INSCRIPTIONS. The term inscriptions comprises, in its widest sense, all words or word-signs engraved (or painted) on relatively durable materials such as natural cliffs, wrought stone, baked clay, metal or even wood. For reasons of practical convenience, however, cer tain sorts of inscriptions are grouped apart; for example, legends on coins and the lettering on painted vases. The etymological sense of inscription (Latin inscriptio, °In-scratching*) is not to be taken so strictly as to exclude raised lettering. The role of inscriptions in modern times accords in general with the ancient use, but is much less extended. Then, copies of offi cial and religious documents were frequently promulgated in the form of inscriptions, a usage that no longer survives, though commemora tive and titular inscriptions are still plentifully employed. In general, inscriptions serve one of two purposes: (1) they constitute a record, and the material containing them is wrought for the express purpose of receiving the inscription (example, known from literature only, Moses' stones tables that held the decalogue); (2) the bbject on which•the inscription is engraved ful fils a purpose of its own, while the lettering in dicates the name, nature, purpose, maker or owner of the material object (commemorative column, mirror, ring, etc.). To these may be added another class, (3) the incidental inscrip tion, a notice or entry upon. an object not prepared to receive it.
Inscriptions furnish materials of value to students in many fields. To the historian and we must understand history to be the life record of the nation and its citizens —they supply evidence of great value, all the more valuable because nearly always tontemporane ous with the facts recorded. The incidental as well as the formal record may bear testimony. An example of this sort has been found on the leg of a colossal statue at Abusimbel in Nu bia, whereon Greek mercenaries who had as cended the Nile under the leadership of Psam metichus —more probably the second (594-589 tic.) than the first (654-617) of that name-- traced a brief notice of their expedition. The incidental inscription is particularly apt to fur nish details valuable for social history. To the archaeologist inscriptions of the second class furnish testimony of value for topography (witness the fragments of the marble Forma Urbis, an ancient inscribed plan of the chief buildings of Rome) and for the precise identi fication of statues and other works of art. The
discovery of inscriptions is among the express tasks of the excavating archaeologist, who thus supplies the raw material, so to speak, for the historian or philologian. To the philologiin inscriptions yield the key to the history of writ ing and, if his interests lie in the comparative and historical study of words, give him a fuller knowledge of their form. To the philologian of literary interests, inscriptions yield a knowl edge of fact or of vocabulary that may lead to a correct interpretation of a dif ficult literary passage. For example, the Greek historian, Thucydides, records (6.54) an altar inscription set up by Peisistratus (527-510 s.c.), which, he says, was still 'in clear evi dence,* but •in dim letters.* The identical in scription was found in 1877, with lettering per fectly distinct, and the literary interpretation of had to be revised• and brought into accord with the facts. Meantime, the arch ologists had learned that red or blue paint was employed to bring out more clearly the let tering of Greek inscriptions, and it was easy to infer that not the incision but the coloring of this inscription was dim in the time of Thucydides. Inscriptionspreviously known from literary works have for the philologian the added value of yielding testimony con cerning the reliability of the manuscript tra dition. Thus the best manuscript of Thucy dides is of the 10th century A.D. and, as the last in a long chain of copies, must have been exposed to a great deal of corruption in trans mission. The fact that a treaty recorded by the historian (5.47) corresponds almost ex actly with the (fragmentary) inscription re cording the alliance is reassuring for the MS. tradition. The even, may be con cerned with material furnished by inscriptions. One of the most considerable fragments of the poet Simonides, for example, has reached us in a copy on stone of an epitaph (epigram) in honor of the Megarians who fell in the Persian War. Some literatures have survived only as inscriptions.