Page:Arrian's Voyage Round the Euxine Sea Translated.djvu/6

TO THE EMPEROR

CÆSAR ADRIAN AUGUSTUS,

ARRIAN WISHETH HEALTH AND PROSPERITY.

WE came in the courſe of our voyage to Trapezus, a Greek city in a maritime ſituation, a colony from Sinope, as we are informed by Xenophon, the celebrated Hiſtorian. We ſurveyed the Euxine ſea with the greater pleaſure, as we viewed it from the ſame ſpot, whence both Xenophon and Yourſelf had formerly obſerved it. Two altars of rough ſtone are ſtill ſtanding there; but, from the coarſeneſs of the materials, the letters inſcribed upon them are indiſtinctly engraven, and the Inſcription itſelf is incorrectly written, as is common among barbarous people. I determined therefore to erect altars of marble, and to engrave the Inſcription in well marked and diſtinct characters. Your Statue, which ſtands there, has merit in the idea of the figure, and of the deſign, as it repreſents You pointing towards the ſea; but it bears no reſemblance to the Original, and the execution is in other reſpects but indifferent. Send therefore a Statue worthy to be called Yours, and of a ſimilar deſign to the one which is there at preſent,

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