CLASSICAL DISCOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 18

CLASSICAL DISCOVERY

A LATIN ■ INSCRIPTION - ; :..'A"valuable piece of 'classical scholarship has, says the London correspondent of. the Melbourne "Argus'," been car-ried--through by Sir. William .Bamsay, the well-known, archaeologist, with .the assistance of his' wife--and ■ daughter, Miss, Ramsayj of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. One of;tfie; best-known. Latin Inscriptions wes: compiled, just, before the,•..death'',-of. Ceasar "Augustus," recording events'of 'his reign, -from the age^of 19 to 76.". The' original was inscribed upon two; bronze pillars'in Eomejand has long been lost, -but a; stone, copy was found at; Angora, ! in- -.Latin'• and Greek, which' has been known to scholars since A.D. 1555: It-is in 35 chapters, with an appendix by Tiberius. Just before' the World "'War Lady 'Eamsay discovered, a. duplicate"copy of -the ■ Angora record in: a. temple of,' Augustus, at Antloch. 'If was':.in '280- fragments, varying from' ah inch to a' yard. The inscription had been carved upon the facade ;of. ,'aii arehwayy and was broken when the archway 'collapsed owing to the burning'6f the city..'Owing to; the' war nothing could be done with the record, but the Turks collected' the. fragments) and'-. last October,- Sir William and Miss 'Eamsay returned *o Angora, to decipher Lady Ramsay's discovery. /• As a- result,' the 'record of' Augustus's ' reign ■' has ' been' corrected '.'and 'checked. The inscription tells of the army which Augustus .raised-to avenge the murder of Julius Caesar, and-the Emperor's .oyvn';; services, t0.,.' Borne;' in. making it a '".city.; of : ..'marble.'' Tlie colonies of .soldiery -founded in "Italy and -the provinces 'are setout;: as' are the moneys; .subscribed" to .the public treasury by the Emperor, and' the^public honours -..shpwered Mpok him by: a th ankful -State.' :The*,-.2B(>' fragments' -have since been.embeddedin 1 concrete,and.'the ; reconstructed- copy will be'placed', with the other version-of' the decree, in the Temple--.'of Augustus; •at ,:A.ngora. .' Inci-: dentally, >the 'discovery' y what' promising ground ..there is for classical; archaeology in -Asia; Minor. : ' ( ;