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Royal Letters in Beroea1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
Extract
When Woodward first published, among the inscriptions found by Wace in Beroea, the letters of Demetrius II to Harpalus, he had not a first-hand acquaintance with the stone and had, therefore, to rely on Wace's copy and squeezes. Now this stele, suffering as it does from water-erosion, yields very little by squeezing. It must be studied at first-hand and in a good light. Woodward himself realised this, when he said : ‘Prolonged study of the stone in a favourable light might recover a few more letters.’ It was my good fortune to be able to study the original in these favourable circumstances during a visit to Beroea in 1936 in the company of Mr. C. F. Edson of Harvard University. Our method was to moisten the surface of the stone and study it letter by letter in bright sunlight, and in the light of a powerful electric torch from different angles. Often the presence of a letter could be detected only by observing the discoloration left by the chisel-strokes.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1940
References
2 BSA, XVIII, 134–9, no. 1. Cf. Dittenberger, SIG 3, 459 (which gives only II. 1–8 of the text); Schroeter, , Deregum Hellenisticorum epistulis in lapidibus servatis quaestiones stilisticae, Leipzig, 1931, 69, no. 19Google Scholar; Roussel, , REG, XLIII 367–9Google Scholar; Edson, C. F., ‘The Antigonids, Heracles, and Beroea,’ Harv. St., XLV, 213–46Google Scholar; S. Pelekides, ‘῾Απὸ τὴν πολιτεία καὶ τὴν κοινωνία τῆς ἀρχαίας Θεσσαλονίκης 12 note 3, where he says that he has examined the stone, and that in 1. 5 τἀ ἰχυν τῶν γραμμάτων . . . δίνουν ὄπως συμπλήρωσα’ i.e., ᾿Ηρακλέους φασίν