WK:-Am3n HAMPSHIRE y INTER-LIBRARY A is Oy, lf / die PO NUMISMATIC tofg fe 2h AND MONOGRA@HS> «> ry a ye a3 z o> Neel a) oR As SOME UNPUBLISHED COINS OF EASTERN DYNASTS By EDWARD T. NEWELL % THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY BROADWAY AT 156TH STREET NEW YORK 1926 PUBLICATIONS The American Journal of abide iciifogtaa 1866-1920. ; Monthly, May, 1866-—April, 1870 Quarterly, July, 1870-October, 1912. Annually, 1913-1920. With many plates, illustrations, maps a tables. Less than a dozen complete sets of the Jour- — nal remain on hand. Prices on application. The numbers necessary to complete broken sets _ may in most cases be obtained. An index to the first fifty volumes has been issued as part of Volume LI. It may also be An . sneratnly for $3. O09 4 The American Numismatic Society. Catalogue i of the International Exhibition of Contempo- — rary Medals. March, 1910. New andrevised _ edition. New York. IQII. xxxvi, 412 pages, 512 illustrations. $10.00. $4 The American Numismatic Society. Exhibition of United States and Colonial Coins. 1914. — vii, 134 pages, 40 plates. $1.00. i eo aaa tet ge a epee f Smet > MA TIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS NuMISMATIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS is devoted to essays and treatises on subjects relating to coins, paper money, medals and decorations, and is uniform with Hispanic Notes and Monographs published by the Hispanic Society of America, and with In- dian Notes and Monographs issued by the Museum of the American Indian—Heye Foundation. PUBLICATION COMMITTEE AGNES BALDWIN BRETT, Chairman W. GEDNEY BEATTY HENRY RUSSELL DROWNE JOHN REILLY, Jr. EDITORIAL STAFF SYDNEY PHILTP Nok, Editor HOWLAND Woon, Associate Editor V. E. EarR.ez, Assistant No longer the property of Th i: As o = 4 ‘. F1 2 . j 5 a oy. Cale eC Mount Holyoke Coles SOME UNPUBLISHED COINS OF EASTERN DYNASTS BY EDWARD T. EEE THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY BROADWAY AT 156TH STREET NEW YORK 1926 SOME UNPUBLISHED COINS OF EASTERN DYNASTS By Epwarp. T. NEWELL From among some recent accessions to the writer’s cabinet, the following coins have been selected for immediate publication. They appear to represent hitherto unknown varieties and, therefore, offer a certain amount of interest to students and collectors. Sri LyeCyYPRUS MELEKIATHON (?) SECOND REIGN, CIRCA 386-361 B.C. 1 Bearded Heracles, nude except for lion’s skin hanging from his shoulders, advancing to r., hold- ing in outstretched I. a bow, and brandishing in raised r. a club. Rev. Lion to r., its head facing with jaws open. Above, globular object and the faint traces of an inscription. Dies: |. Persicstater. Gr. 10. 48. The attribution of this interesting coin to Mel- ekiathon of Citium is proposed with a certain amount of hesitancy. The fabric of the coin ap- pears to be certainly Cypriote. This being the case, the obverse type of the fighting Heracles at once suggests Citium as the probable mint. The reverse type, on the other hand, so far as the actual I 2 UNPUBLISHED Cont attitude of the lion goes, is entirely new for Citium. In point of fact, the lion is not represented in quite this manner on any other known coin of Cyprus. Instead of the half lion or couched attitude as- sumed by this beast on the coins of Amathus,! or his being seated, as on the coins of Baalmelek I of Citium,? or prowling, as on the coins of Salamis,’ or devouring his prey,‘ the king of beasts on our coin, has apparently come to a sudden stop. A snarl seems to be issuing from his half open jaws as his head swings round to face some unexpected noise or sudden danger. Distinctly Greek is this mas- terly conception of a startled lion; and even the worn condition of the die is unable to destroy the spirited and arresting effect produced by the entire design. Greek, too, are the details of the Heracles figure as compared with all the similar productions, ex- cept one, of the Citian mint. On them, the design and execution are distinctly influenced by the oriental art of Phoenicia and the Persian Empire. Heracles is depicted in the stiff, angular style of the ancient Orient, great attention being paid to detail and but little to realism. Particularly is this noticeable in the manner with which he strides along planting his weight evenly upon both his feet. On the other hand, the new coin reminds us at once of the ephemeral issues in Citium of the Athenian Demonicus.’ As on these, so, too, our Heracles does not wear the lion’s skin over his head but hanging from the shoulders and retained by the Poon mheN DYNASTS 3) two front paws tied about his neck. According to the dictates of a more realistic style, the upper portion of Heracles’ body is thrust forward as he rushes with uplifted club to meet his foe. His entire weight rests upon his advanced left foot, the right serving merely to propel him forward. So similar is our coin in this to the rare issues of Demonicus, that the writer was at one time some- what inclined to assign his piece to that shadowy ruler. But there exist several deterring reasons. In the first place, there is the reverse type. While the standing Athena is a very natural design for the Athenian Demonicus to have chosen, the lion savours more of the local dynasty which was of eastern origin, and so appears, in one form or another, on all of their coins right down to the final extinction of the autonomous city state by Ptolemy I of Egypt. Furthermore, the worn condition of the reverse die suggests long continued use. Even the obverse die shows a distinct fracture running between the chin of Heracles and his breast. Now, what little we know (or, rather, can surmise) of Demonicus’ career in Cyprus,’ would seem to show that he could have ruled there but a very short time—certainly not more than a year, at most. And this would seem to be too brief a period of time for the appearance of coins with both the Athena and the lion types. As stated before, the lion is more closely associated with the local Citian dynasts who were of Semitic origin. The first to strike coins, Baalmelek I, chose 4 UNPUBLISH BDSG Gi for a type the seated lion,’ while all of his Semi- tic successors adopted the lion and stag type. It was the foreigner, Demonicus, who first replaced the lion type with another.’ The Heracles figure, being in this guise rather more that of the Hellenic hero than of the Phoenician Melkarth, is retained, though now it is represented in the pure Greek style and not in the Cypriote. The Heracles on our coin appears to be a direct copy of the one on Demonicus’ issue. Style, technique, attitude and details (except for the club which is held horizontally instead of upright) are absolutely identical. For this reason the coin falls naturally into the first years of Melekiathon’s second reign, immediately after the overthrow of Demonicus, the Athenian — adventurer and usurper—the natural supposition being that the latter’s Greek die-cutter continued to work for the rightful ruler of Citium after his restoration. He continues to employ the Greek manner instead of the Cypriote, but in the position of the club in Heracles’ hand he assimilates his design more closely to the issues immediately preceding the rise of Demonicus to power. The assignment of our coin on grounds of style to the first years of Melekiathon’s second reign is supported by comparing the Heracles figure to that found on the gold half darics of both Melekiathon and his successor Pumiathon.