ven inches long; one foot and fomething more than fix inches
wide, and above ten inches thick. It is broken at the bottom.
In the top is a hole three inches and a half long, three wide,
and above two deep. This ferved to unite it firmly with the upper
portion, or the capital, by receiving a bar of metal, a cuf-
tomary. mode of conftruCtion, which rendered the fabric as folid
as the materials were durable. The Hone was given to the temple,
as appears from the infcription on it, by Phanodicus of
Proconnefus, a city and illand not far from Sigeum, famous for
its quarries of marble. Such donations were common, and we
fhall have occafion to mention feveral.
T he lines in both infcriptions range from the left to the right,
and from the right to the left, alternately. This mode of difpo-
fition was called Boii/lrophedon, the lines turning on the marble
as oxen do in ploughing. It was ufed before Periander; and by
Solon the Athenian lawgiver, his contemporary.
T he Greek alphabet, as imported by Cadmus from Phoenicia
', confifted of fixteen letters. Palamedes, the rival of
TJlylTes, who was put to death in the Greek camp before Troy,
added four. Simonides of Ceos increafed the number to twenty
four. This perfon was a favourite of Hipparchus, brother of
Hegefiftratus the tyrant of Sigeum, and lived with him at
Athena.
W e may infer from the firft infcription on the pilafter that
Phanodicus and the temple, to which he contributed, exifted
before the improvement made by Simonides, for it exhibits only
Cadmean and Palamedean characters : and alfo that the ftru&ure
was raifed under the Mityleneans, for it is in their dialeCt or the
Aeolian. i
i See Chilhull’s learned Commentary.
T he
T he fecond infcription has the letters of Simonides, and was
engraved under the Athenians, as may be collected from its
Atticifins > and, it is likely, about the time of Hegefiftratus ;
the method of arranging the lines not being changed, nor the
memory of the perfon, whom it records, i f he were not then
living, become obfolete.
W e copied thefe infcriptions very carefully, and not without
deep regret, that a ftone fo Angularly curious, which has pre-
ferved to us a fpecimen of writing antiquated above two thou-
fand years ago, ftiould be fuffered to lie fo negleCted and expofed.
Above half a century has elapfed, fince it was firft difeovered,
and it ftill remains in the open air, a feat for the Greeks, defti-
tute of a patron to refeue it from barbarifm, and obtain its removal
into the fafer cuftody of fome private- mufeum; or, which
is rather to be defired, fome public repofitary '§
, It is to be wilhed that a premium were offered, and the undertaking recommended
to commanders of Ihips in the Levant trade. They have commonly interpreters
to negotiate for them, with men, leavers, ropes, and the other requi fites.
befid'es inftruments or tools, by which- the ftone might be broken, if neceflary. By
a proper application of all-prevailing gold-, it is believed they might gain the per-
miiHon or connivance of the papas and perfons concerned. I-t Ihould be done with
fecrefy. The experiment is eafily made, when they are at Tenedos, or wind-bound
near the mouth, of the Hellefpont.