FOUND IN I902 at Lambousa on Cyprus was a set of silver plates with the exploits of the youthful David, which has since then been repeatedly published in its entirety. It was suggested on the basis of the hallmarks on their backs that the plates themselves could be dated in the sixth or seventh century A.D. until some of these hallmarks in the form of monograms and imperial busts were identified as those of the emperor Heraclius (6Io-64I). More recently the date could be limited still further to the years 613-629 or 630, i.e., a period which had produced on the coins a special type of that emperor which agrees with that of the hallmarks.2 importance of the find for the history of Early Byzantine art in general has been recognized from the very beginning. Every handbook on this subject reproduces one or two of the plates, including almost always the great plate with the fight against Goliath (Figure I), and a few remarks on their style and their place in the development have usually been added. Very little, however, has been written so far about the iconography of the David cycle and its source, although Dalton in his article in the Burlington Magazine3 clearly pointed the way for further investigation when he stated: The real importance of the series lies in its relation to the illuminated Byzantine psalters.... For the scenes represented upon the dishes have an obvious relation to those found in the most famous psalters now preserved, for instance, no. I39 in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the well-known psalter of Basil II in the library of St. Mark at Venice, both of which belong to what is known as the 'aristocratic' group.... Dalton made these penetrating remarks without going into detailed comparisons between the plates and the corresponding iniatures and without having even discussed the great David and Goliath plate, which at that time was known, but not accessible to him. Yet it is this very plate that establishes the closest connection with a miniature of the Paris Psalter (Figure 2), as has repeatedly been pointed out by Buchthal,4 Morey,s myself,6 and other scholars who have