From these remarks it appears, if I understand them correctly, that Mr. Hawkins is dissatisfied with the use of ΦΑΙΝΕ in the sense, “appear,” or “show yourself;” and thinks that if this had been the meaning, we should have had the passive or middle ΦΑΙΝΟΥ; and yet in another place, p. 105, he translates ΦΑΙΝΕ “appear.” Again, he seems to doubt whether the word was ΦΑΙΝΩ, or ΦΑΙΝΕΩ, which latter he believed to be the Ionic form of ΦΑΙΝΟΥ. On reference to the representation of the bullet in his drawing, it is plain that the word is neither ΦΑΙΝΩ nor ΦΑΙΝΟΥ, but ΦΑΙΝΕ; after which there may, perhaps, have been another letter. What that other letter was is of course doubtful, but it certainly was not Ω. ΦΑΙΝΕΟ, not ΦΑΙΝΕΩ, is another form of ΦΑΙΝΟΥ. Mr. Hawkins had, I think, some reason to be dissatisfied with the use of ΦΑΙΝΕ in the sense “appear,” “show yourself;” but the passive or middle ΦΑΙΝΟΥ, is not necessary, as φαίνω is sometimes used intransitively. My objection to either of these words in the assigned signification is, that I do not recollect having met with a similar instance, whilst I at once call to mind the the use of φάγηθι by the Tragedians; e. gr. Æschylus, Persæ, 667; Sophocles, Ajax, 697; Euripides, Phænissæ, 1748.
The true explanation of the inscription is, in my judgment, suggested by the consideration of the probable date. Mr. Hawkins judiciously remarks on this subject:
This specimen was found lodged in the Cyclopian walls of Samé in Cephalonia. The determination of its date must depend on the degree of probability which may be attached to the supposition that it was deposited there by one of the Achæan slingers from Ægium, Patræ, and Dyme, of whom there were one hundred in the army with which the Roman consul, M. Fulvius, reduced that place, after a siege of four months, B.C. 189.—(Livy, xxxviii. 20.)
The siege of Same took place, as is well known, at the end of the Ætolian war, in which Phæneas, ΦΑΙΝΕΑΣ, took a prominent part, as Prætor of the Ætolians. (See Livy, xxxii. 32; xxxiii. 3; xxxvi. 28; Polybius, xvii. 1; xviii. 20; xx. 9.) In this year, B.C. 189, he, in conjunction with Damoteles, had obtained peace from M. Fulvius, from which, however, the Romans specially excluded Cephallenia. (See Livy, xxxviii. 8; Polybius, xxii. 12.) It appears, then, that if there was a letter after ΦΑΙΝΕ, it probably was Α, i. e. φαινέα for φαινέου. The inscription of his name seems to indicate that the bullet was Ætolian, cast whilst he was Prætor (see p. 4), or it may have been
