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PRIMITIAE HERACLIENSES. 1894to be doubted whether the theory of artists' signatureswill be advanced save in the specific cases which arealready allowed by a consensus of expert opinion. Ihave simply attempted to deal with some test cases ata small mint where the chronology inbroad outlineis fixed by the small number of types found there ;even these I have only dealt with, practically speaking,in their relations with coins of Tarentum. It is known,that A0A and 4>l occur on coins offor example,Metapontum. And a curious combination on a coinof this town is to be found (Evans, op. cit, p. 72,note 93) KAA the "artist" of c. 380 B.C. with IAOwho is only found at Heraclea on one or two exceptionalcoins before c. 280 B.C.It may, I think, fairly be urgeddrawn concerning thethat conclusionsidentity of coin engravers atHeraclea and Tarentum are unsound because theyrest on unsound data. Whether, in spite of this, theletters are abbreviations of artists' names is a thesiswhich does not seem open to direct proof or the reverse.So far as I can see, there is little to say in favour of it.If correct, it is curious that the best Sicilian practice,by which the artist signed in tiny letters, was so rarelyfollowed ;it is curious, too, that evidence of markedartistic intercourse between Sicily and the Greek townsof Italy has yet to be produced, though the case ofEuainetos at Terina has been noticed. Finally, thenumber of names which must on this theory be givento artists at Heraclea is for this small mint so abnormalas to form in itself a serious argument against acceptingthis doctrine.S. W. GROSE.