® On these the lion’s skin, instead of falling from the shoulders as hereto- fore, is invariably draped over the outstretched left arm of Heracles. Furthermore, the lion’s skin Pow eR N DYNASTS 5 again covers the hero’s head, which has not been the case! since the reign of Baalmelek I. Absolute certainty as to the attribution can hardly be attained until a specimen from a sharp reverse die will have enabled us to read the inscrip- tion. Any discussion of this inscription at the present time would be worse than useless. While faint traces of some letters may still be distinguished above the lion’s back, the legend itself remains quite indecipherable. SALAMIS IN CYPRUS. NICOCLES 373—cIRCA 361 B.C. 2 Facing bust of the Cypriote Aphrodite wearing a turreted crown, the whole in dotted circle. Reverse. Forepart of Pegasus to r. Below: #) (Ba Nz). Onr., NI. The whole in a dotted circle. Dies: 7. Wt. 3.39 gr. From the collection of Col. Allotte de la Fuye, No. 682. On this coin we have a most unusual representa- tion of the divinity, supposed to be the Cypriote Aphrodite, who appears so frequently—but in profie—on the gold and silver coinages of Ni- cocles, Euagoras II, Pnytagoras, and Nicocreon -of Salamis. So far as the writer is aware, this is the first known occurrence of the facing type of the goddess. We should compare it with the facing Heracles’ head on the gold quarter stater of Euago- ras I, the predecessor of Nicocles," or the facing 6 UNPUBLISHED es satrap’s head on certain silver obols assigned by Babelon” to Euagoras IT, or, finally, with the facing head of the Paphian Aphrodite on a beautiful little sixth of a stater® usually given to Nicocles of Paphos. Even more unusual for Cyprus, is the reverse type of the winged horse which appears to occur on no other known coin of the island. The type itself is probably borrowed from the common little silver fourth-century obols of Celenderis™ or from the obol of uncertain mintage but assigned to Cilicia by Mr. Hill.45 As the inscription reads only Ba Ni in Cypriote characters and NI in Greek characters, the coin may be attributed to either Nicocles (373-361 B. C.) or Nicocreon (331-310 B. C.). The style, however, is excellent and the earlier of the two kings is there- fore to be preferred. Furthermore, an assignment to Nicocreon is strongly refuted by both style and fabric. The coin is struck on a thin and well formed planchet, while the common bronze coins bearing Alexandrine types which must be given" to Nicocreon’s reign are struck on thick, dumpy flans of somewhat clumsy manufacture. Their style, too is later and much more summary than that of the present coin. } SOLI (?) IN CYPRUS UNCERTAIN RULER, PU.... 3 Lion, with open jaws, lying to 1. Above, orna- ment (?) of uncertain form. In the exergue, Pee RN DY NAS TS 7 traces of an inscription.(?). The whole is sur- rounded by a circle of fine dots. Reverse. The Cypriote sign Pu in the dotted ring of an Ankh. Outlines of ivy leaves fill the four corners of the surrounding dotted square, the whole is contained in a shallow incuse square. Persic stater. Wt. Gr. 10.72. Dies: N. This coin was purchased by the writer in Decem- ber, 1924, in Cairo, Egypt. With it there were three or four staters of Baalmelek I (479-449 B. C.) and of Azbaal (449-425 B. C.) of Citium, the entire lot being claimed by its owner to have come recently from Cyprus. There was every indication present that these coins had been found together. Further particulars concerning this probable hoard are unknown. By its types the coin described above is more or less closely associated with the stater in the British Museum” formerly assigned to Soli!® but later given by Six!® to Golgi. Mr. Hill follows a safer course in placing the coin among the uncertain.?° Babelon* remains undecided between Golgi and Soli. The new coin varies from the British Museum specimen in representing the lion as lying to the left instead of crouching to the right. The style is also somewhat later, especially noticeable in the incuse square which is shallower and _ slightly larger. Important is the Cypriote sign Pu, con- tained in the Ankh, as this at least gives us the first letter of the king’s name who once caused our coin to be struck. The four ivy leaves in outline, 8 UNPUBLISHED Gea in the four corners of the,surrounding dotted square, are reminiscent of a similar symbol on certain staters of Idalium from the middle of the fifth century B. C.” and even more so of a like symbol on certain staters of Paphos dated circa 460 B. C.