the construction of houses; and in Marseilles every stone of her ancient
temples and acropolis have been appropriated for baser purposes. She has
passed through twenty fires, and as many sieges. Taken, sacked, decimated,
she has been rebuilt over and over again, always hurriedly, consequently
always with material taken where nearest at hand, without respect for her
monuments and historic recollections. The disturbed soil of Marseilles
is not even a heap of ruins, for every stone found in the soil has been
utilised as material for construction. Nevertheless some traces of the
Greek founders remain in the beautiful coins of the colony, and in
inscriptions that have been picked out of the walls or foundations of
mediaeval houses. The coins, stamped with classic beauty, are well-known to
numismatists.

We have space to notice only one or two inscriptions. One is the sign of
Athenades, son of Dioscorides, professor of Latin grammar, probably set
up two thousand years ago over his door; another is a notice of a young
lad, Cleudemos, son of Dionysius, having gained a prize. A curious Greek
inscription is found at Carpentras, a colony from Marseilles, that
illustrates the manner in which foreign religions got mixed up with those
that were proper to the Greeks.

"Blessed be Thebe, daughter of Thelhui, laden with oblations for the God
Osiris--she never jawed her husband--she was blameless in the eyes of
Osiris, and receives his benediction."

Truly such a wife deserved that her conduct towards her husband should be
commemorated through ages upon ages, and we may thank good fortune that it
has preserved to us the name of this incomparable lady.

As I am on the subject of Greek inscriptions, I may quote the following