Α Β Γ ΛΕΓ* ΘΙ Κ Λ. It is admitted that Z and H were added later by Simonides.† There may still exist some doubt as to F, but it will not affect the present argument. If Fis rejected, the argument will be still stronger. Now in this inscription I is the numeral for ten, K for twenty, etc. and hence it follows that the author of it was acquainted with the new letters Z and H, though he does not have occasion to use the numerals for which they stand, otherwise I is not the tenth, but the eighth letter, if F is admitted, or the seventh if it is rejected. This inscription, therefore, is evidently later than the time of Simonides, who flourished in the latter part of the sixth century before Christ. The author of the inscriptions appears to have imitated the ancient style of writing from right to left, and vice versa, but to have forgotten the ancient notation. Nemesis is never asleep. There is another inscription, written in the alternate way, accompanied by a sculpture in bas-relief, representing a young man offering thanks to God. The inscription is "Mantheus, the son of Aithos, gives thanks to Jove for his victory in the Pentathlum," etc. Extravagant pretensions have been made respecting the antiquity of this stone, but they are without foundation. For the Greeks were ignorant of bas-relief, says * It may be doubted by some that the Eolic Digamma ever made part of the ancient alphabet, but it occurs in the celebrated Delian inscription, on many of the Italian coins, and in the Roman alphabet, which is evidently derived from the Greek. This character was probably pronounced variously by different tribes, sometimes like our H and sometimes like F. Its most ancient form may have been H, and we find it in this shape in the first inscription on the Sigean Marble. Finally the present sign of the aspirate took its place, and the F ceased to be a character in the common alphabet of the Greeks, but was still used in notation. A character called Episema now takes its place in notation, and stands for six, which was formerly the value of F. † Pliny, H. N. Lib. VII. ch. 56, says Z, H, and 2 were added by Simonides, but Aristotle whom he cites, says A BгA E ZI K, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 X were added by Epi- etc. formed the ancient alphabet, while ✪ and charmus who lived in the fifth century B. C. irresistible if either of these statements is followed. On the use of Faw, Sanpi and Koppa, see Spanheim, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 92. This inscription was found by Tourneforte at Delos, on the base 85 Winkelman, till 580 B. C. The Pentathlum was not established till 496 B. C., and the Genitive formation in ov was not used till the third century B. C.* Thus its alleged antiquity vanishes in a moment. A celebrated inscription, though not in the Greek language, It is graven on the surface was discovered at Herculaneum. and edge of a stone table which served as an altar of libations. This also has been referred to a great antiquity. There are no means by which its exact age can be ascertained in the present state of the history of that city, but the letters are similar to those on the Italian coins of the third and fourth century B. C.† From all that has been said, it appears there is no reason to believe letters were introduced to Greece before the ninth or eight century before our era. The early accounts of their origin rest on such an uncertain basis that they cannot safely be trusted. Fact and fable are so closely united in them that they cannot be separated. of a statue. It has been published by Montfaucon and by Gebelin, ubi sup. p. 475. In common letters it reads thus: Μανθεος Αιθου εν * See Chishull, Antiq. Asiat. p. 49. Spanheim, ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 115. † See it in Gebelin ubi sup. Montfaucon said that in his time, nothing had been found among the Greek marbles older than two Athenian inscriptions which were written about 450 B. C., ubi sup. Lib. II. c. 10, p. 134. Yet Pausanias cited in Jackson, ubi sup. Vol. III. p. 185, says the ark in which Cypselus was concealed by his mother was inscribed with Hexameter verses written in the antique character, in boustrophedon. Pausanias thinks they were written by Evhemerus, 834 B. C. This story is a good match for the leaden Codex of the Works and Days of Hesiod, which the same accurate observer saw at a fountain in Boeotia. The wondering historian however adds in the former case, that he could not read them, the letters were so much defaced by time. Lib IX. 31. p. 771. The credulity of the Greeks is a proverb. "Graeculorum est," says Scaliger with equal justice and severity," mentiri et falsa veris effingere." It is wonderful, says Pliny, to what a degree Greek credulity has proceeded. There is no "Tribuo illis literas; do lie so shameless that it lacks a voucher. multarum artium disciplinam.testimoniarum religionem et fidem, nunquam ista natio coluit." Cicero, Oratio pro Flaccum. § 4. Ancient writings, coins and monuments do not authorize the belief that letters were known to the inhabitants of Greece, Italy or the adjacent islands, anterior to the eighth century, certainly not before the ninth century B. C. Perhaps the Asiatic Greeks preceded the Europeans in all the arts; but Homer, who was probably connected with them by birth, and who was certainly familiar with all their customs and manners, never alludes to the use or existence of letters, or even of hieroglyphical characters. But on the contrary he leads us directly to infer that he and his countrymen were ignorant of alphabetical signs. II. USE OF LETTERS IN EGYPT. 1. There are no Egyptian coins now extant which belong to times before Alexander the Great.