic dialect runs thus "'IEPON AEINOME'NOTE," “Hiero son of Dinomenes". can only designate that Hiero, of whose vows for his Olympic victories, and of whose monument erected after his death in Olympia Pausanias speaks in the passages I have quoted, in short, of the brother of Gelonus, that Hiero who was the first king of Syracuse of that name, who reigned about twelve years (according to the computation of the Olympiads, 478-466. before J. C.) and whose valor and victories Pindar has sung in four immortal hymns, the first in the Olympic odes, and the other three among the Pythian odes, in our collection.' Greater praise cannot easily be given to a prince, than that which Pindar bestows upon this Hiero, Pyth. Od. 11. v. 108. Similar incense is bestowed on him by the poet, perhaps with too liberal a hand, in the third Pythic, v. 124. and elsewhere. His actions are sufficiently known from Diodorus Siculus (b. xi.) and other authors. (Visconti Iconographie, vol. ii. p. 17.) Many beautiful medals referring to Hiero the first still remain, (see p. c. Torremuzza Siciliæ. Vet. N. Tab. 98 and 99. Mionnet Description de M. A. vol. i. p. 330. and supplement p. 458.) Most of these are of copper, with the portrait of this prince, generally well done, on one side, and on the other à cavalier armed, with his lance in the rest, and under him this legend, IEPILNOE. The symbol on the reverse perhaps commemorates some victory gained by that running horse whose name, (papavixos) is preserved by Pindar in two places, Olymp. i. 24. and Pyth. iii. 132. a At present I dare not decide on the difficult question, at what time these medals were coined, and the others resembling them, which are attributed to the first Hiero. The fact that the diadem (an ornament used by the Oriental despots) was not adopted by the Grecian princes until after the invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great, first induced Spanheim to pretend (De Præst. & U. N. vol. i. p. 545.) that all the money which bears the effigies of Gelon and Hiero I. decorated with that symbol of despotic power, (either unknown or detested by the Greeks in the fourth and fifth centuries,) must have been coined in memory of those princes after their death, and at a time when the diadem was not unknown in Greece. Eckhel (a name venerable in history and in the numismatic science) embraced the same opinion of the non-synchronism of the medals which exhibit the names and portraits of the Syracusan kings, and establishes his opinion in that singular treatise, introduced into his immortal works, (D. N. V. vol. i. p. 251.) by powerful arguments derived from the history of the art, Greek paleography, and from the numismatic science: he affirms that the style of the designs on these medals, the form of the But there are other circumstances commemorated in our inscription which Pausanias does not mention, namely: letters upon them, and the custom of the age of which we speak, of never portraying living princes upon the medals which they coined, absolutely prove that Gelo and Hiero did not exist in the fifth century before the Christian æra. From the force of this reasoning the most skilful antiquaries have been induced either to adopt his opinion in every respect, or to remain doubtful of the exact period of the coinage of the money commonly attributed to the two first Syracusan kings of the Dinomenean family. See, for ex., Sig. Lanzi, in the third dissertation on the antique painted vases, p. 150; Sig. Avellino, in his Numismatic Journal, No. iii. p. 37; Visconti, Iconographie Grecque, Tom. ii. p. 16. In consulting my learned friend Sig. Carelli, I find that his opinion does not differ from that of Visconti. I do not pretend entirely to solve this enigma, as Sig. Avellino justly terms it; on the contrary, I shall perhaps contribute to render it still more inexplicable by publishing a silver medal (that in the frontispiece) from my collection, which appears to me curious, and has not been engraved. A Horseman with a helmet, on the right. Reverse: A Victory in a swift car; on the left, IEPONOz; in the space above the horses, a star; behind the Victory, H-. I obtained this medal in Sicily, in the city of Cefalie. It is in perfect preservation; and I consider it a little treasure on account of its coarseness, which in my opinion shows the true state of the art of coining in that part of Sicily, in the remote time of Hiero I. Here we see the portraits of that prince and his courser, very different from the beautiful representations of him on the common medals. One would suppose it to be the tall, lean, and aged, but renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha, mounted on Rozinante, rather than the youthful king, the Olympic victor, on his