DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0163
LION XTOIB. 493
not be ascertained. Its greatest length was 3' 6",
its thickness T 3". Rather more than half the
shield had been broken away. The surface of
the relief had never been finished, but the sides
of the slab were finally tooled. The projection of
the shield was 2".
This fragment was found on the western side of
the tomb. It was evidently too large to have
formed part of the architrave, but may possibly
have been inserted between the two central columns
over the doorway.
If we suppose the tomb to have been a public
monument, the unfinished shield Avas probably in-
tended to receive an inscription recording the names
and services of the persons commemorated.
The completion of the work may have been
arrested by political events, and, most probably, by
one of those revolutions so common in the repub-
lics of antiquity, by which a dominant party was
suddenly expelled from power, and all their acts
annulled.
During the period to which I would assign this
tomb, the history of Cnidus records, as far as I am
aware, only two events sufficiently important to
have given occasion for such a public monument.
The earliest of these events is the repulse of the
Athenians, when they attacked and nearly took
Cnidus, B.C. 412 ; the second is the defeat of the
Lacedaemonians by Conon, in a sea-fight off this
place, .B.C. 391; but it is not certain that any
Cnidians took a part in this latter engagement.
It may be observed that the site of the Lion
not be ascertained. Its greatest length was 3' 6",
its thickness T 3". Rather more than half the
shield had been broken away. The surface of
the relief had never been finished, but the sides
of the slab were finally tooled. The projection of
the shield was 2".
This fragment was found on the western side of
the tomb. It was evidently too large to have
formed part of the architrave, but may possibly
have been inserted between the two central columns
over the doorway.
If we suppose the tomb to have been a public
monument, the unfinished shield Avas probably in-
tended to receive an inscription recording the names
and services of the persons commemorated.
The completion of the work may have been
arrested by political events, and, most probably, by
one of those revolutions so common in the repub-
lics of antiquity, by which a dominant party was
suddenly expelled from power, and all their acts
annulled.
During the period to which I would assign this
tomb, the history of Cnidus records, as far as I am
aware, only two events sufficiently important to
have given occasion for such a public monument.
The earliest of these events is the repulse of the
Athenians, when they attacked and nearly took
Cnidus, B.C. 412 ; the second is the defeat of the
Lacedaemonians by Conon, in a sea-fight off this
place, .B.C. 391; but it is not certain that any
Cnidians took a part in this latter engagement.
It may be observed that the site of the Lion