The names of the twelve islands, going round the circle in a north-western direction are:—CEOS, CYTHNOS, SERIPHOS, SIPHNOS, PAROS, NAXOS, DELOS, RHENEA, MYCONOS, SYROS, TENOS, and ANDROS. Delos was the smallest, but at the same time the most illustrious among them. The notion of the ancients was, that it formed the centre, round which the others were grouped in a circle, and that hence they were called Cyclades. But this is erroneous, for Delos rather forms the circle together with the others. In the earliest times, it was the seat of a common panegyris for the twelve islands and of ancient agones, as we see from the hymn on Apollo, of which the first part at least is so ancient that its composition may be regarded as contemporaneous with that of the Iliad and Odyssey. The dissolution of that union is one of the mysteries of ancient Greek history. The ancient names of Delos are ASTERIA and OGYGIA. The statement that it was at one time a floating island, is of course fabulous, but it is not improbable that it may have been raised above the sea by volcanic agency. Wherever we meet with notices of the Cyclades in the historical times, they are at first all independent of one another; with the exception of Cythnos, all received Ionian colonists from Athens, whence we there find the relation of masters and serfs, as for example at Naxos, where Lygdamis was tyrant. Wherever we have a trace of history, we catch a glimpse, as it were in the twilight, of an oligarchical relation. After the Persian wars, the Cyclades came under the supremacy of Athens, for each by itself was too weak: even Miltiades had tried to subdue Paros and Naxos, and afterwards the plan succeeded. Naxos, which revolted, received a cleruchia. Delos was changed by the Athenians into a national sanctuary; the ancient inhabitants were expelled, and a colony was sent thither. In obedience to the command of an oracle, the Athenians dug up all the dead bodies in the island, and conveyed them to Rhenea; but even for many years previously it had not been allowed to bury any one there. Although the islands were fertile, yet they were powerless, and after the battle of Naxos, again acknowledged the supremacy of Athens. In the Macedonian period, Delos alone seems to have remained in the hands of the Athenians, and after the war of Perseus, it was given back to them by the Romans; whether the Romans had a right to do so, I know not. During the Roman period, Delos, which had formerly been venerable for religious reasons, acquired a different kind of importance: it became the place of the greatest fair in those parts, being the entrepot between Alexandria and the towns on the Euxine; it was resorted to by merchants from the most distant countries, and even by the Romans so far as they carried on their commerce from Puteoli. To Athens it was of great importance on account of its harbour dues. It was also a central point for the