The defeat at Marathon made it doubly necessary for the Persian government to undertake the subjugation of the Greeks across the sea. If there was ever to be peace on the Aegean that ‘Majuba’ must be ‘wiped off the slate.’

This time there was to be no mistake. The expedition was long and carefully prepared, and was planned on an enormous scale. The number of Xerxes' host cannot indeed be demonstrated, but it may be estimated with some probability, and the historian is bound to attempt an estimate. No sane critic could accept the millions of Herodotus. Nor would many now be found to admit the 700,000 or 800,000 given with or without garniture by Isocrates, Ctesias, and the later authors who mostly depend upon Ephorus. These figures seem to have been deduced from Herodotus. In iv. 87, the land forces led by Darius against the Scyths are said to have numbered 700,000, and it is implied that they were the full levy of the entire empire. In viii. 100 and 113, Mardonius is to be left with 300,000, while Xerxes goes home with the larger part of the army (cf. Thuc. i. 73). In vii. 20, Xerxes' host is larger than that of Darius or any other on record.

In describing the recent excavations at Zakro (Annual of the British School at Athens, vii. p. 121 ff.) I stated that the pottery found there could not be fully published yet. Pending the resumption of its study, however, three vases of exceptional excellence, which were copied in Candia by Monsieur E. Gilliéron, may be made known. One of these (No. 1) was found in fragments in the principal house (A) of the Lower Town (ibid. p. 129 ff.), which yielded also the hoard of sealings published in the previous issue of this Journal. The precise findspot was the doorway between the rooms 3 and 5 (v. plan, ibid. p. 131), which. I believe to have contained a stairway of two flights leading to an upper level or storey. These rooms were full of collapsed ruin, among which the fragments of this vase were dispersed. I offered a special reward, and had all sherds dug out of this house minutely examined; but about a third of the vase was not recovered. Part of a second vase (lip and neck) of precisely similar character came from the same rubbish. The other two vases (Nos. 2, 3) figured in the accompanying Plate (XII.) were built up from fragments found in the Λάκκος (Pit I.) on the western spur (ibid. p. 126) among countless sherds of Bronze-Age pottery of the best Cnossian period.

I Am availing myself of the kindness of several friends and especially of Professor Ramsay's to make the following additions or corrections in Part I. In the first inscription (p. 97), line 7, the Τ should have been marked doubtful; Professor Ramsay conjectures ἀθ]λοφό[ρ]ου Line 8 should read ΝΟ⊂ and not ΜΟ⊂. Line 10 should be deleted and the remaining lines renumbered. In line 13 (formerly 14), the A may be an Ν. In the second inscription, line 6, the first letter had the shape of a ∨ rather than a Υ. Professor Ramsay tells me also that, according to his drawing, the outside walls of the three shorter arms of the chapel (p. 96) were less square than I have represented them.

With reference to No. 10, it is worth while to note that the word βικάρις occurs in a Coptic ostracon recently published by Mr. W. E. Crum (Coptic Ostraca, No. 209, cf. p. 58 of the Commentary). From what we know of the title, we should be inclined to say that this ‘Eustathius of Hermonthis’ (cf. also op. cit. No. 366) there mentioned had invoked the aid of the civil power and that ‘Paul the vicarius’ was a civil officer (cf. Crum op. cit. p. xviii.).

While excavating on the temenos wall of the great temple of Sety I at Abydos in Upper Egypt, Mr. A. St. G. Caulfeild found the foundations of a stone pylon, a fragment of a great lintel, inscribed by Ptolemy IV, Philopator, and a small limestone block here figured.

This block was probably a foundation-deposit; the inscription is incised; the surface has been gilded. It seems probable that it refers to the building by Philopator.

The repairs of the Parthenon are drawing to a close and visitors coming to Athens next Easter may hope to see the temple freed from its casing of timber. They must be prepared for other changes also. Already the removal of part of the scaffolding and the re-erection of it in July round the Erechtheum have shown that the Greek authorities intend to carry into effect the scheme for rebuilding the North Porch and West Wall which aroused some vigorous protests when it was publicly announced in April. The Parthenon repairs have been works of conservation. The present scheme is one of restoration, and it is natural therefore that it should have aroused a good deal of hostile criticism.