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I. Beroea, in the church of ἡ Μακρὴ Kυριώτισσα, a marble plaque acting as a window sill within the ἱερόν. The plaque has been built into the structure of the church in such a way that the lower half of the inscription is now beyond recovery, while the upper half which projects has in its present position to be read upside down. To this fortunate accident of choice on the part of the builder we owe the preservation of the upper and, no doubt more important part of one of the most interesting inscriptions relating to the Macedonian Koinon yet reported. The inscribed surface is surrounded by a well-cut moulding varying in width from 0·085 to 0·10 m.

1. Beroea. In the Old Metropolis, headquarters of the local Boy Scouts, in a collection of miscellaneous marbles, a Hellenistic marble stele, broken at the bottom, damaged along the lower two-thirds of the left edge. H. 0·475 m.; w. (between preserved sides) 0·392 m.; th. ca. 0·10 m. Letters, ll. 1–2, 0·02 m. (0, 0·015 m.), l. 3, 0·015 m.; interspace, ll. 1–2, 0–005 m., ll. 2–3, 0.001 m.Relief: r., tree along trunk and branch of which a serpent coils. In front of tree at foot, small boy with arms folded, head facing his r. Second from r., man clad in cloak, turned to his r. and shaking hands with similarly clad man in l. of relief area. Between the two men, another small boy facing his r. (Pl. 30, no. 1).

1. Edessa. This inscription is still where Leake first reported it, in the courtyard of the Metropolitan Church, the Dormition of the Virgin, built into the south end of the west wall of the Γραφεῖον of the Δεσπότης. Although it has been published half a dozen times, the text has never been read correctly in its entirety, largely because its height from the ground makes the taking of a photograph or the making of a squeeze, let alone a study of the letters, very difficult. I was fortunate to be able to examine it in situ, and the accompanying photograph of a squeeze will facilitate the establishment of the text (Plate 5).It is a rough block, c. 0·46 m. in height and 0·50 m. in width, with a moulding all round, the first line being engraved on the upper moulding. The letters are irregular, measuring on an average 0·025 m. in ll. 1–6 and 0·01 m. in ll. 7–18. The letter-forms, especially important in a dated inscription, are noteworthy. Alpha, delta, and lambda have short tails on the apex; in ll. 1–6 epsilon is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar; similarly in ll. 1–6 sigma is square, in ll. 7–18 lunar. The forms of mu and omega are to be noted; see the accompanying photograph. There are no ligatures.

Of the considerable epigraphic harvest gathered by W. Kubitschek and W. Reichel in Geyre (Aphrodisias) in 1893, during their stay of sixteen days, only a few inscriptions were published in the Anzeiger der kaiserl. Akademie der Wissensch. zu Wien 1893, 100–3. Some of the inscriptions recorded in Kubitschek and Reichel's notebooks were published independently by Th. Reinach from Gaudin's squeezes, in REG xix (1906), 79–150, 205–98. Reinach's nos. 13, 17, 127, 7, 70, 77, 50, 146 bis, 32, and 62 (all published as new) are respectively nos. 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 of Kubitschek and Reichel's article cited above.

Although Plassart, when publishing for the first time the inscription referred to as Text A in this article, mentioned that he had seen it ‘assez rapidement’ and that it ‘mériterait révision’, Crönert did not realise in SEG ii, 398, that he was restoring a text which had not been published in its entirety. I was able, during a visit to Beroea in the autumn of 1936 in the company of Mr. C. F. Edson of Harvard University, to examine the inscription carefully and, in addition to correcting some inaccuracies in Plassart's copy, removed, with the permission of the Δεσπότης of Beroea, a wooden bench which covered a portion of the inscription, and thus was able to read all the extant text. The accompanying photograph (fig. 5) shows clearly the part of the text hitherto unread.

In a garden, stated to have been formerly a Turkish cemetery, belonging to Ἰωάννης Ὑφαντίδης, situated on a hill to the SW of Beroea, part of a grey stone column, broken away at the bottom (fig. I); found with a considerable number of ancient marbles and grey (granite ?) stone columns, many of which were subsequently buried in a spot said to be to the left of the walk leading to the back-door of the house.

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.