*8 The general style and appearance of our coin is very like that of these Paphian staters. Interestingly enough, too, these staters are likewise inscribed with the Cypriote signs Pu and Pu-nu (for Pnutos or Pnytagoras ?). As the types forbid the attribu- tion of our stater to Paphos, we would suggest its assignment to Soli, situated just across the moun- tains from Paphos to the North. In support of this, attention should be called to an inscription actually found at Soli which mentions the name of a certain IIyutéAXasg son of [lyutayéoac.24 Whether one or both of these persons were ever rulers of Soli may well be questioned, but at least we have definite evi- dence of persons of a certain amount of importance ~ at Soli bearing names commencing with the same letter as appears on our coin. Another solution would be to suppose that the dynast who places the sign Pu upon his Paphian coins also ruled at one time in Soli. Both M. Babelon and Mr. Hill place his reign at about 460 B. C. This fits in well, not only with the general style of our stater, but also with the fact that it seems to have been found in company with certain coins of Citium struck by two kings whose reigns cover the years 479 to A251 BoC; EASTERN DYNASTS 9 PHOENICIA KinGs oF ByBLUS EARLY FirtH CENTuRY B.C. 4 Sphinx, wearing the crown (the Pshent) of Upper and Lower Egypt, reclining to I. Reverse. Conventional thunderbolt in a dotted circle, the whole contained in an incuse square. Persic stater. Gr. 8.80. Dies: f. 5 Similar types. Third of a Persic stater (tetrobol). Crees.) Dies: 6-7 Similar types. Obols. Gr. 0.61 and _ 0.60. Dies: T and\. 8-10 Similar types. Hemi-obols. Gr. 0.38, 0.34, 0.27, Dies: 7, J and \. The interesting little group described above once formed part of the splendid collection of Phoenician coins gathered together during his long residence at Beyrout by Dr. Jules Rouvier. The two larger coins (Nos. 4 and 5) are still unpublished as they were only acquired by the learned Doctor after the appearance of his well known ‘Monnaies des Villes de la Phéenicie’ in the Jour. Internationale d’ Ar- chéologie Numismatique, Vols. II-VII, 1899-1904. To the two smaller coins described by Rouvier?® have been added similar specimens also acquired since the publication of that work. All of these pieces have been found at various times in the ancient port of Byblus.** Their attribution to Gebal-Byblus can therefore hardly be questioned. 10 UNPUBLIS HEIDSS Saas It is furthermore directly supported by the appear- ance of an Egyptian sphinx as the obverse type. The long dominion of Egypt over Byblus (Gebal) and its great influence there” ever afterwards, are well known and have now been emphasized the more by the remarkable discoveries recently made in the necropolis of the old city.?® It is therefore not surprising to find a typically Egyptian sphinx adorning the obverses of this the earliest coinage of Gebal. For we certainly see before us no Greek sphinx, made so familiar to us by vase paintings, ~ bas-reliefs, gems, or the coins of Chios or of Idalium. Our sphinx is wingless; it is couched in the Egyptian manner and not seated upon its haunches; it wears the combined crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, and, finally, it is of masculine gender—at least so far as the smallness of the design and the heavy corrosion of the surfaces will allow us to judge. The reverse type is quite new. Having at first only two very badly preserved specimens at his disposal, Dr. Rouvier interpreted this design as that of a lion. Instead, now that some larger and better preserved specimens have turned up, we must recognize in it a conventional thunderbolt somewhat in the form of a double fleur-de-lys. Unfortunately ancient oriental art does not offer us any contemporaneous”? examples of similar form. On the other hand, the thunderbolts occurring on sixth and early fifth century coins of Elis*® present many