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use, in the mountain valleys and in every tiny level space where there is an absence of rock, and they are few and far between in rugged Cilicia. Their threshingfloors are round flat spaces constructed at the edge of their fields, round which they are accustomed to drive over the grain on pieces of wood with bits of flint set in below-most probably bearing a striking resemblance to the "new sharp threshing instrument having teeth" mentioned by Isaiah (xli. 15). For grinding grain the wealthier have the regular grindstones with two handles, common in the East; but the poorer are content to grind their grain in holes or natural mortars in the rocks, with a rounded stone for pestle.

High up in the Taurus range, shortly before the passes into Karamania are reached, we archaological nomads came across the object of our search-namely, the capital of the district of Olba, where the priest - kings of the Cilician pirates held their court. Still we were always amongst Yourouks, who have converted the ruins of this ancient capital on the hill of the castle of Djebel Hissar, as they call it, into the nearest approach to a village that the district contains. The inhabitants of this spot are perhaps the most sedentary of their race, inasmuch as the spot is 3800 feet above the level of the sea. They can here remain all the year round, though how they pass the winter months in those miserable hovels amid ice and snow was a mystery to us. Even in April the snow had not long disappeared, and the cold biting winds made us pile on logs to our fire, despite the blinding smoke which poured from it into our den.

The capital of the pirate district, even in its ruins, is very fine. It consists of two distinct parts-one on the hill, where are the principal buildings, and one in the valley below, about 1 mile distant: these towns were joined by a fine paved road, lined on both sides with rock-cut tombs and ruined buildings. It was on an aqueduct which supplied the lower town with water that we found an inscription which settled the question as to the discovery of the object of our search: "The city of the Olbian Castles erected this water-course." It was a late inscription of the Roman period, but for this we did not care- -the site of the capital of the pirates was found. Up in the higher town the two chief buildings were a fort and the temple of Jove. On the fort we found an inscription which told us that it was erected "under the priesthood of Teucer, the son of Tarkyarios, and under the direction of Tberemos, the son of Orbalaseta of Olba." Such a formula as this we found on the fortress at the lip of the Olbian cave, nearer the sea, and the statements of Strabo as to the dynasty and priesthood of Teucer were substantially confirmed. The great temple was about half a mile from the fort. It owes its preservation to the fact that it was subsequently converted into a Christian church: the columns are all there, thirty-two in all, of the Corinthian order, and most of the wall enclosing the sacred precincts is still standing. This was the shrine where the priestkings of the Teucrid dynasty held their sacerdotal court. A few hundred yards from the temple of Jove were five elegant columns standing, with monolithic granite shafts and Corinthian capitals—all

that is left of a temple of Tyche, which, from an inscription, we were able to name. There stood, too, a Roman triumphal arch, the remains of a long colonnade, a theatre, and many other buildings on this hill of ruins, and as we contemplated them we were full of admiration for the pirates who had erected them. In the district of Olba we found something like seventy inscriptions, giving us true glimpses of the history of the pirates.

In the world's history it has been the fate of many men and many races who have not written their own history, to suffer, like

authors who cannot review their own books, from the adverse criticism of the opposite side. Luckily for the Cilician pirates they have left ruins behind them, and decrees, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs on their rocks, which prove to us that they were no ruffian bandits, like those which now haunt Asia Minor, but a race of wealthy, civilised, and independent men, whose marauding was doubtless carried on in self-defence, and in resistance to that gigantic power which eventually crushed them in its iron grasp.

J. THEODORE BENT.

EARLY ROMAN INSCRIPTION ON THE BASE OF A STATUE

IN THE MUSEUM OF THE CAPITOL.1

(On one side of the base:-)

ATIMETUS.

Si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata,
Et posset redimi morte aliena salus,
Quantulacunque mere debentur tempora vitæ,
Pensassem pro te, cara Homonœa, libens.

At nunc, quod possum, fugiam lucemque Deosque,
Ut te matura per Styga morte sequar.

HOMONCA.

Parce tuam, conjux, fletu quassare juventam,
Fataque mærendo sollicitare mea.

Nil prosunt lacrymæ, nec possunt fata moveri :
Viximus-hic omnes exitus unus habet.
Parce ita-non unquam similem experiare dolorem,
Et faveant votis numina cuncta tuis.
Quodque mihi eripuit mors immatura juventæ,
Id tibi victuro proroget ulterius.

(On the other side of the base:-)

HOMONCA.

