dithyrambic ode of the mimic species, which was a late invention performed by regular actors, not by a public chorus. How then is it possible that the latter should have been the case at Sparta? The learned distinction between different styles of music in the decree, clearly savours less of Laconian brevity than of the self-complacency of some grammarian.(1519) Most of the expressions used may be traced to the comic poets of Athens, and contain no Spartan peculiarities, and yet an accurate explanation of them might lead us into many difficulties. Lastly, the dialect appears to me to be the composition of some one who had accidentally become acquainted with peculiar Spartan inflections. The letter Ρ is most suspiciously used throughout; the author had evidently an erroneous notion that Θ is not Laconian, and should be changed into Τ, instead of Σ.(1520) The editors have endeavoured to make considerable alterations in the orthography;(1521) but by this means all possibility of criticism is made hopeless. It is therefore probable that some grammarian has taken the trouble to draw up a Laconian decree from one of the stories respecting Timotheus, the interest of which should consist in the austerity of the sentiments, and the roughness of the dialect. That the inventor really intended it for a public monument, is evident from the ancient style of writing, which was abolished at Athens at the archonship of Euclid, and in Sparta perhaps later.(1522) In Crete the national music was once formed on the same principles as in Lacedæmon,(1523) but became relaxed in course of time. In a Cnosian(1524) decree made at the beginning of the second century before Christ, an ambassador is commended for having often played on the cithara the melodies of Timotheus, Polyidus,(1525) and the ancient Cretan poets. In Argos, too, the first person who used a cithara with more than seven strings was punished;(1526) and in Sicyon, also, there were laws appointed to regulate musical contests.(1527)