Greek official inscriptions were chiefly re corded on marble, Roman on bronze. The lat ter material, being available for so many uses, proved the less enduring. But marble slabs were also converted into building material or foundation stones of ramparts, and at Rome many an inscribed stone was calcined into lime. So many were the hazards to which inscriptions were exposed that it is exceptional to find an important one in its original location. For pur poses of study the modern habit of gathering inscriptions into museums is highly convenient. In Greece, besides public squares and build ings, temples were a favorite repository for inscriptions, such as state treaties, tribute and treasure lists; dress, armor, weapons and other offerings of gratitude—all with dedicatory in scriptions—made the temple a sort of museum; images of afflicted parts of the body that had been cured, with accounts of the case inscribed thereon, were offered to gods of healing, form ing a sort of nucleus of an anatomical collec tion and a medical library. Commonest of all forms was the sepulchral inscription which be gan with simple announcements but grew into sounding eulogies. Among the Greek inscrip tions none has been found so comprehensively important for history as the Great Rock of Behistum, but Mr. C. T. Newton, in his es says Greek Inscriptions) [Contemporary Review (December 1876); Nineteenth Century (June and August 1878, reprinted in (Essays on Art and Archmology,' p. 95, et seq.)j, has set forth with great charm their collective value for history and the things pertaining to religion. At Rome, Augustus caused a succinct account of his deeds to be engraved in bronze and set up before his mausoleum. This inscription, widely diffused in the Augustus temples throughout the empire, was discovered at Ancyra (now Angora). The Monumentum Ancyranum constitutes an extensive historical document of the very first importance. The Edict of Diocletian (303 A.D.) has quite a mod ern ring, being a law to control mercantile °combinations in restraint of trade) by fixing a maximum price for provisions and other com modities. The Acta Fratrum Arvalium form an important memorial of a religious guild. A fragmentary black cippus unearthed in the Ro man Forum (1899), supposedly near the grave of Romulus, aroused great enthusiasm. Its early date (550 a.c.) has been held to make for the credibility of the traditional account of Roman history as given by Livy rather than to give countenance to the skeptical method cur rent since Niebuhr's time. Unfortunately, save for a few words of great interest for the com parative grammarian, the inscription admits of no more definite elucidation than the conviction that the words probably belonged to a religious prescript. The graffiti (wall-scratchings) of Pompeii form a large and interesting class of incidental inscriptions which comprises quota dons, paraphrases, catchwords, proverbs; lov ers' messages, complaints, tarryings, rendezvous ,• names and greetings. Among them the painted inscriptions (dipinti) contain election notices chiefly. The dialects of Latin are known almost entirely from inscriptions. The chief remains of the Umbrian language (dialect) are the Tabulae Iguvinm, seven bronze tablets found at Gubbio in 1444. They captain long ritual pre scripts. Some 250 inscriptions, few of great importance save to the grammarian, represent the Oscan dialects. Etruscan inscriptions in
considerable number have been found in Italy— one (supposedly) as far to the east as the island of Lemnos — but, pending the discovery of a long bilingual, these, though written in a well known alphabet, still await definitive interpre tation. The same is true of Iberian inscriptions (some 75 in number, several of between 50 and 150 letters). Runic inscriptions, in an alphabet derived from the Greek and Latin, have been found in Scandinavia and in England; the old est (300 A.D) being engraved on the utensils found at Thorsbjerg, others on stone monu ments, rocks, weapons, ornaments and coins; the longest containing 16 words. See RUNES.
Bibliography.— The general reader may consult to advantage Taylor, 'The Alphabet' (New York 1900) ; Kenyon, article °Writing') (in
Dictionary)); Whitney, 'Lan guage and the Study of Language' (5th ed.. p. 450) ; the histories of Egypt by Budge (Lon don 1902) and by Petrie (London 1897-); (Re cent Lights on Ancient Egypt' -(Quarterly Re view, MO, 1904, 48-75) ; essays by Boscawen (Harper's, 88, 190) ; Petrie (Contemporary, 69, 617) ; Mahaffy (Nineteenth Century, 36, 268) ; Price, (Monuments of the Old Testament' (Chi cago 1900), containing facsimiles of the Rosetta Stone and other hieroglyphics, the Moabite Stone, Behistun Rock, a Tell-el-Amarna tablet and other cuneiform documents; Rogers, (His tory of Babylonia and Assyria' (New York 1900) ; Smith, (Chaldean Account of Genesis' (1880)• Schrader, (Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament' (London 1:.:5); Sayce, essay in The Living Age (212, 1897; 360) ; (Ro setta Stone' (Open Court, 18, 531) ;
Amarna Letters,' edition with translation by Winkler (1896) essays in The Living Age, (197, 771) and The Scottish Review (17, 292) ; (Behistun Rook,' text and translation in Raw linson's 'Herodotus,' ii, 490-514) ;
Edicts' (Rhys Davids, 'Buddhism,' pp. 240 228, London 1894) ; Smith,
Of a more special character are the follow ing: Brinton, (Primer of Mayan Hieroglyph ics' (University of Pennsylvania Publication) ; Budge, (First Steps in Egyptian' (London 1895) ; Berlin, 'Grammar of the Cuneiform In scriptions' (London 1888) • Weissbach and Ba, (Altpersischen KeilinsChrif ten' (Leipzig
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