Meursius, and Camerarius mistaken. IV. Some other Learned Men have likewise been mistaken in Particulars with regard to Sophocles. In the Synopsis of his Life, we find these Words; Τελευτᾶ δὲ μετὰ Ἐυριπίδην ἐτῶν ϛ’. Meursius, as well as Camerarius, have expounded This, as if Sophocles surviv’d Euripides six Years. But the best Accounts agree that they died both in the same Year, a little before the Frogs of Aristophanes was play’d; scil. Olymp. 93, 3. The Meaning, therefore, of the Passage is, as some of the Commentators have rightly observ’d; That Sophocles died after Euripides, at 90 Years of Age. The Mistake arose from hence, that, in Numerals, ϛ’ signifies as well 6 as 90.

Father Brumoy mistaken. V. The Learned Father Brumoy too, who has lately given us three Volumes upon the Theatre of the Greeks, has slipt into an Error about Sophocles; for, speaking of his Antigone, he tells us, it was in such Request as to be perform’d Two and Thirty times; Elle fût representée trente deux fois. The Account, on which This is grounded, we have from the Argument prefix’d to Antigone by Aristophanes the Grammarian: and the Latin Translator of this Argument, probably, led Father Brumoy into his Mistake, and he should have referr’d to the Original. The Greek Words are; λέλεκται δὲ τὸ δρᾶμα τοῦτο τριακοστὸν δεύτερον. i. e. “This Play is said to have been the Thirty Second, in Order of Time, produced by Sophocles.”

The Mistakes, that I have mentioned, (tho’ they necessarily lead into Error, from the Authority with which they come into the World;) yet are such, ’tis obvious, as have been the Effects of Inadvertence; and therefore I do not quote them to the Dishonour of their Learned Authors. I shall point out Two or Three, which seem to have sprung from another Source: either a due Want of Sagacity, or an absolute Neglect of literal Criticism. Sir George Wheler corrected. VI. Sir George Wheler, who, in his Journey into Greece, has traded much with Greek Antiquities and Inscriptions, and who certainly was no mean Scholar, has shewn himself very careless in this Respect. When he was at Sardis, he met with a Medal of the Emperor Commodus seated in the Midst of the Zodiack with Celestial Signs engraven on it; and, on the other Side, a Figure with a Crown-Mure with these Letters about it, Σάρδις Ἀσίας, ΑΥΔΙΑΣ, Ἕλλαδος, ᾱ μητρόπολις: Sardis, the first Metropolis of Asia, Greece, and Audia.—But where and what Audia was, (says He) I find not. Now is it not very strange, that this Gentleman should not remember, that Sardis was the Capital City of Lydia; and, consequently, that for ΑΥΔΙΑΣ we should read ΛΥΔΊΑΣ? Tho’ my Correction is too obvious to want any Justification, yet, I find, it has One from the Learned Father D: In his Nummi Antiqui illustrati. DHarduin; who produces another Coin of Sardis (in the French King’s Cabinet) which bears the very same Inscription, only exhibited as it ought to be.

Nor was This a single Inaccuracy in Sir George. I’ll instance in Two pretty Inscriptions, the One an Epitaph, the other a Votive Table, which He has given Us, but in a very corrupt Condition. Tho’ I have never been in Greece, nor seen the Inscriptions any where but in his Book, I think, I can restore them to their true Sense and Numbers: And, as they are particularly elegant, some Readers will not be displeas’d to see them in a State of Purity.

An Epitaph corrected and explained. VII. Of the Antiquities of Philadelphia (says he) I had but a slender Account; only I have the Copy of one Inscription, being the Monument of a Virgin, in these three Couplets of Verses. But she was so far from being a Virgin, that the Epitaph shews her to have been a Wife; that it was put up in Memory of Her by her Husband; and that she dy’d in the Flower of her Youth at the Age of twenty three.

1. βιότου παρέδωκεν.
2. τιμήσας σεμνοτάτην.
3. βιοῦσ᾽.
4. τοῦτο λιποῦσα φάος. Ξαντίππην Ἀκύλα μνήμην 1βίου παρέδωκην
Βωμῷ 2τειμήσας σεμνω ταυτην ἄλοχον‧
Παρθένον ἧς ἀπέλυσε μίτρην ΗΣΔΡΙΟΝ ἄνθοσ.
Ἔσκεν ἐν ἡμιτελεῖ παυσαμενον θαλάμῳ.
Τρεῖς γαρ ἐπ᾽ εἰκοσίους τελεῶσε 3βιον ἐνιαυτοὺς,
Καὶ μετὰ τούσδε θάνεν 4τουτου λιπουσαφαος.

I have, for Brevity’s sake, mark’d the general Corrections, which I have made, at the Side. The third Verse is neither true in Quantity, nor Language: ΗΣΔΡΙΟΝ is a Monster of a Word, which never could be the Reading of any Marble. As I correct it, we recover a most beautiful Couplet.

Παρθένον, ἧς ἀπέλυσε μίτρην‧ ἯΣ ἨΡΙΝΌΝ ἄνθος
Ἔσκεν ἐν ἡμιτελεῖ παυσάμενον θαλάμῳ.

Puellam, cujus Zonam solvit; cujus Vernus Flos
Præproperô tabuit in Thalamô.