A BING WITH  THE INSCRIPTION 'ATTTJLAS.'



  In  the Leake collection  of gems now in the  Fitzwilliam

Museum at Cambridge, there is, a  very curious silver ring

brought  from  Thessaly by Colonel Leake (he has  himself en¬

graved Thessaly on the inside) with raised gold letters soldered

on the field.  The second letter is destroyed in the lower part,

and  thus the  inscription  has  been  read1  as  A2TTAA2.

Upon close examination, however, and as will be seen from the

accompanying facsimile, we  find that in  no  case could the

second letter have been a 2, of which there is a specimen in the

last letter, and that it undoubtedly was a T, for there is  just a

remnant of  the gold  of the perpendicular stroke under the

middle of the horizontal bar.
 

   The  question as to what  this name is, seems  to  me easily

 solved.   It is not a Greek but a Barbarian name, and there can

 be little doubt that it is a Greek form of the Latin Attila.

   I do not venture to assert that the ring was in the  possession

 of the famous Attila  in the fifth century,  though the locality in

 which it was found  is undoubtedly  one  which suffered from

 his  ravages.   It would be  interesting to  see the experience  of

-specialists brought to bear upon the various points which the

 ring offers for criticism : the make of the ring, the custom  of



  1 Catalogue of Colonel Leake s En-   Cambridge.  Cambridge, 1870.

 graved Gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum,