The main object of the third season's work of the Cyprus Exploration Fund was the excavation at Salamis, of which the results were published in the last number of this Journal. But, as was there mentioned, a small additional sum of money was procured to continue the previous season's work at Polis tes Chrysochou. It was especially important that the field known to us as Site T should be excavated, both because it promised to yield objects of rare beauty and interest, and because the results of the previous operations were, as was pointed out in last year's report, of little scientific value owing to the character of the evidence on which they were based, and required to be tested by further excavation on more trustworthy sites. Before leaving England, therefore, I had written to Mr. J. W. Williamson asking him to negotiate a contract, which (our departure having produced a good effect on the owner's mind) he was fortunately able to secure. To him and to Mr. Cecil Smith, who was most active in procuring the funds, the execution of the project is largely due.It was near the end of June before work was started at Poli. H. A. Tubbs had been called home by other engagements, so that I was deprived of his cooperation for the remainder of the season. Poli is not to be commended as a summer residence. The heat in the valley is intense, fevers are more easily caught than avoided, and every drop of water fit to drink has to be brought an hour's journey on a donkey. The excavation was uneventful. The only incident which interrupted its course was an attempt by the joint-owner of one of the sites to conclude a contract on his own behalf and defraud his partners of their share of the price, a malpractice which was at once detected by the ever watchful Commissioner, and cost us a couple of days.
The defeat at Marathon made it doubly necessary for the Persian government to undertake the subjugation of the Greeks across the sea. If there was ever to be peace on the Aegean that ‘Majuba’ must be ‘wiped off the slate.’This time there was to be no mistake. The expedition was long and carefully prepared, and was planned on an enormous scale. The number of Xerxes' host cannot indeed be demonstrated, but it may be estimated with some probability, and the historian is bound to attempt an estimate. No sane critic could accept the millions of Herodotus. Nor would many now be found to admit the 700,000 or 800,000 given with or without garniture by Isocrates, Ctesias, and the later authors who mostly depend upon Ephorus. These figures seem to have been deduced from Herodotus. In iv. 87, the land forces led by Darius against the Scyths are said to have numbered 700,000, and it is implied that they were the full levy of the entire empire. In viii. 100 and 113, Mardonius is to be left with 300,000, while Xerxes goes home with the larger part of the army (cf. Thuc. i. 73). In vii. 20, Xerxes' host is larger than that of Darius or any other on record.
The following pages present the results of an expedition organised in the autumn of 1893 for the purpose of investigating the antiquities of the Boman town of Doclea, in Montenegro, the reputed birthplace of Diocletian. Excavations had already been carried on there during three seasons by H.H. the Prince of Montenegro, to whom the explorers desire to record their grateful acknowledgments, not only for his gracious permission to continue the work so auspiciously begun, but also for the kind reception and many facilities accorded to them. To M. Paul Rovinski also, the skilful director of the former excavations, they owe the warmest thanks. His generous co-operation and his local experience were simply invaluable, and his genial friendship can never be forgotten.
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