One very obscure person of this period remains to be noticed, who in his small sphere gave his views to mankind in a way of his own. In 1884 two French scholars, MM. Holleaux and Paris were exploring the ruins of Oinoanda, a Greek city in Lycia, and they came upon a number of inscribed stones, most of them built in a wall. What was unusual was that these were neither fragments of municipal decrees nor of private monuments, but all formed part of one great inscription which dealt apparently with some philosophic subject. In June 1895 two Austrian {218} scholars, MM. Heberdey and Kalinka, re-collated the inscription and found some further fragments, and now the story is tolerably clear, and a curious one it is.[50] It appears that the fragments originally belonged to an inscription carved on the side of a colonnade, and they fall into three series according to their place on the wall--one above another. The middle series consists of columns of fourteen lines, the letters 1-1/2 to 2 centimetres high, fifteen or sixteen in a line,--each column forming a page, as it were; and it extends over some twenty-one or two yards. The lowest series is in the same style. On top is a series of columns added later (as the inscription shows) and cut in letters of 2-1/2-3 centimetres, generally ten lines to the column--the larger size to compensate for the greater height above the ground, for it was all meant to be read. The inscription begins:-- "Diogenes to kinsmen, household and friends, this is my charge. Being so ill that it is critical whether I yet live or live no longer--for an affection of the heart is carrying me off--if I survive, I will gladly accept the life yet given to me; if I do not survive, _DO_..." [Sidenote: Diogenes of Oinoanda] There ends a column, and a line or two has been lost at the top of what seems to be the next, after which come the words "a kindly feeling for strangers also who may be staying here," and the incomplete statement which begins "knowing assuredly, that by knowledge of the matters relating to Nature and feelings, which I have set forth in the spaces below...." It is evident that Diogenes had something to say which he considered it a duty to make known. This proves to have been the Epicurean theory of life; and here he had carved up for all to read a simple exposition of the philosophy of his choice.