by various authors

“ Political changes, too, have not been without influence upon the modern representatives of the two great nations of antiquity. The Italians of the Kingdom are pursuing with renewed vigour and originality the studies which they had never suffered to fall into decay: the Greeks, in the happier circumstances of the last few years, have thrown themselves with zeal, if not always with discretion, into the records of their glorious past. ”

“ The phrases Ancient Law and Primitive Culture have acquired a new meaning in the hands of eminent writers: much that had been thought characteristic of man only in the savage state has been shown to have coexisted with, and even to have survived, the flowering-time of Graeco-Roman, not to say of modern civilisation. ”

“ In many cases the discovery of single inscriptions has had results of unexpected importance. We may instance the new light thrown upon the laws of Crete by the inscription at Gortyn, and upon Roman municipal law by those at Malaca and Salpensa, in Spain. Nor has epigraphy been the only department of archaeological research. The excavations of ancient sites have not only thrown new light upon the temples, tombs, theatres, and domestic architecture of the Greeks and Romans, but have yielded many treasures of art, pottery, and ornaments, illustrating the domestic life of the ancients. ”