The Nerva Inscription in Beroea still lies, where Delacoulonche first reported it,' on the right hand of the entrance to the Orta Cami. During a visit to Beroea in 1936, in the company of Mr. C. F. Edson of Harvard University, I was enabled to gather some fresh information about this dedication. The slab of marble which bears the inscription is embedded in the ground on its side, so that the left half of the inscription has not been seen since the building of the Mosque, the raising of the heavy marble flags of the entrance being a formidable task without some mechanical aid. A rough-surfaced margin surrounds the smooth inscribed field. The lettering is elaborate Imperial, with many ligatures. H. i-i6 m. Exposed W. at top o053 m. Exposed W. at bottom 0o50 m. Th. o-I95 m. H. of letters varying from o0O3 m. in 1. 9 to o-o68 m. in 1. i. The interspace between the lines is, on an average, 002 m. A slight excavation revealed that the width of the inscribed part of the stone from margin to margin is o-68 m., the right margin being o-o8 m. wide. By shining a torch under the flags of the pavement it was possible to read all the text with complete certainty except for the few letters at the beginning of 11. 6, 7, 8 and 9. The following epigraphic copy shows the parts of the inscription hitherto unread.

Outside the new Metropolis in Beroea lies an uninscribed fragment of a sarcophagus, belonging to the well-known type described by Altmann in his Architektur und Ornamentik der antiken Sarkophage as ‘Guirlanden-Sarkophage’. These Imperial garland-sarcophagi fall into four classes, listed thus by Miss J. M. C. Toynbee in The Hadrianic School, Cambridge, 1934, 202–3: ‘First, those on which the garlands, generally two, but sometimes three, in number, are supported by Amorini, while masks fill the semi-circular spaces above the garlands; secondly, those on which figure-scenes are substituted for masks; thirdly, the type with Victories instead of Amorini holding up the garlands, and with masks occupying the field above each garland; and, fourthly, the type with Victories as supports and with figure-scenes in the place of masks.’

The main epigraphic evidence for the water-supply of Aphrodisias in Roman times is to be found in the fragmentary inscriptions published by Doublet and Deschamps in BCH XIV (1890), 611–13, nos. 7–10, and CIG 2782, ll. 40–2. From the former group of texts it has been assumed that two water-systems were installed, one in the time of Vespasian and the other in the time of Domitian; I hope to show that these texts refer to one water-system only, that built in the time of Domitian. From the latter passage it has sometimes been thought that M. Ulpius Carminius Claudianus paid for the laying-on of the waters of the river Timeles to the city in the age of the Antonines. This assumption rested on the false reading ὲλ[ειο]δ[ι]ὰκτο[υ]ς introduced by Boeckh. The word ὲλειοδὶὰκτος is taken to mean a ‘conduit for draining marshes’ (LS9, s.v.). Sherard's copy preserves the true reading ἒλ ια δρακτοῖς πολλὰκις τεθεικὸτα. All that can be proved by the inscription is that Carminius Claudianus made several distributions of oil ὲν τῶ̣ καιρῶ̣ τῆς τοῦ Τεμὲλου ποταμοῦ εἰσαγωγῆς (l. 41); there is no proof that he paid for the construction of the aqueduct.The epigraphic evidence for the earlier water-system rests on the reconstruction of the text of which BCH XIV (1890), 611–13, nos. 7 (cf. REG XIX (1906), 223–4, no. 126), 8 and 9 are fragments; no. 10 seems to be part of another copy of this, or a similar, inscription. Of these fragments the only one found by the expedition led by Professor Calder in 1934 was no. 7; the improved readings in this inscription are from a photograph.

In a clearing outside a newly built church in the village of μττραΪνάταις, near Beroea, lies a large marble grave-stele, in the upper portion of which is a relief with a moulding above and below: beneath the relief is the inscribed surface with mouldings on all sides (fig. 3). Relief: 1. centre, standing full-face, Roman soldier, probably bearded, clad in short military tunic and cloak, holding in r. hand long indeterminable object (pilum ?); 1. hand rests on hilt of sword with folds of cloak draped over 1. forearm. In lower r. corner, shield on base; above shield, a helmet.

In his notice of the above paper in the last number of the JHS, p. 287, the reviewer makes one remark which is likely to pepetuate an old error. ‘ In 1909,’ he writes, ‘ Butler found the base of a composite pier ’ etc. What I wrote was that ’ there was no trace of any [such] pier and it is evident that he [Butler] made some mistake when he was working up his notes in America ’ (op. cit., p. 8). The point is crucial, and in a previous account of the church I published photographs to show that the pier never can have existed : see the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement for January 1936, Plate II.