The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-17 00:00:00

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1822.

Rochette. • They beleng to a people' Who have
displayed the most brilliant powers of mind,- and
have experienced both the sunshine of prosperity
and The reverse of adversity ; presenting, in 'the
course of its astonishing fortunes, the sublimes
virtues 'and -*the most ardent fissions ;"distin-
guishing themselves by 'the arts of luxury, and
by works of imagination and . mind ; and exhi,
biting, in their forms of administration and habits
of,gevernment, the most refined and able policy.
Would it not Seem that this people appe-ared 'on
the earth to instruct men of all countries and na-
tions in all ages, by their literature and
bythe chequered circumstances of their existence,
their high civilization and decline ; and lastly,
by the bloody contest in which they are • now
engaged?

Still' great blanks exist in. the history of this
people. We possess satisfactory details up to a
certain point, respecting that part .of Europe
whiCh'is called Greece Proper, but very scanty
infOrmation on-that large portion of the Hellenic
population which; preserving the language;arts,
and customs of . the mother country, was either
dispersed' over vast regions in the interior of
Asia, or inhabited flourishing towns on the shores
of seas but little visited by us. The adventurous
spirit of a people eminently commercial and ma-.
ritiine, the agitation of parties which existed in
every town of Greece; and at a subsequent period
the conquests of Alexander, and the powerful
protection granted them by the Ptolemies arid
the Grecian Kings of Syria, were the principal
causes of those numerous emigrations. The beau-
tiful medals of Bactriana, (those which were
found on the' banks of the Indus, and were most
probably struck there) the inscriptions of Palmyra
arid. of Mesopotamia, and of the interior of
Persia, prove thatat certain periods the knowledge
and use of the Greek language extended farther
East than is generally imagined. There is
no-doubt but the writers of antiquity gaveample
information . respecting the, foundation and the
growth of these distant Colonies : Hellanicus,
Theoponipus, Timmus,"Ephorus, fleraclides of
Potstus, Evemerus, Eratosthenes, and a multi-
tude of others,. from Arusilaus of Argos to Phle-
gon of Tralles and Dexippus, have treated in
great detail the general history of the Greeks ;
anrl that of its republics and its. individoat towns,
but with the exception of some fragments, the
works of none of these writers. have come down
to us, and the hiStory of most of these distant
Colonies, their origin and destruction, their in.
stitutions and relations with the neighbouring
nations, and the civil and political laws by which
they were governed, are enveloped in obscurity.
M. Raoul-R.ochette appears to us. by his ta-
lents and the nature of his studies, to'be pecu-
liarly
,qualified for supplying these blanks, as
well as it can be done in the present day.
The towns of Taurida, after having been long
governed by their own laws, were successively
subject to three dynasties. The first which
seized on the Sovereignty was that of the Archcra-
nuclides, which seemed to have reigned only dur-
ing forty-two years. To this dynasty succeeded
that of the Leuconides, which acquired greater
celebrity and flourished several centuries until
the last Prince of this royal race ceded his dotni-
nions, on all sides invaded by the Scythians, to
the implacable enemy of the Romans, the
great Mithridates. This warlike Prince suc-
ceeded in repulsing the barbarians after a
terrible war, on the conduct and duration of
which the researches of M. Raoul-Rochette have
_thrown fresh light. But shortly afterwards,
the kingdom of the Bosphorus was involved in
the revolutions which completed the period and
followed' the fall of the power of Mithri-
dates. Rome then assumed the right of nomi-
nating the kings of the Bosphorus; and this last
state of things, which began with the empire,
continued during several generations, the termi-
nation Of which we are prevented from ascer-
taining, except through the veil of conjecture
and uncertainty, on account of distance of time
and place.
The Greek inscriptions, published for the first
time in this collection, are about twelve in num-
ber. None of them belong to the first of the
periods which we have just mentioned ; but the in-
scription of Xenoclides, the son of Posis, dedicat-
ing a temple to,Diana,-the goddess of hunting, cer-
tainly appertains to the second, that of the Len,
conides. The majority, however, of these monu-
ments belong to the dynasty which reigned in
the Bosphorus, with the consent or under the
protection of Rome ; they were erected in the
towns of the Taurida, which had preserved dur-
ing the first centuries of our zra, if not their pa,
litical independence, at least their municipal
administration and the outward forms of the re-
publican government. To this last period be-
long the two inscriptions at pages 197 and 198,
in the dedicatory forinutla in which occurs the
name of Apollo chief or .prostates of the bridge
(lIPOETAHI) ; that of Ulpius Pyrrhus (p. 199);
a marble, (p. 58,) exhibiting the characters used
in free and republican Greece at a. time wilidhi
according to the forms of the letters, cannot
be far distant from the age of the Autonines ;
and especially a very long inscription which the
gratitude of the inhabitants of Olbiopolis had
dedicated to the memory of Theocles, One of
their Magistrates. Our limits compel us to defer
the remainder of our remarks on this interesting
subject to another opportunity.