Philosophical transactions, Vol. L. Part II. For the year 1758. / Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours, of the ingenious, in many considerable parts of the world.

by Various; Royal Society

VIII.

The last Phœnician medals I shall at present produce, in order to settle the point in view, are[189] two in my possession, intirely agreeing both in type and form, as remarkable as any of the others here touched upon. A similar coin has been published by Sig. Arigoni[190], and another[191] by M. Bouterouë; both of which, on several accounts, merit the attention of the learned. They exhibit on one side the head of Jupiter laureated, with a beard; and on the reverse a double cornucopia, together with three or four Phœnician elements, one or two of which are in a great measure defaced. A brass medal of Sidon occurs in Archbishop Wake’s[192] collection, as well as one in[193] mine, with the head of Jupiter done exactly after the same manner as that on the pieces before me, and Europa carried by a bull on the reverse; which, exclusive of the inscriptions in the exergue, demonstrate the latter to belong to Sidon. The first of mine was struck in the 143d year of the proper æra of that city, and the second five years after. They correct the barbarous date assigned by Sig. Arigoni to his coin. M. Bouterouë has not favoured the learned world with an explication of the medal, of which he has given us a draught. Nor has M. l’Abbé Barthelemy, who likewise mentions this very coin, informed us to what place it appertains; but contented himself with barely[194] observing, that the letters preserved on the reverse are Phœnician. I flatter myself therefore that I shall not be charged with plagiarism by this celebrated antiquary, in case what is here submitted to the consideration of the Royal Society should be so happy as to meet with the approbation of that learned and illustrious body; not even by only acquainting the public, with a sort of politesse so peculiar to his countrymen, that it is now become one of the most distinguishing characteristics of their nation[195], “that a certain Oxford doctor has done him the honour to adopt the explication he had given.”

IX.

For the farther illustration of what has been here advanced, it will be requisite to observe, that two æra’s were antiently followed at Sidon; the æra of Seleucus, and another peculiar to the inhabitants of that city[196]. On the Greek brass coins of Sidon, according to F. Frœlich[197], both these epochs seem to have been used. However, the supputation pointed out to us by the date on the Greek medal above-mentioned was undoubtedly made according to the æra of Seleucus; since otherwise the year exhibited by that date must have been nearly coincident with the 266th of Christ, which by those versed in this kind of literature will never be allowed. For had the piece presented to our view so recent a date, as Sidon first became a Roman colony in the reign of Elagabalus[198], above forty years before; the reverse ought to have been adorned with some other letters intimating this, as were those of the Sidonian[199] coins posterior to that event. As certain is it that all the Phœnician medals of Sidon, whose numeral characters have been interpreted here, acknowledge no other epoch than the proper one of that city, which commenced in the year[200] of Rome 643. This, I flatter myself, from the following considerations, exclusive of others that might, with equal facility, be offered, will even to demonstration appear.

1. The fifth year mentioned by the oldest of these coins cannot be the fifth year of the æra of Seleucus, because the Sidonians were then subject to Antigonus[201], in whose territories the supputation according to that epoch did not take place; and consequently the piece itself must have been struck in the fifth year of the proper æra of Sidon, nearly coincident with the 648th of Rome[202].

2. No dates ever occurred upon the medals of the Syrian kings presiding over the people of Sidon, either to F. Frœlich or Dr. Vaillant[203], who have so eminently distinguished themselves in this branch of literature, before the year of Seleucus 112; and therefore neither the Phœnician dates preserved on the aforesaid Sidonian coins whose numeral characters do not amount to 112, nor the Greek dates on others falling short of that number, can rationally be supposed to bear any relation to the æra of that prince. This certainly must be considered as a strong presumption, or rather an incontestable proof, that the last-mentioned Phœnician dates were deduced from the commencement of the proper Sidonian epoch, as from their genuine cardinal point. Which reasoning will by analogy extend, as the numeral characters exhibited by all the coins here explained are of the same kind, to every one of the rest.

3. None of the medals of the Syrian kings, with Phœnician letters upon them[204], hitherto published, bear any Phœnician dates. This, after what has been said, renders it extremely probable, that the pieces of Sidon I am considering were posterior to those coins; and even that their Phœnician dates referred to an æra different from that of Seleucus, followed by the Greek dates on the medals of the Syrian kings. Which if we admit, this æra could have been no other than the new one of the Sidonians, that commenced in the seventh century of Rome.

4. That the dates visible on these coins were supputed according to the latter epoch of Sidon, will be manifest from an examination of the Greek and Phœnician brass medals of that city explained, in[205] the beginning of this paper; whose type and workmanship are extremely similar, if not almost intirely the same. For this circumstance is to me an evident proof, that they could not have been struck at very distant times. Now if we take the Greek coin to have followed the æra of Seleucus, as was undoubtedly the case, and the others that peculiar to Sidon; the first of the Phœnician dates[206] will not be prior to the Greek one above fifty-three years, nor the last of them precede it above forty-three years. Whereas if we suppose the numeral inscriptions in the exergues of the Phœnician Sidonian coins to have been supputed according to the Seleucian epoch, the difference between the aforesaid dates will be five times as much; which with the similarity of workmanship and type, already observed, will be altogether incompatible.

5. As the Jews[207], about the time that the first of our medals was struck, denominated the æra of Seleucus, THE ÆRA OF THE KINGDOM OF THE GREEKS; we cannot well doubt but it went amongst the Sidonians, who were neighbours to the Jews, under the same denomination. From whence it will follow, that the epoch styled by them emphatically, THE ÆRA OF SIDON, must have been different from the æra of Seleucus; and consequently that which, after the 643d year of Rome, was peculiar to them.

Philos. Trans. Vol. L. Tab. XXXII. p. [804]