Büchsenschütz in his Besitz und Erwerb comes to the conclusion (on pp. 343 and 349) that the rate of pay in Athens for an artizan was from 5 obols to a drachma and for a labourer 3 obols. The facts and figures on which he bases his conclusions are taken from Boeckh (Staatshaushaltung, Bk. I. c. 21), the conclusions are his own. Büchsenschütz is indeed somewhat puzzled by two facts, viz. that on 3 obols a man could scarcely support himself, much less a wife and family, and that in an inscription of the Periclean age (now published in C.I.A. I. 325) a mere labourer got a drachma a day. However, Büchsenschütz neither attempts to explain these two facts nor does he allow them to modify his conclusions.

But since the publication of Besitz und Erwerb some inscriptions have been discovered (now in C.I.A. II. ii. 834 b and c) which throw more light on these points. These inscriptions are fragments of the building accounts of the epistatae of Eleusis and the treasurers of the two goddesses, 834b in the archonship of Cephisophon (329/8), and 834c some ten or twenty years later.

At the south-western angle of the Athenian Acropolis and immediately to the south of the temple of Nike Apteros are some traces of foundations of walls and other indications which appear to throw some light on the original approach to the citadel before what is called the Beulé gate, which gave a direct west access to the Propylaea, was constructed.

The evidence seems to show that this approach coincided with that which was until very recently (i.e. previous to about 1890) the only regular approach, immediately under the S. W. angle of the Nike bastion; and where, a little within the old gateway (now destroyed), may be seen rough rock-cut grooves which had been made to assist the ascent. If from the site of that gateway a straight line be produced to the southward for about twenty feet, we find a portion of the rock of uneven surface but worn quite smooth. Indeed, when first uncovered on the removal of the Turkish or mediaeval buildings in 1889—1890, the surface was so extremely smooth that it appeared to have been worn by the feet of multitudes who had used it as a path to the Acropolis during a long series of years.

In the first part of this dissertation an account was given of the MSS. which contain the Homeric Hymns, their families ascertained and an approximation made towards the character and ages of their archetypes. Our next step is to compare these four archetypes, m x y and p, among themselves, with the view of discovering if, and how, they are related to each other, and what is the intrinsic value of their respective traditions. To do this I examine the readings of each archetype in detail, judging each variant in its turn and comparing it with such examples as I can produce that illustrate its particular case. I endeavour to assign each variant to the category of correct original, independent variation, pure corruption, half-intentional correction, and intentional interpolation. Upon the totals of these different classes given by each archetype depends its character and value. It will be seen that I am a disbeliever in the a priori method of dealing with MS. tradition, the method which selects, whether on good or bad grounds, one family as the source of pure tradition and rejects the rest as doctored and vicious, calls their good readings corrections, and their additions interpolations. I see rather in the divergence of families the working of accident, incalculable and not to be formalized.

Aegosthena, now more generally known as Porto Germano, lies on one of the easternmost bays of the Corinthian gulf, and on the northern frontier of the Megarid. Its remoteness from ordinary routes—for between it and Velia, itself an ultima Thule, rise 2,000 feet of pine-clad mountains—accounts for the fact that it is to this day practically unknown, and also perhaps for the very scanty mention of it in ancient literature. There was a shrine of Melampus there, the Spartans passed it in their retreat from Leuctra, and that is all. But the same remoteness has preserved for us a Greek fortified town in better condition and greater completeness than any other, not even excepting Messene.

The town was divided into two parts, the Acropolis defended on all sides by a line of walls and towers, and the lower town fortified on the north, from the Acropolis down to the sea, by a similar line, still remaining in good condition. We are, I think, both by the exigencies of its position and also by certain scanty remains bound to assume the existence of a corresponding south wall, of which mention will be made later. The style of building both in the Acropolis and the long wall is the same.

Mr. Arthur Evans kindly allows me to publish two interesting white lekythi recently acquired for the Ashmolean Museum. The first was said by the vendors to come from the excavations at Eretria, the second from excavations at Athens itself. The particular source of them, however, is not a matter of great importance, since as yet no satisfactory proof has been adduced that the white lekythi found at Eretria were made in Euboea or elsewhere than at Athens. Both of our vases appear to belong to the regular Attic series. The plate and the cut which pertain to this article were both produced from photographs taken with the help of Mr. A. H. Smith's ingenious invention, the cyclograph (see above, p. 192). The plate was made direct from a photograph, the cut drawn by Mr. F. Anderson on the basis of a photograph.

Vase No. 1.—Height 15 inches (ctm. 38). (Pl. XV.)

On shoulder, three palmettes, leaves alternately red and black.

Over design, simple maeander.