suggestive parallels. Also the thunderbolts appearing in later Indian art (and, probably derived PevoeiR NDYNAS'TS II from this, those in Chinese*! and Japanese art as well) have frequently a fleur-de-lys or lotus-like shape. Unless we postulate a Greek origin then, the derivation of the thunderbolt on our Byblite coins remains somewhat of a mystery. Egyptian it certainly is not, as the thunderbolt appears to be unknown on the banks of the Nile. It can there- fore have little or no connection with the obverse type of the sphinx. Whatever its origin,®? the adoption of the thunderbolt for the reverse type probably has some purely local significance, which escapes us. Not the least curious-aspect of this thunderbolt type is the fact that some sixteen hundred years later the identical design of the double fleur-de-lys in a circle of dots should bob up again among the strangely eclectic types found on the coins of the Atabeg rulers in northern Mesopotamia. On Plate II, A, a specimen of the fairly common copper falus of Mu’izz-ed-din Sinjar-Shah, the Atabeg Emir in El-Jezireh 1180-1208 A.D. is reproduced. That a large proportion of the old designs used on their coins by his contemporaries also go back to numis- matic types of preceding peoples and ages, is well known. But this particular coin type of the Emir of Jezireh has remained without a prototype until the sudden appearance in Dr. Rouvier’s collection of the earliest known issues of the great and wealthy city of Gebal. Can it be that a die-cutter in distant Mesopotamia had seen one of these early coins of the Phoenician city and had been struck by the 12 UNPUBLISH E DEV ornamental effectiveness of its reverse type? Or was he merely copying some artistic design or heraldic device with which he was familiar? And is it, then, only due to chance that this should: have been so strikingly similar to the early Byblite type? But to return to the coins themselves. Neither the sphinx nor the thunderbolt ever occur again on the issues of Gebal. They are replaced by more Semitic or Persian designs, such as the Phoenician war-galley, the vulture devouring a ram, or the lion attacking a bull. With a change in types comes also a change in standards. Heretofore the only known coins of Gebal, before the arrival of Alexander the Great, were based on the so-called Phoenician weight standard. In this** system the shekel (or didrachm) weighed about grammes 7.15, the half shekel (or drachm) gr. 3.60, the trihemiobol gr. 0.90, the obol gr. 0.60, the hemiobol gr. 0.30. Into this scheme the earliest coins of Gebal described above apparently do not fit as they would thereby be too heavy. Instead, they are obviously of the Persic weight standard, such as was at this time employed by her more northerly neighbor Aradus. According to the Persic standard,*4 the stater weighed gr. 10.60, the shekel (or drachm) gr. 5.30, the third stater (or tetrobol) gr. 3.35, the twelfth stater (or obol) gr. 0.83, the twenty-fourth of a stater (or hemiobol) gr. 0.42. ‘It will be noticed that our coins are very considerably lighter than this norm, but this is unquestionably due to the very serious corrosion from which they have one : eae RN DY NAST S 13 and all suffered, and to the subsequent necessary cleaning to which they have been subjected. It is interesting to learn, therefore, that, at first, Gebal followed the same monetary standard as its northern neighbor Aradus, but that later, about the middle of the fifth century B. C., it adopted the standard then being used by its southern neighbor, Sidon. KINGS OF ARMENIA TIGRANES [[*5 20-12 (?) B.C. 12 Bust of king to r., slightly bearded and wearing a tall Armenian tiara ending in five long spikes or rays and adorned with an eight-pointed star. The whole is surrounded by a filleted border. Reverse. On r.,. BAXSIAEQS | METAAOY. On 1., TITPANOY | ®IAOIATOPOS | KAI®IAEAA- HNO. Tigranes, bearded, draped in a mantle and wearing a tall tiara standing to 1. He holds an uncertain object (two ears of wheat or thunderbolt ? ?) in his outstretched r. and rests his |. on a long sceptre or spear. Drachm. Gr. 3.83 (a small piece has been broken out). Dies: 7. Purchased from the collection of Prof. Charles C. Torrey. Hitherto the only*® known coin of this king was a badly preserved bronze piece in the Paris collec- tion. Like the portrait on that coin, our drachm represents the king as wearing a beard. This peculiarity serves to distinguish him from his 14 UNPUBLISHE D3GGTk namesakes Tigranes I the Great and Tigranes III, whose coins show them both to have been quite beardless. In view of the poor state of preserva- tion of the copper coin in Paris, the present piece is important because it furnishes us with a splendid portrait of this little-known prince. : The coin is interesting also because it gives us the full titles of the king, the Paris specimen read- ing only Baothéws Trypavov. Apparently he was forced by his jealous and more powerful neighbors to omit from his coins the grandiloquent title Bastheds Bactkéwv used by his father Artavasdes and his grandfather Tigranes I. He adopted, in- stead, the Parthian formula of BaotAed¢ Mévyac. To this he added, also more Parthico, the familiar titles of drAozatwe and dtAéAAHvosg. His son and successor, Tigranes III, imitated him, except that he omitted the drAotatwoe. Of the history of this prince we know little beyond the fact that he was a brother of Artaxias II (34-20 B. C.), both being sons of Artavasdes I (56-30 B. C.) of Armenia. He lived as an exile at Rome until, at the request of the Armenians, Augustus in 20 B.C. sent him home with Tiberius instructing the latter to place him upon his ancestral throne. This was accomplished,®’ and he reigned until possibly® about 12 B.C. On the strength of our new coin it would seem desirable to remove from Tigranes III, and assign, instead, to Tigranes II, the copper piece described by Babelon on page 216 No. 28 (Plate xxx, Fig. PreoweRN DYNASTS I5 19) of his work. This specimen is so badly cor- roded that the short beard, characteristic of Tigranes II, is not apparent and it was probably for this reason that the coin was given to the third of that name whose portrait on well preserved coins is seen to be beardless. The reverse of the Paris specimen bears a standing figure of the king very similar to the one appearing on our drachm, except that he faces to the right and holds an eagle on his outstretched left. The title rAé\Anvoc, which does not occur on any other known coin of Tigranes III, is clearly decipherable and so adds one more reason for recognizing in this piece a bronze issue corres- ponding with our new drachm. CAPPADOCIA ARIARATHES II Circa 301-280 B.C. 13 Beardless bust of ruler to |. wearing a tiara of the Cappadocian form. Onr., behind the head, MEAT? Reverse. Lioness to 1. suckling her cub to r. Bronze. Gr. 3.55. Dies: |. Originally in the collection of Dr. Pozzi. This is altogether a very curious coin whose attribution is somewhat uncertain. In fabric and style it is very similar to other coins usually as- signed to Cappadocia or the neighboring province of Sophene. The tiara or satrapal bonnet adorning the head is in its form strikingly similar to those 16 UNPUBLISH Eirias affected by contemporary rulers of both of these districts.29 It is, therefore, to one or the other that our piece should be assigned. Unfortunately the king’s name on the obverse is largely ‘off flan,’ only the three letters PA T remaining. Of all the names which have come down to us as having been borne by the various petty rulers of Cappadocia and Sophene in the Third Century B.C. (the period indicated by the style and fabric of our coin), only the name Ariarathes will fit the three letters still visible. No less than ten rulers of Cappadocia were named Ariarathes. Of all of these we possess coins, with the exception, possibly, of the eighth whose issues are quite uncertain and possibly never existed. From the third of this name on, every one bears the title of Baothedc, and on his coins is adorned with the royal diadem. Our coin, possessing neither the title nor the diadem, would therefore appear to belong to an earlier period and this would perhaps also account for the unusual manner in which the name is spelled, namely (’Agta) PAT (ov). The later kings, commencing with Ariarathes III, invariably employ the form APIAPA@OY. The form APIAPATOY, as it appears to be on our specimen, would be an unusual but quite possible rendering of the Aramaic 11118 as found on the known issues of Ariarathes I and II.49 The Aramaic letter teth (11) in names is almost as frequently ren- dered by its Greek equivalent tau as it is by theta c. f. ]519%2 which is given by Greek historians as - eeoevek IN DYNASTS 17 Tluutécos or TIunatos; MANWYTI which the Greeks transcribed as Bo8éctwe; on coins we have 72710 and TEIPIBAZOY, also 117) and its equivalent TEP2I etc. etc.). The form APIAPATOY could, therefore, form the transitional stage between the Aramaic MI IN of the earliest Cappadocian coins and the APIAPA@OY of the later issues. This would place our coin, then, either among the earliest issues of Ariarathes III or the latest issues of Ariarathes IJ. As the latter enjoyed a long reign and as it has hitherto been possible to assign to him only one comparatively insignificant bronze coin,*! it would seem more plausible to attribute the new variety to him.. In that case, then, the reverse type would also fit well with the scenes drawn from hunting and animal life so favored on their coins by the first three rulers of Cappadocia (cf. the griffin and stag of Ariarathes I, the royal archer and ibex of Ariarathes II, the royal rider, probably also engaged in the chase, of Ariaramnes). With Ariarathes III Athena is definitely adopted by the Cappadocian kings and remains almost the invariable reverse type until the end of the dynasty. If our proposed attribution be accepted, then we must recognize the fact that it was Ariarathes II who first introduced portraiture on the Cappadocian coinage, and not his son Ariaramnes as hitherto supposed. Our coin thus adds one more portrait to the long series which gives such a human interest to the royal coinages of Asia. 18 UNPUBLISHED Gia The. reverse type of the lioness suckling her young is decidedly novel, not appearing, so far as the present writer is aware, on any other known coin of the classical age. Peeodeok NO DY NAST S 19 NOTES 1B. M. C. Cyprus, Plate I, Nos. 1-15. 2 ITbid, Plate II, Nos. 7-14. 8 Ibid, Plate XII, Nos. 6-8. 4 Ibid, Plate XXIV, Nos. 10-11. 5 Ibid, Plate XIX, Nos. 9-13. 6 Ibid, Introd. xxxvii ff.; Babelon, Mélanges Numis- matiques, II, pp. 71 ff.; Perses Achém, pp. cxxxi ff.; Traité Ls pp 700 if. 7’There is an earlier, but uninscribed issue, which has been assigned to Citium (B. M. C. Cyprus, Plate II, 7, and Plate XIX, 1-2). These coins show a couched lion and may be attributed to Baalmelek I or his immediate predecessor. 8 Hill (B. M. C. Cyprus, p. xxxvi) following Imhoof- Blumer (Monn. Gr. p. 383, No. 101), and Six (Rev. Num. 1883, p. 336, No. 44) assigns a stater with horseman as the obverse type to Melekiathon. Babelon in his Tvaité does not even mention this coin, and its attribution, at best, is very doubtful. 9B. M.C. Cyprus, Plate XIX, No. 6 and Plate IV, Nos. 20-23; 10 Both M. Babelon and Mr. Hill are mistaken in describing Heracles on the staters of Azbaal (449-425 B.C.), Baalmelek II (425-400 B.C.), Baalram (early fourth century) and Melekiathon (first reign) as wearing the lion’s skin over his head. The lion’s head has fallen off and can clearly be distinguished just below the hero’s right armpit. For this fact, notice particularly B. M. C. Cyprus, Plate III, Nos. 2, 3, 11 and 12. u B. M. C. Cyprus, Plate XI, 13. 12 Traité II2, Plate CX XVIII, Nos. 23-24. 13 Jbid, Plate CX XIX, No. 16. 20 UNPUBLASHE DGG 4 Cf. Babelon, Traité II2, Plate CXL, Nos. 9-15. 15 B, M. C. Cilicia, Plate XXXII, 10. 16 ‘Some Cypriote Alexanders,’ Num. Chron. 