inscriptions,
8. Inscriptions on public monuments erected to preserve the remembrance of certain events, though perhaps no more than a stone set upright, or even a bare rock, was used for that purpose, were undoubtedly the most ancient written memorials. These rude monuments became fashioned by art into columns, obelisks, and pyramids, as the taste of the nation became formed; and assumed that definite character which local circumstances and the natural features of the country led it to adopt, as architecture arose and attained to perfection among them. The very object, indeed, for which they were erected—the commemoration of remarkable events,—must have suggested the practice of inscribing upon them some particulars of the facts they were intended to perpetuate. Of this nature, no doubt, were the oldest monuments, and more particularly those of Egypt. Their use was much more general among nations of a later period, especially Greece and Rome, than among the moderns; yet of the great mass of inscriptions still extant, but few comparatively are of any importance as regards history.
The characters engraved on these monuments were either symbolical (hieroglyphics; see below under Egypt,) or alphabetical. The invention and transmission of alphabetical writing are commonly ascribed to the Phœnicians; although, if we may judge by the shape of the arrow-headed character, it was made, without communication with them, in the interior of Asia.
The general collections of inscriptions are:
Lud. Ant. Muratori, Novus Thesaurus veterum Inscriptionum. Mediolani, 1739, sq. 4 vols. fol. Together with Seb. Donati, Supplementa. Luccæ, 1764. Jan. Gruteri, Inscriptiones antiquæ totius orbis Romani, cura J. G. Grævii. Amstel. 1707, 2 vols. fol.
C. A. Boekhius, Corpus Inscriptionum Græcarum, auctoritate et impensis Academiæ literarum Borussicæ, vol. 1. 1827, folio.
Among the separate monuments, the most important for ancient history is the Parian or Oxford Inscription, Marmora Oxoniensia, Arundeliana, edited by Selden, 1629; by Prideaux, 1677. The best edition is by Rich. Chandler, Oxf. 1763, fol. A useful and portable edition has been published by Fr. Ch. Wagner, containing the Greek text, with a German translation and notes. Gottingen, 1790, 8vo.
coins,
9. Coins may likewise be regarded as a source of ancient history, as by the light they throw upon genealogy and chronology, the events known from other authorities may be better arranged and understood. The importance of coins, therefore, becomes most sensible in those portions of history where our information, in consequence of the loss of the works of the original historians, is reduced to a few insulated facts and fragments.
Ez. Spanhemii, Dissertatio de Usu et Præstantia Numismatum. Londini, 1707 et 1709, 2 vols. fol. The capital work, however, on this subject, and which embraces the whole numismatic science of antiquity is: