Note 316 — Chapter VI · SOME REMARKS ON THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN AND NORTHERN PARTS OF ASIA MINOR.
Reading edition
The following is an inscription at Cnidus:
Α ΒΟΥΛΑ ΚΑΙ Ο ΔΑΜΟΣ
ΑΥΡΗΛΙΑΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗΝ ΘΥΓΑΤΕΡΑ ΜΕΝ
ΝΕΙΚΑΔΑ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ ΔΕ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΝΤΑ-
ΑΡΙΣΤΟΥ. ΜΑΡ. ΑΥΡ. ΕΥΔΟΞΟΥ ΔΙΣ
ΙΕΡΕΩΣ ΔΙΑ ΒΙΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΕΝ-
ΦΑΝΕΣΤΑΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΗΛΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΔΑΜΙ-
ΟΥΡΓΟΥ, ΑΡΕΤΑ ΒΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΣΩΦΡΟΣΥΝΑ
ΚΕΚΟΣΜΑΙΜΕΝΑΝ, ΠΑΝΗΓΥΡΙΑΡΧΗΣΑΣΑΝ
ΦΙΛΟΤΕΙΜΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΩΣ, ΤΑΝ ΤΕΙ-
ΜΑΝ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΝΤΟΣ ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΙΔΙΩΝ
ΤΟΥ ΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΑΥΤΑΣ ΚΑΘ Α ΤΑ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΙ
ΥΠΕΣΧΕΤΟ
ΘΕΟΙΣ.
In a fragment of another Doric inscription at Cnidus, mention is again made of the officer called δαμιουργὸς, also of a γυμνικὸς ἀγὼν πενταετηρικὸς held at Cnidus. It was, probably, for these quinquennial celebrations, common, no doubt, to all the surrounding country, that the great theatre at Cnidus was principally intended.
In an inscription copied by Chandler (Ins. Ant. p. 19), at Iasus (Asýn Kale), we find a decree of the Calymnii cited at length. This decree is in the Doric dialect, whereas that of the Iasenses which contains it is in common Hellenic. We are informed by Herodotus (l. 7. c. 99.) that the islands Calydniæ, of which Calymna was the chief, were colonized from Epidaurus; they were consequently included (as was Nisyrus likewise) among the Dorians of the Hexapolis.
In Mitylene I found several inscriptions, shewing that the use of the Æolic dialect was preserved to a late period in that island, which was colonized from Thessaly: the most remarkable form is ΒΟΛΛΑ for ΒΟΥΛΗ, and ΒΟΛΛΕΥΤΑΣ for ΒΟΥΛΕΥΤΗΣ.
Pococke has given copies (very inaccurately as usual) of some of these inscriptions (Inscr. Antiq. p. 45); and one is to be seen in Gruter, p. 1091.
In reference to the use of the Doric dialect by the colonies of that race of Greeks, it may be worthy of remark that the Greek inscription of the time of Psammetichus king of Egypt, lately discovered by Mr. W. Bankes on the temple of Ibsambal in Nubia, appears from the words Ψαματιχο Ἐλεφαντιναν, and τοι for οἱ, to be in the Doric dialect. Herodotus tells us that the Greeks in the service of Psammetichus were Ionians and Carians: those who inscribed the temple of Ibsambal may therefore have been from the Carian Doris. It was perhaps in memory of these first Greek settlers in Upper Egypt that the Greeks of the Thebais often used the Doric dialect as late as the time of the Roman emperors.