On Pll. II–III and figs. 1–4, p. 8, I reproduce photographs of three Attic vases in the Museum of Valletta already published by Albert Mayr in Sitzgsb. d. philos.-philol. u. d. hist. Kl. der Kgl. Bayer. Akademie der Wissenschaften 1905, Heft III, pl. II, 1, 4 and 5.

The first vase (Pl. II) is a late black-figured skyphos, height 165 mm.; diameter 222 mm. The obverse represents a chariot with two Amazons; the subject on the reverse is similar, but the second Amazon is here omitted. On both sides the scene is flanked by two sphinxes looking towards the handles. The vase belongs to the group of the CHC skyphoi, on which see Ure, Sixth and Fifth, p. 61, 26. 98–100 and Beazley, Some Attic Vases In the Cyprus Museum, pp. 22–3. For a list of vases of this group see Ure, CVI, Reading, p. 18.

In a recent number of the Journal I had occasion to indicate some of the difficulties surrounding the identification of the royal portraits that occur on silver coins accompanied by the simple inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙοχοΥ The object of the article in question was to advocate a change of tactics in dealing with the problem,—to urge the desirability of concentrating attention on well-defined groups which should be subjected to a close and comprehensive scrutiny. As an illustration of the line of treatment proposed, there was selected for detailed examination the set of coins composed of tetradrachms on which the diadem worn by the king is furnished with wings. While certain of the inferences tentatively suggested on the strength of this examination have not been universally accepted, the more positive and important of the conclusions reached remain uncontroverted.

During the past year no sensational discoveries have been made by the spade in the Greek area except at Sardes. Excavations in progress have been continued, old excavations re-studied, and a number of smaller sites explored. Symptomatic of the prominence forced upon ceramics by the interest shewn latterly in prehistoric archaeology is the tendency to apply the same methods to the historic period and especially to recognise more fully the value of tomb-groups as chronological data. The disturbed state of the Aegean has been responsible for the postponement of the British School's excavation at Datcha, which is unfortunately in the area immediately affected.

Miss Sylvia Benton, in a recent note, identifies the bird which appears on some of the coins of Stymphalos ‘rising above the leaves of a Water Plantain … with a Fritillary on either side… The bird wears ear-flaps, and for me a marsh bird with earflaps must be meant for the Great Crested Grebe’.

This identification seems to me convincing, though the bill as represented on the coins is perhaps rather short and thick. On April 29th and May 23rd 1974 I visited Stymphalos, in company with my family, in the hope of confirming that the Lake is still within the Grebe's range. This we were unable to do, and I am delighted to learn from Mr Buxton's note that ‘the bird breeds now on the Stymphalian lake’.

The Lake certainly offers in its extensive reed-beds a most suitable breeding-ground for Grebes, which build partly floating platforms of marsh vegetation to serve as nests. Adult birds sleep on the water and are fish-eaters. Grebes cannot therefore have suggested the different literary variants of this Labour of Herakles.

In his Vita Plotini, Porphyry recounts a colourful episode which, for a brief moment, brings to life the dynamics within the lecture room of Plotinus in Rome. The author explains how he was in the habit of posing questions to Plotinus frequently and persistently while his teacher was conducting his philosophical discourse before a mixed body of listeners. On one occasion, such an exchange between the two over the issue of the connexion between the soul and the body continued intermittently over a period of some three days, with the following outcome (Porph. V. Plot. xiii 12-15):

In the earlier number of the present volume (p. 143 sqq.) I gave some account of a MS. collection of inscriptions made by C. R. Cockerell in 1810–1814, and also gave copies of all those from the mainland of Greece, which appeared to be hitherto unpublished. The present paper will cover the rest of that collection, which is mostly derived from Asia Minor.

I add a complete list of the remaining contents of Cockerellľs volumes. Those unpublished are reproduced below; in the case of all those previously edited, a collation with the published copy has been made and kept, and I should be very glad to show these collations to any one interested in the matter.

In my review of R. D. Dawe's Studies in the text of Sophocles (JHS xcvi [1976] 171 ff.), I reached the conclusion that scholars now possess all the information about manuscripts that is needed in order to constitute the text of the Ajax, Electra and Oedipus Tyrannus, subject to two provisos.

The first of these concerns the Jena manuscript (Bos. q. 7), a copy written late in the fifteenth century and containing only the first two plays. Reports of interesting readings found in it were given by Purgold in 1802, and since collations were not always undertaken very carefully at that date it seemed worth while to examine the book again to see whether the reports were correct. Thanks to the good offices of the University Library in Jena I was able to collate a microfilm, and am now in a position to state that Purgold did his work well. The interesting readings cited by subsequent editors are correctly reported, and so far as I can see there are no others of striking merit.

The other manuscript which seemed to deserve further investigation is in Milan (Ambrosianus E 103 sup.). It is usually assigned to the fourteenth century, and if this date were certain it would not deserve any special attention. In my opinion the script is of a type that must almost certainly be placed before the year 1300, probably c 1275, and in that case the book might be of some interest, since it could be early enough to escape the reproach of offering a text affected by Palaeologan scholars. I have now collated the text from a microfilm kindly supplied by the Ambrosian Library. A very small number of valuable readings came to light.

The importance of the ‘Melian Amphorae’ in the history of early vase-painting has long been recognised, but the difficulty of locating an isolated fabric which in itself consisted of only five complete examples, all of uncertain provenance, has hitherto prevented any adequate treatment. Any extension of the class would therefore have been welcome. But the amphora which is now added to the list (vide Appendix) has a value in itself beyond its cumulative importance. Not only is there stronger evidence in this case than in any of the others that the vase was actually found in Melos, but the decoration of the vase adds new figure-subjects and new schemes of ornament to those previously recognised as characteristic of the class. Indeed the whole ‘Melian’ class as at present constituted consists of large and elaborate vases, ceramic masterpieces, each of which possesses its own individual scheme of decoration. This appears very clearly in a comparison of the present amphora with two typical examples from those previously published, namely, the Herakles and the Artemis amphorae. In the Herakles vase the painter has produced his effect by an elaborate and ornate treatment both of the figure-scenes and of the ornament forms.