In the January Journal we published a copy of the death warrant of Jesus Christ taken from a newspaper slip found pasted in an old Bible printed in 1822. Jesus' sentence to crucifixion was engraved on a copper plate on one side of which were written these words: "A similar plate is sent to each tribe." This plate was said to have been found in an antique vase of white marble while excavating in the ancient city of Aquilla, in the kingdom of Naples, in the year 1810, and was discovered by the commissioners of arts of the French armies.
Now come to us newspaper reports of the recent finding of a plate evidently similar to this one, containing an exact copy of the death warrant above mentioned, and setting forth in detail an account of the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate. The plates which, it is said, bear such evidences of genuineness that there is every reason to believe them to be authentic, were found by two Italian savants named Duminy and Cantomi who were travelling and exploring in the ruins of the ancient city of Sardis. Sardis was a city of considerable size, located within ten miles of Ephesus, and is known to the modern world as the residence of Croesus, reputed to have been the richest man that ever lived. Later it was the site of one of the seven churches of Asia. The people of Sardis were among the first to embrace the Christian religion, having been converted thereto by St. John, and there is a tradition which says that Clement, one of the most eminent of the early Christian Fathers, was at one time its bishop.
In the geographies of this century the place is called Sart or Serte, and it is but little visited by travellers or explorers. It has always been a point of interest for scholars, because of the grandeur that distinguished it in ancient times, and because of the many relics that have been there discovered remaining from the conquests of Alexandria and Cyrus.
