An Introduction to Greek epigraphy. Part II. The Inscriptions of Attica, edited by E.S. Roberts ... and E.A. Gardner ...

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Khi

B Kv

D

D

S38 Bun

EmE

Eflfi&ft UBttf

i

HB

,,"*£'

DG l

l

.

Mm

H

Hi

— I

Hi V

I


®

is

simplified

In 0> an d' i n the latter part of the fourth century, to + or + was there no harm in leads great to some cases this; in others it to

.

ambiguity, as in

It is hardly

ayaOa.

forms

AOHNAIRN^'A^aiW, POAAA TAOA = va\X worth while however

chronicle

to

of

writing that

is

extensively

checked by the fear of complete

and which

used,

increases in later periods as the style of cutting grows

common down

to

Roman

when

times,

In the fourth century, as in the

fifth,

the chisel

strokes tend to

other

is

held obliquely, as

it

only

naturally

it

more

careless,

disappears.

it

the strokes of the letters

are usually of even breadth throughout their length.

when

is

This tendency appears

illegibility.

as early as the beginning of the fourth century, though

is

such

they really represent a tendency which always invades any

;

system

and

all

It is true that

in rapid cutting, the

is

become thicker and deeper at one end than the is not in any way

but this tendency remains incidental, and

;

conventional or recognised during the fourth century in Athens,

though a few marked instances occur

an inclination

to curve

some

commoner elsewhere than development 2 but ,

The

for

We

1

.

of the strokes

in

is

but this tendency

;

T".

style of cutting in the earlier part of the fourth century fifth

wonderfully even and perfect in form

arrangement

is

almost universally observed.

belonging to the time of Lycurgus (338 of their own, which consists chiefly in

of the characters. different

The forms

from those of the

of

in the best examples

;

;

The

— 326

and the official

o-toiy^SoV

inscriptions

have a character the neatness and minuteness B.C.)

the letters are

earlier part

of

not essentially

the century

;

but the

tendency to simplify characters by the omission of minor strokes 1

2

is

Athens, and never had any strong

an occasional

does not differ essentially from that of the it

also find, occasionally,

Loewy IGB 64, 65, 69, 83. IGB 69 with 89 (Sicyon). IGB 86, 400—380 b.c.

is

e.g. cf.

Sicyon

The wedge-shaped

strokes also occur at

INTRODUCTION. prevalent.

Towards the end

xv

of the century the

shaped strokes receives a check.

Loewy

Prof.

time a conservative influence seems to come

tendency to wedge-

notes that about this

in,

which prevents the

from further degradation or development for a

style of cutting

much

century or more; and he attributes this arrest with to

probability

Demetrius Phalereus, whose influence upon such things at Athens

cannot easily be exaggerated.

It follows that there

is

but

little

change to chronicle in the Attic alphabet during the third century; it

is

indeed very

difficult,

if

not impossible, to distinguish by

its

appearance an inscription of the close of the fourth century from an

The only

inscription of the beginning of the second.

mentioning are that

common, though

p

occasionally found and

is

(~|

becomes

~JE

remains the usual form, and =£

worth

facts

is

fairly

by no means

unusual.

The second century, on the other hand,

an age

is

both in the forms of letters and in the style of cutting. of these changes

is

of

changes

The

greatest

a formal and conscious adoption of an ornamented

system of cutting, in which the open ends of strokes and the angles

—

where two strokes join are adorned with what are called apices that is to say, minute cuts set at an angle of 45° to the main stroke, where two strokes meet, the usually one on each side, thus J form of a prolongation of each of the the take sometimes apices ;

The origin of sometimes more correctly strokes.

trace.

We

this

of apices, or,

swallow-tails,

called,

is

as

not

they are

wedge-shaped strokes.

more

When

form naturally produced was

still

outside

a tendency towards

it,

these were cut deep at one end, the

makes

its

forms soon met with

general acceptance, and were recognised as normal by the end of the

though the

earlier forms were never entirely became unusual, they were for that very reason preferred in inscriptions of an affected archaism. The only letters which show any independent development are ?; letters,

such as

$=

riot.

little to

forms,

For the

we

and

,

latest period of ancient Attic

later.

after the Hadrianic age.

Apex On the

JL

lies