noble palfrey, Ferenicos. I do not expect that any objection will be made to the Omega (a), or to the form of the characters on this medal. It is true, that they are different from those inscribed on the helmet, which were undoubtedly cut, if not in the time of Hiero I., at least not many years after his death. But what connoisseur in Grecian antiquities will affirm that the innovation of Simonides in the Greek alphabet was immediately adopted throughout Greece? Such an opinion would be contradicted by the history of every human invention, and would be confuted by the evident proofs which we possess from Grecian art. There are still many prejudices on this subject, even among the most respectable literati, who look upon a statue, a basso-relievo, a coin, &c. as of remote origin, because they are executed in the antique style. Even Winckelmann was not free from this error. But let us consider the great difference between Greece in a state of freedom, and any country in Europe in the present time. In those great political bodies which now form the different states of Europe, almost every thing proceeds from the Capital. In the Capital the fashion is formed, which is often influenced by the Court, where, from many causes, true and good taste is seldom found. Fashion, from being confined and capricious in its nature, selects one thing from many, and rejects all the rest; consequently it is an enemy to good taste, which, being universally generous and liberal, excludes nothing, and prefers every THAT THE SYRACUSANS WHO CAME FROM CUMA, PASSING BY THURIA, HAD CONTRIBUTED ΤΟ THE MONUMENT, (of which our helmet is part) OF THEIR PRINCE. For it is thus that I explain the two last lines of our inscription, which are thus sounded in common Attic dialect ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΙ ΟΙ ΔΙΑ ΘΟΥΡΙΑΝ ΑΠΟ ΚΥΜΗΣsupposing that some verb or participle, as, for example, åpíxovto, ἦλθον, ἀφικόμενοι, was omitted in the engravings on stone. The form of an apostrophe given to the preposition, 41 instead of 41A, although before a consonant, is not extraordinary, particularly in engravings, which are seldom spelt correctly. As to the circumstance of "THE SYRACUSANS COMING FROM CUMA, PASSING BY THURIUM," it will be sufficiently explained in remembering that seven or eight decenni after the unfortunate catastrophe of the great and rich city of Sybaris, the rising Sybaris (Thurium) florished anew in the fourth and thing that is good or beautiful in its kind. It is the greatest misfortune of modern art, that it is too much influenced by fashion. It was very different in Greece. Greece in a free state had no Capital, was never subjected to fashion. A custom, a mode of execution, a style of art, was continued in one country, while it was abandoned in another, perhaps very near it. While things were executed in one manner in Athens, they were very differently performed in Egina; while one style of writing was adopted at Neapolis, another was long after in use at Crotona, or Metapontus. Let us look, for instance, at the two curious medals of Hyrium and Metapontus in the Museum of Sig. Jorio, lately published by Sig. Avellino, in the first division of the Unpublished Monuments, (Naples, 1820) in 4to. p. 8-10. These interesting coins have the legends on both, reversed, one of them indented by being beaten on two medals of Neapolis and Agrigentum, in a style apparently recent; that of Neapolis still shows, by the side of the second type of Hyrium with the retrograde inscription, the letters oпo▲ of the first coin with the common legend ΝΕΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ. It does not therefore surprise me, that I have at last found what Eckhel desired to see, (Doctr. N. V. i. p. 252.) a coin of Hiero I. the great friend and patron of Simonides (see Xenoph. de Regno, Cicero de Nat. Deor. B. 1.) which should bear the impression of the Omega of Simonides, while the name of the same Hiero was written differently in other countries, where the Simonidean innovation had not been introduced, both at that period and for some time after; for I imagine that Onatas did not execute the group in brass, of which our helmet formed a part, in Syracuse, but in Egina his native country, or perhaps in Olympia. Well and clearly explained by Diodorus Siculus in the twelfth Book of his Historical Library, and remarked by Strabo, (Geogr. b. vi.) by Elian, (Hist. Anim. b. xvi.) and by other ancient authors. fifth centuries before the Christian æra, and precisely by the same means which, before the exterminating war with Crotona, had rendered the ancient Sybaris great and powerful by the great fertility of the soil, by navigation and commerce.' It appears also, that at the time of which we speak, as well