At that time, and indeed in 1856, there was submitted to the Berlin Academy and offered to it for sale, by professor Dindorf of Leipsic, a palimpsest containing the work of Uranius mentioned by Stephen of Byzantium, Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέων ἀναγραφῶν βίβλοι τρεῖς, (three books of lists of the Egyptian kings). Up to that time this had been supposed lost. On the first examination, at which Lepsius was present, there appeared to be no reason to doubt the genuineness of the manuscript. It was written between the lines of a genuine text of the twelfth century. The traits of the Greek uncial writing, skilfully reproduced in the style of the first centuries after Christ, would not be suspected by a palaeographer of the present day, although it is now proved that the codex is a counterfeit. When it was learned that the manuscript belonged to the Greek Simonides of ill-repute, some doubts were raised, and yet the rediscovery of the Uranius would have been of such eminent importance for the historical and chronological studies in which Lepsius was then engaged, that he furnished from his own pocket half the price, as a deposit in order to secure it for Berlin and for himself. Dindorf had declared that in consequence of an agreement with Simonides he could not leave the manuscript behind in Berlin for closer inspection without such a deposit. This examination was committed to Lepsius, and on searching more thoroughly the lists of kings which Simonides represented to be those of Uranius, he soon found there could be no question but that he had before him a bold and unprecedently skilful counterfeit. Indisputable arguments were soon added to the internal reasons which had led Lepsius to this conviction, and it then became a question of recovering from the counterfeiter his plunder of twenty-five thousand thalers. In this Lepsius was successful, owing to the cleverness and prudence of Stieber, the chief of police, who accompanied him to Leipsic. Thus the Berlin library was protected from loss and imposition, and science from unspeakable confusion, through the sagacity of our friend. Lepsius himself furnished information as to the particulars of this affair in a clear and exhaustive explanation.[74] Simonides appears to have continued to drive his trade as a counterfeiter, for it is hardly possible that it was any one else than he who produced the manuscript of the Persians of Aeschylus, which reached Leipsic by way of Egypt, and (not without our own humble coöperation) was recognized by Ritschl as a forgery.[75]