1915, p. 308, Nos. 9-10, Plate XIII, Nos. 12-14. 7B. M. C. Cyprus, Plate XIII, No. 5. 18 Rev. Num., 1883, p. 305, No. 10. 19 Num. Chron., 1897, p. 210, No. 12. 20 B. M. C. Cyprus, p. 69, No. 1. 21 Tyaité, II!, p. 607. 2B, M. C. Cyprus, Nos. 10-19, Plate V, Nos. 9-12. 23 Tbid, Plate VII, Nos. 4 and 9. 24Q. Hoffman, Die Griechischen Dialekte, Vol. I, p. 51, No. 88. i 25 Jour. Inter. d’ Arch. Num. 1901, p. 38, Nos. 629 and 628. 26 As the writer was informed by Dr. Rouvier himself. See also Babelon, Tyvaité II?2, p. 543, Note 1. The badly corroded surfaces, so typical of silver coins long exposed to the deleterious action of salt water, go far to corroborate this statement. 27 Cf. Prof. Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums,? 1, 2, pp. xix, 391 ff.; G. F. Hill, B. M. C. Phoenicia, p. 1x1. 28 Les Travaux Archéologiques en Syrie de 1920 a 1922. 29 Compare, however, certain Hittite seals from the Cappadocian district which bear designs somewhat analagous to the thunderbolt on our Byblite coins (G. Contenau, La Glyptique Syro-Hittite, Plate XI, Nos. 60-62; L. Delaporte, Catalogue des cylindres orientaux du Musée du Louvre, Plate 98, Nos. 13, 14 and 16). ‘These particular seals Contenau places in the first period or about 2400- 1500 B.C. See also Jacobsthal, Der Blitz in der orientalis- chen und griechischen Kunst, Berlin, 1906. 30 C, T. Seltman, The Temple Coins of Olympia, Plates I=W- Pew RN DYNASTS 21 31 Cf. Stein: Serindia, Plate LXIV. 32 Let us hope that the many excavations now being carried on in Syria and Palestine will some day furnish us a clue. 83 Babelon, Traité, II2, pp. 535-536 34 Ibid, pp. 509-510. 35 By some modern historians called Tigranes III. 36 Babelon, Rois de Syrie etc., p. ccv. has shown that the coins attributed to Tigranes II by Mommsen and by Victor Langlois (Numismatique de Ll Arménie dans l Anti- quité, 1859, pp. 36-38, Plate III, 4) must be given, instead, to Tigranes III. 37 Th. Mommsen, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, p. 112; Boeckh, C. I. G., No. 4040, col. IV, lines 2 and 7. 38 Due to the complete absence of any information on the subject in our classical sources, no two authorities agree as to the real duration of Tigranes II’s reign. Among the more recent writers Asdourian, Die politischen Bezieh- ungen zwischen Armenien und Rome, Venice 1911, pp. 67-9 and 194, gives Tigranes’ reign as ‘‘um 20-19 v. Chr.’’; Aslan, Etudes H istoriques sur le Peuple Arménien, Paris; 1909, pp. 114 and 117 places his reign between 20 and 5 B.C.; Dolens and Khatch, Histoire des anciens Arméniens Geneva 1907, calling this king Tigranes II on p. 155 and Tigranes III on p. 226, give as his reign 20-6 B.C} .The only fact that is certain is that he commenced to reign about 20 B.C. and that, as Dolens and Khatch state, ibid. p. 155, ‘‘Sur le régne de ce Tigrane II nous ne con- naissons absolument rien.’’ 39 See Friedlander in Zeitschr. f. Num., IV, 271 (fig.) and VII, 229; Reinach, Trois Royaumes de l’Asie Mineure, pp. 32 ff., Plate I, Nos. 5 ter and 6; Blau, Zeitsch. f. Num., VII, 37; Imhoof-Blumer, Portraits, p. 42. 40 Reinach, loc. cit. pp. 26-30 41 [bid. No 4. oe EASTERN DYNASTS Pu. EASTERN DYNASTS ade a NuMISMATIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS 1 Sydney P. Noe. Coin Hoards. 1921. 47 pages. 6 plates. 50c. 4 Howland Wood. ‘The Mexican Revolu- tionary Coinage, 1913-1916. I92I. 44 pages. 26 plates. $2.00. 6 Agnes Baldwin. Five Roman Gold Me- dallions. 192I. 103 pages. 8 plates. $1.50. 7 Sydney P. Noe. Medallic Work of A. A. Weinman. 1921. 31 pages. I7 plates. $1.00. 9 David Eugene Smith, LL.D. Computing Jetons. I92I1. 70 pages. 25 plates. $1.50. 10 Edward T. Newell. The First Seleucid Coinage of Tyre. I92I. 40 pages. 8 plates. $1.00. a te Vins © ~ “ach Orders and zes. 35 plates. lars of 1858. | 50c. mmedan Coin-: 1922. 56 of Characene. $1.00. es (A Contri- natics). 1922. ca orative Coin- 2. 63 pages. 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