An Ancient Battle

The exeavations which have been going on under the famous Lion at Chceronea, where the Bceotians who fellinthebattle with Philip of Macedón, August, 338 B. C, were interred, have thus far disclosed two hundred and seventy skeletons. Among the most recently exhumed, two have been found tranxflxed with iron lances. Six of the skeletons, more or less preserved, and remarkable for the fractures of their bones and the flrm manner in which they died of their wounds, have been prepared to be taken from their place in piaster and transferred to the museum in Athens, where they will remain among its greatest curiosities and wonders. The face of the monumental lion, who sits with head thrown up, expresses rage, grief and shame, together witii that moderation which is characteristic of all Greek art. Pausanias, who wrote about 180 A. D., says: 'On approaching the city is the tomb of the Boeotians, who feil in the battle with Philip. It has no inscription, but the figure of a lion is placed upon it an emblem of the spirit of these men. The inscription has been omitted, as I suppose, because the gods had willed that their fortune should not be equal to their prowess." It is interesting that, after the lapse of two thöusand two hundred and almost nineteen years, we are able to read in the bodies which have been thus exhumed, in the fractures of their bones, and in the iron lances by which they are pierced, the story of their heroic struggle to maintain the independence of their country.