of the GrcBco- Roman Era in certain ancient Sites of Asia Minor. 119 



time being, the date of entry, and the name of the scribe (drj/xoaios,) or registrar, 

 by whom the document was entered. 



The study of this most valuable monument enabled me to restore, in con- 

 siderable part, three inscriptions to the same effect, which I found also at Ak- 

 hissar, but in a different quarter of the town, namely, the Armenian cemetery. 

 The extent to which they had been mutilated would otherwise have made it a 

 hopeless task, as it is the custom of that people to re-work the ancient soroi for 

 their own sepulchral purposes, and to provide room for emblematical devices, 

 and epigraphs in their own dialect, without much respect to the Grseco- Roman 

 monuments. Of this I observed more than one example at Akhissar : but the 

 most remarkable instance I met with, was in a tomb at Kutaieh, the represent- 

 ative of the Cotyaion of Pliny.* The soros from which the Armenian selected 

 his materials had belonged to a Greek family of the highest distinction, as is 

 evident from the style of embellishment which it still exhibits. It is now covered 

 with Armenian devices and characters, the former of which are easily distin- 

 guished from the reliefs of the more classical era. 



The possession of this epigraph (to remark in passing), has enabled me to 

 correct one of the oversights in Mr. Fellows' first volume, which was doubtless 

 the result of his expeditious mode of transferring inscriptions abovementioned. 

 This it has done by furnishing me with an important name, which had un- 

 questionably been recited in that gentleman's inscription, but has been left out 

 by him in his appended explanation as unintelligible. But this is not all. The 

 consideration that this name was connected with Cotyaion restored another, and 

 an important, reading in the same inscription, a geographical one, which had 

 been totally disfigured by his mechanical process. 



One of the inscriptions which I have brought home from Smyrna, supplies an 

 excellent example of the mode of dealing with such as have reached us in so 

 mutilated a state, as to preclude all hope of our arriving at a knowledge of their 

 exact import. Such titull as these are best studied in situ ; and the resolution to 

 which I have adverted above, should precede the process of copying, otherwise 

 the chances are, that the most embarrassing mistakes will ensue. 



The epigraph to which I now refer, was copied by me from an irregularly 



* Histor. Nat. v. 41, 1. 

 VOL. XIX. Q 



