Studies in Attic Inscriptions of the Fifth Century B.C.

Abstract

The inscriptions here published or discussed have, some of them, historic interest; which I hope I have not entirely neglected to point out. But this is chiefly a report of my work in the Museum: the reconstruction of stelai, the recognising and distinguishing of hands. In the third section, A Distinctive Attic Hand, my argument for date is cumulative, and weak as cumulative arguments are: I have no single certain proof that any of the group, still less the whole of it, belongs to the 'thirties. I record it as my cumulative impression; but my main concern has been to distinguish the hand, and to try to formulate a method whereby hands can be, securely, distinguished.Acknowledgments: first and warmest to M. Kourouniotis, Director of the Epigraphic Museum at Athens and of the excavations at Eleusis. His generosity in placing unpublished stones at my disposal, and his constant encouragement, have been delightful to remember. Next, to Hiller von Gaertringen, whose I.G. I has seldom, during this work, been far from my hand: all students of fifth-century Attic inscriptions will know what I owe him. I have had much help from Dow and Oliver of the American school: Dow indeed taught me to distinguish hands. Meritt's constant and exciting letters, while I was working on the Quota Lists, have made that the most useful section of my paper: I had much help also from West's pupil McGregor of Cincinnati University, who was working on the same subject (see below, p. 110).