In the François vase we meet with the closed [asper] for the aspirate, the Ϙ and Κ together, and the two forms [Θ] and [Θ] of Θ; as the [Θ] form dropped out of private use earlier than out of official documents, and is found in the latter down to 520 B.C., we can date the François vase about the middle of the sixth century (not later, as the closed [asper] shows); the same date will also apply to the earliest Panathenaic amphora (B.M. B 130), and the cup of Oikopheles. The fact that Eucheiros, a “minor artist,” calls himself the son of Ergotimos, who made the François vase, permits us to place him some thirty years later, about 520 B.C., and this point may be regarded as the zenith of the B.F. period. In the later B.F. vases the H and Ω for Ε and Ο begin to make their appearance[2233]; but the conservative Panathenaic amphorae, like the coins, adhere to the original spelling right down to the end. The existence of the R.F. style for some time previous to 480 B.C. has now been established by the discoveries on the Athenian Acropolis. This is also borne out by the appearance on vases by Euthymides of the [Θ] form for [Θ], and the complete absence in the earlier vases of the H and Ω forms, which are not found among the Acropolis fragments. The hydria of Meidias (B.M. B 224), which marks the zenith of the “fine” period, has a purely Ionic alphabet. The Ionic forms seem to have come in with the “fine” R.F. style after 480 B.C., and for some time we find a mixed alphabet on the vases.[2234] It is also interesting to note the appearance in some cases of the Thasian alphabet, with its use of Ω for Ο (as in Ἀλκιμάχως καλώς, B.M. E 318), which has been traced to the influence of Polygnotos.[2235] * * * * * We conclude our account of inscriptions on Greek vases with a brief survey of those found on the vases of Southern Italy[2236]; it will be seen that they are neither numerous nor specially interesting. The inscriptions are for the most part in the Doric dialect and Ionic alphabet, with the addition of the Doric sign [doric asper] for the aspirate. Generally speaking, these Doric forms are found on the Apulian vases, whereas on the products of Paestum they are mainly Ionic, with admixtures of Doric. Attic forms also occur. It seems probable that the Doric tendencies of the Apulian inscriptions are due to the influence of the great Laconian colony of Tarentum (although the vases were not made there), while Paestum was influenced, on the other hand, by the neighbouring Ionic colonies, such as Cumae.