Epigraphica attica

172 Pages·1940·9.725 MB·English

by  Benjamin Dean Meritt

MARTIN CLASSICAL LECTURES
2.
I. The Martin Classical Lectures
3.Edited byLouis E. Lord
4A.spects of Social Behavior in Ancient Rome
TenneyFrank
5.
Attic Vase-.Painting
6. CharlesT. Seltman
The Humanistic Value ofArchaeology
7.
Rhys Carpenter
8. Greek Ideals and Modern Life
SirRichardW. Livingstone
9.
Five Men: Character Studies from the Roman
Empire
MartinPercival Charlesworth
Early Greek Elegists
CecilM. Bowra
The Roman Art ofWar Under the Republic
F. E.Adcock
Epigraphica Attica
BenjaminDeanMeritt
MARTIN CLASSICAL LECTURES
These lectures are delivered annually at
OBERLIN COLLEGE
on a Foundation established in honor of
CHARLES BEEBE MARTIN
LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD
:
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
EPIGRAPHICA ATTICA
MARTIN CLASSICAL LECTURES
VOLUME IX
BY
BENJAMIN DEAN MERITT
Institute forAdvanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
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CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS
:
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1940
COPYRIGHT, 1940
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
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PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.A.
THE MARTIN CLASSICAL LECTURES
i Volume IX
The Martin Foundation^ on which these lectures
are delivered, was established byhis many friends
in honor of Charles Beebe Martin, for forty-five
years a teacher of classical literature and
classical art in Oberlin College

PREFACE
T
hese lectures^ which were delivered in Oberlin
upon the Charles Beebe Martin Foundation in
November 1939, are here printed in a somewhat
modified form. Their substance is the same^ but
especiallyin thefieldofepigraphyone’soralpresenta-
tion must dispense with the rather cumbersome
citations and references which convention seems to
require for thejustification ofa written argument.
The central theme is very simple. The author has
wished to show by example that inscriptions cannot
be studied satisfactorily without proper attention to
the physical properties of the stones on which they
were inscribed. He hopes the reader will not take it
amiss that the illustrations are drawn largely from
his own experience with the documents of Athens.
There is no attempt to cite all the examples that
might be used to show the desirability of such com-
plete study;, and every epigraphist will doubtless call
to mind equallygood examples ofhis own. Themain
purposeofthe volumeis to emphasize theimportance
to the text ofa knowledge ofits medium.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mr. W.
Kendrick Pritchett for reading the manuscript and
to Miss Margot Cutter for her patience and care in
my
its preparation. It is a pleasure also to record
obligation to the skilled staff of the Harvard Uni-