as afterwards, the passage from Thurium to the Peloponnesus, and nominally to Cyllene, a famous port in Elis, was common, and established in a regular manner; and I suppose that the Syracusans, mentioned in our inscription, coming from Cuma and wishing to pass into Elis, perhaps to be present at the celebration of the Olympic games, preferred a journey of a few days through Greek Italy (Magna Græcia was thus named), through friendly and partly allied countries, to a long and uncertain voyage from Cuma to Cyllene; and that they embarked at Thurium for Cyllene, where Alcibiades embarked with other fugitives (after leaving the Athenian expedition in Sicily), to go to Cyllene, and from thence to Lacedemonia. We may rather be surprised at the manner of writing the name of the city, TVRAN instead of TVRIAN, which is the same as Ooupíav.3 That the omission of the iota in the name of the city is surprising, I confess before I say more: that circumstance alone has made me doubtful of the explanation, which I have presumed to submit to the examination of your Excellency and our learned friends. But I am somewhat encouraged by observing the extraordinary differences, in the ancient authors, in the manner of writing the Greek names of places. Those, for example, who have read Strabo, Ptolemy, and Stephanus Byzantinus, must have perceived the strange dissimilitudes in the local denominations. There are many varieties entirely provincial, of which we are ignorant, as we only know the Greek language from the authors (who are not silent). We sometimes find these provincial varieties inscribed on marbles. Deprived as I am of books, I shall only cite one example, which will at 1 Let us remember, for example, the memorable words of Diodorus on the rising colony of Thurium (Bib. Istor. lib. xii. p. 485. ed. Wesseling in fol.) 2 Thucyd. b. vi. p. 227. (ed. of Eur. Stefano 1564 in fol.) This handsome and ingenious but wicked man had his own reasons for not going to Athens to give an account of his conduct. 3 I say only "the same as oupíav," because it appears useless to demonstrate the ancient value of the T for e, and of the sign v instead of the diphthong or; as the Greek paleography, which is known to every one, is not here spoken of. least be new, for it is taken from an inscribed marble, lately brought from Arcadia, which I shall perhaps soon publish. Pausanias, in B. viii. ch. 53. (ed. Facius vol. ii. p. 514.) remarks the names of the four tribes, quaai, of the city of Tegea, in Arcadia,—Ιπποθοίτις, Απολλωνίατις, ̓Αθανεάτις, and Κλαρεῶτις: but on a fine and rather antique marble, a long inscription, which treats precisely of the four tribes of Tegea, mentions the namnes of the citizens of the last, as Κραρεῶται πολίται. But if we merely consider the name of the city before mentioned, we shall find a great variety in its denominations in the different authors. The plural form oúpos is doubtless the most common among the ancient writers. Thucydides writes the name Θουρία ; Ptolemy and Diodorus Siculus write Θούριον. In consequence of these diversities, Stephanus Byzantinus gives all the three forms, Θούριοι, Θουρία, and Θούριον. Titus Livius declines the name Thuria, iarum, and one of the two ancient tabula itinerar. writes Turii and Turís, a form not far from that of our inscription TVRA. The question which now remains to be considered is the most important, as it relates to the historical part of the inscription; it is this, WHY WERE THE SYRACUSANS IN CUMA? AND WHEN DID THEY GO THERE? The inscription on the helmet, which without doubt covered the head of "the man in the car" as he 's called by Pausanias, that is, of the statue of the same Olympic victor, Hiero king of Syracuse,the inscription, I say, sculptured in such a place, in a country so celebrated for brilliant actions, and the gift of a king, must indicate some remarkable event, some great and signal action of the Syracusans in Cuma. If this is not proved, our inscription will not be fully illustrated. 'This interesting marble was found in Paleoepiscopi, the site of the ancient city of Tegea in Arcadia; it was obtained by Colonel Ross, and taken by him to Zante, where I lately copied the inscription. The cacography of the word Kapera in the marble, is the same provincialism which is so often heard in Greece in the present time. In Epirus, in Attica, and in many parts of the Peloponnesus, the common people almost always pronounce nge, 'Apßavírns, &c. instead of 0, 'Anßavítus, &c.; a vice exactly contrary to that called by the ancients pavioμs. See the curious verses of Aristophanes, Vespe 42-46, where Alcibiades is ridiculed for his bad pronunciation: Εἶτ ̓ Αλκιβιάδης εἶπε πρός με τραυλίσας instead of ὁρᾷς-Θέωρος-κόρακος. 2 See note 1. p. 135. |