* But the want of coins is abundantly supplied by other sources of information. Numerous rolls of papyrus, of uncertain antiquity, have been found in the sarcophagi, and under the bandages of the mummies. Dr. Youngt published several Greek papyri. They are valuable and curious, and are unquestionably far older than any MS. previously known to be extant. But the oldest of them does not date earlier than the second century B. C. 2. Champollion found a roll of Papyrus at Aix in the collection of M. Sallier, containing a history of the wars of Sesostris, or Rameses, who reigned in the fifteenth century B. C. It professes to be written in the ninth year of his reign.‡ * Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature, Lond. 1823. See Champollion, Lettres Ecrites d' Egypte et de Nubie, Paris, 1833, p. 21, 22. Greppos' Essay on the Hieroglyphic System, American translation, p. 176 sq. It is not for us to go behind M. Champollion and inquire if he really has in his hands a MS. written 3300 years before the date of his own work. We must abide by his decision. He promises to examine the MS. after his return from Egypt. We are ignorant of the result. Madame Barbier de Longpres (cited by Eckhel IV. Ch. I., who calls her virago ornatissima,) fancies she had in her possession a coin of one of the old Pharaohs, Diod. Sic. Lib. I. 78, says there were ancient laws relating to base money. But this probably was not coined money but bullion, which was estimated by weight. It does not appear the Egyptians had any coins in the time of Cambyses, for he introduced Darics. The mythological coins with the image of the gods 66 Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis," belong to the time of the Roman emperors. The same may be said 3. Egyptian monuments with inscriptions are abundant. But in this inquiry all monuments, which contain inscriptions written entirely in pictures, like the Mexican writings (if any such are found in Egypt) must be rejected. They shed no light on the origin of letters, though they show how men continued to dispute with them. This inquiry must be limited to the alphabetic writing. Alphabetic inscriptions occur frequently on ancient Egyptian monuments." ** Their genuineness is beyond dispute. Some of these monuments with inscriptions were erected between 161 A. C. and 332 B. C. In these the proper names are written in alphabetic characters.† On an alabaster vase is the name of Xerxes, who lived at least 460 B. C., with another inscription in the wedge-shaped character, still found in the ruins of Persepolis. This monument is supposed to be contemporary with Xerxes. The name of Psammeticus is found on several monuments written in alphabetic characters. He lived 605 B. C., or if the first of that name is meant, 645 B. C., and the inscriptions were contemporary. Still further, the names of Petubastis, Osorthus and Psammus, (as the Greeks called them) have been found on funeral monuments, which were erected during the life-time of one of these kings, and have therefore at the lowest calculation, a date as old as 870 B. C. Sesonchis, (Shishak in Scripture,) also occurs in the alphabetic character. They reigned about 1000 B. C. But there are monuments still more ancient, with alphabetic inscriptions which were executed under the reign of the Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty, which ends, according to Manetho, about the time of the Trojan war. There are also some from the eighteenth dynasty, about 1800 B. C.¶ Rameses is an illustrious name in the history of the world, as well as in that of Egypt. His name is often found on those old monuments, and his conquests are detailed with great of all the coins of cities or provinces; they all bear the image and superscription of some one of the Caesars. * See the alphabets in Champollion's Grammaire Egyptienne, Part I. Paris, 1835. † See Champollion, Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique, Par. 1824, Chap. VIII. p. 175 sq. minuteness. There are three of this name who are known to history. But the great Rameses, whose exploits are celebrated in these monuments, is called Sethosis by Manetho, Sesoosis by Diodorus Siculus, and Sesostris by Herodotus and Strabo. He lived about 1500 B. C.* The temples and monuments that he erected are still very numerous in Egypt, and contain beautiful bas-reliefs and long inscriptions setting forth the extent of his conquests and the glory of his reign.† Champollion mentions many other old Egyptian kings whose names he has rescued from oblivion and restored to a place in authentic history, and adds, "It is proved by reading the names of all these Pharaohs, that the sacred writings of the Egyptians, the writing called hieroglyphic was phonetic [or alphabetic] during the greater part of the first reigns of the eighteenth dynasty, that is to say, in the eighteenth century before the christian era."‡ Again: "It is under the reign of the Pharaohs of this dynasty, that we must place the most brilliant epoch of the Egyptian monarchy. The first princes of this time expelled from lower and a portion of middle Egypt, those foreign hordes, known under the name of shepherds, and whom the Egyptians called Hyksos, that is, shepherd-captives. They restored their liberty, laws and religion, to a portion of the Egyptian nation, which for several centuries had groaned under the tyranny of these barbarians. It is also to kings of this family that Thebes owes all the splendor, which now, though in ruins, strikes travellers with admiration and awe. The vast palaces and temples of Karnac, Luxor, and Medina-Tabou, of Kourna, those which still exist at Memnonium, and Medamond, were built and adorned under the reign of these princes. These are the works, which prove to a certainty the high antiquity of Egyptian civilization and the high degree of advancement, that the arts and sciences attained in these ages far from us. These prove irrefu tably that the Egyptians preceded other celebrated nations, and this historic antiquity will henceforth repose on an unshaken foundation, for it is based on public monuments, whose testimo * Ibid. p. 212-225. + Champollion, Lettres, etc. Lettre 14 and 18. + Precis, p. 242. § See the interesting chapter in Ammon's Fort bildung des Christenthum, on the Mosaic age according to the accounts of heathen historians. |