[ 495 ] 
that the infcription is no better executed; and like- 
wife that neither the form, nor combination, of the 
letters feems to fuit with the age of Mithridates. 
I am therefore inclined to think, that the cup did 
not come into the hands of this perfon till a confi- 
derablc time afterwards j who feems to have been 
no great feribe, but was willing however to pre- 
ferve both the memory of fo curious a vafe, and his 
own as the pofTeflor of it. 
As the feveral variations from the common man- 
ner of fpelling, which occur in this infcription, are 
to be met with in Greek writers j I fhall trouble 
this Alfembly with no further remarks upon them, 
than juft to obferve, that Lucian in his humorous 
difeourfe, intitled Judicium ■vocalium , complains, 
that among' many other innovations, which had then 
crept into the language, T had invaded the place of 
and both £ and £ that of <r. 
Thus I have attempted to offer my thoughts upon 
this intricate infcription, and explain it in fuch a 
manner, as appeared to me the moft probable, from 
a copy of it, communicated to me fome years fmee 
by Smart Lithieullier efquire, a worthy member of 
this Society, who had it from Father Revillas at 
Rome. 
G. C. Sept. 15 . 
17 + 9 . 
John Ward, 
Rojifcript. 
i5)>0»was at Delos in the month of Augujl 1675, 
when he copied the two inferiptions mentioned above. 
But it feems to be owing to the fmallnefs of his 
page, that the former of them is printed in four lines; 
4 for 
