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Inscriptions from Salonica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

The appended inscriptions are the outcome of a short visit to Salonica in April of this year: the object that I had in view in going there was rather to hear and see on the spot the situation of ancient remains, the possibility and prospects of research, the attitude of the authorities and the general ‘lie’ and state of the country, than to investigate the actual antiquities of Salonica itself: however I copied or impressed as many Greek inscriptions as came to my notice in my short stay, the great majority being sepulchral of a commonplace order found in the foundations of houses in the Jewish quarter, and too frequently relegated to the stonemasons' yards to be cut up for modern gravestones. I have ranged first the three non-sepulchral inscriptions, the first being a mere fragment containing apparently part of an Imperial letter to the Thessalonians; the second a dedication by the city to the Emperor Claudius, and containing the titles and names of the chief magistrates; and the third, again a fragment, being a public document of the time of Antoninus Pius relative to certain κυνηγία, apparently left by will to the city or some religious foundation therein. If any of these have been previously published, I must apologise for my ignorance: but I cannot discover among the various records accessible here in Athens any trace of them; and indeed Salonica has been spared the archaeologist to a surprising degree. Where the stelae were sculptured I have briefly indicated the nature of the reliefs: there are a few others without inscriptions, but, as none of the sculptures are early or of merit, I have not thought it necessary to detail them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1887

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References

1 While I was taking the latter I was interrupted by a message from the Minister of Public Instruction, who desired an interview (a pretext for a nearer view of a possible Austrian spy!), and the paper was left on the stone to the tender mercies of the wind and the crowd. Consequently it was lifted up all round the edges, and its value considerably diminished. From the appearance of this stone it must have been uncovered for a long period, though whence it came I was unable to learn. Perhaps it has been copied previously.