GREEK INSCRIPTIONS. 



469 



It is unusual to find the term Aocto^icv used to express the stone- 

 tomb on which the body of the deceased is placed. lopof is generally 

 applied in sepulchral inscriptions. We may here observe the difference 

 between the Alexandrian use of Sopo?, and that of the European and 

 Asiatic Greeks. In the Septuagint, where mention is made of the 

 death of Joseph, it is said his body was placed lv rri lop, " in a 

 wooden chest ;" this was done in reference to the custom of the 

 Egyptians. " When Joseph died," says Michaelis, " his brethren 

 did not bury him ; but, as was not unusual among the Egyp- 

 tians, let him remain embalmed in his coffin, until their de- 

 scendants, at their departure from Palestine, carried his remains along 

 with them. The Egyptians kept the bodies of their deceased friends 

 in an erect posture in a coffin ; in some such chest were Joseph's 

 unburied bones preserved." — On the Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 162. 



Injunctions similar to those mentioned in this inscription, forbid- 

 ding the sepulchre to be used by any other persons than members of the 

 same family are not uncommon. Fines were levied, if the prohibi- 

 tion was not regarded, and the money was paid to the public treasury. 

 D. F. C. dabit Jisco centum, is a Latin form which we sometimes 

 meet with. Soroi and Sarcophagi were broken open for the sake of 

 the ornaments of gold, or the money frequently placed in them with 

 the deceased. This practice seems to have been prevalent in the 

 fourth century of the Christian aera: " Quarto seculo hcec impietas 

 grassata^ Dorv. Char. i. 109. 



XIV. 



[See p. 103. of this Volume.] 



The inscription is of the date of the year 196 B. C. ; at that time 

 Seleucus the Fourth was with his father Antiochus the Third on the 

 banks of the Hellespont : " Bello Asiatico cum patre adfuit." Vaillant. 

 His. Regum Syriae, p. 112. and p. 153. The inscription was also 

 copied by Dr. Clarke. 



L. 10. The name of the city of which Metrodorus was a native 

 is not discernible in the copy of this inscription. 