Tu, qui secura procedis mente, parumper
Siste gradum, quæso, verbaque pauca lege.
Illa ego, quæ claris fueram prælata puellis,
Hoc Homonca brevi condita sum tumulo,
Cui formam Paphie, Charites tribuere decorem,
Quam Pallas cunctis artibus erudiit.

Nondum bis denos ætas mea viderat annos,
Injecere manus invida fata mihi.

Nec pro me queror hoc, morte est mihi tristior ipsa
Mæror Atimeti conjugis ille mei.

VIATOR.

Sit tibi terra levis, mulier dignissima vita.
Quæque tuis olim perfruerere bonis.

1 Given in the Rev. Dr Edward Burton's 'Description of the Antiquities and other Curiosities of Rome' (second edition, 1828), vol. i. pp. 146, 147; where Dr Burton says that he considered it worth copying, from the beauty of some of the sentiments.

TRANSLATION.

(On one side of the base :—)

ATIMETUS.

WOULD cruel Fates permit vicarious death,
And Death restore a soul from Hades free,
With all the remnant of my vital breath
Would I, dear Homonoa! ransom thee.

But I'll not live, this light, those heavens beneath :
By a swift death, o'er Styx to thee I'll flee.

HOMONA.

Cease, spouse! in weeping to destroy thy youth
And in thy grief my doom to emulate.
No tears avail: the Grave admits not ruth:

We lived all living must endure this fate.
Desist like anguish mayst thou never know:
May all the Powers thy dearest wishes bless:
May all my early death has lost, in woe,

Be spared to thee in length of happiness!

(On the other side of the base :-)

HOMONCA.

Stay, heedless pilgrim! stay a little space
Thy steps, and read brief record of my doom.
I am that fair one, erst supreme in grace,—
Now, Homonoca, laid in narrow tomb.
Venus my form, my charms the Graces gave,
With all her lore Pallas my spirit taught:

Not twice ten years my age had passed: the Grave
With envious grasp my youthful beauty sought.
My fate I mourn not-worse than death to me
Is thy grief, Atimetus, husband mine!

VIATOR.

Lady, of life most worthy! may on thee

The earth lie light! Bliss rest with thee and thine!

J. P. M.

THE GOLD-SUPPLY OF ENGLAND AND INDIA.

WERE all classes of men who trade together agreed never to ask each other for payment in coin, the theory that credit rather than money is the foundation of our commerce would be more widely accepted than it is likely to be, with the recollection of the condition of the money-market during the first two weeks of last November fresh in our minds. About the middle of that month the financial system which has its centre in London was nearer collapse than it has been for fourand-twenty years. A dearth of metallic money was the cause of the disturbance in the value of securities, as well as in men's minds. So nicely is the apex of the commercial pyramid poised on our slender stock of gold, that the withdrawal of half a million of sovereigns can set it rocking, and a contribution from France, Russia, or elsewhere of a similar amount, is sufficient for the moment to assure the City that it will not topple over.

It is not the business of the practical man to look far ahead. He thinks he is more likely to lose money by making and acting on a forecast of the results of given economic conditions, than by operating from day to day in accordance with the immediate interests of the speculating public. But haute finance-that which makes the market, fixes the price, and sends one kind of stocks up and another down-cannot exist from hand to mouth. Time is as necessary as opportunity for the evolution of successful results, and it is time which establishes the truth of economic doctrines, and proves that similar causes in the

long-run always involve similar results. This is a fundamental axiom which opportunist finance ignores.

Our last object-lesson has been given in Argentina. From it we learn that a country having no gold- mines, and no commerce sufficiently important to secure to it a supply of gold, cannot for long together pay in gold the gold which it borrows abroad. There were those who, in the heyday of Argentine finance, saw clearly enough that the gold which Englishmen were sinking in the River Plate would stay there. At present (whatever may be the case a generation hence) the industrial condition of the country is such that it is incapable of sending a current of gold on to the English money-market in response to that which sets out from here. When we call in our foreign debts we expect them to be paid in gold-we expect the interest always to be paid in gold; but a country which has little or no gold revenue or gold resource has to buy the commodity with its domestic money at scarcity prices. It is a lighter tax, or at least a less immediately pressing tax, to borrow more gold to pay the interest on the capital of the debt, than to raise the means of paying it from the proceeds of the labour of the people; hence loan after loan is procured from abroad with a constantly diminishing chance of repayment either of principal or interest. If the goldsupply of England, which is beyond all dispute indispensable to her commerce-and the more not the less indispensable as her credit system expands-is to be main

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