coins bearing the names of satraps, and the questions are
raised, under what circumstances were these issued, and with
what extraordinary powers was a satrap invested, who was
permitted to issue money in his own name? The theory is
advanced, that the satraps of the Persian empire never held the
right to coin money in their capacity as satraps. All the
instances we have of satrapal coins were issued by satraps
invested with the command of armies. Fr. Lenormant says: "All
the pieces known, which bear the names of high functionaries of
Persia, mentioned in history, particularly those of Cilicia,
should be ranged in the class of military coins; that is, coins
issued by generals placed at the head of armies, on a campaign,
and not as satraps exercising their regular powers." The only
satrapies in which money was coined, before Alexander, are the
following. The sixth satrapy, which comprised Egypt and
Cyrenaica. The fifth satrapy or that of Syria, comprising
Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Phornicia, Palestine and the island
of Cyprus. The fourth satrapy or that of Cilicia, which
Page 138 acquired in the V century the states north of the Taurus. The
first satrapy or that of Ionia, comprising Pamphilia, Lycia,
Caria, Pisidia, Ionia and Eolis. The twelfth satrapy, known as
the satrapy of Sardis, or of Lydia. The thirteenth satrapy,
known also as the satrapy of Phrygia, which comprised, besides
the coast of the Hellespont, all the central region of Asia
Minor between the Taurus and the Black Sea. This huge province
was divided in the fifth century into the satrapies of Greater
Phrygia, Lesser Phrygia, and Cappadocia.
2. The coinage in circulation in Egypt, during the Achæmenidean
supremacy was all of foreign origin, the staters of the Kings
of Tyre and Sidon and the tetradrachmas of Athens. The commerce
with Greece, and especially the incessant wars in which Greek
mercenaries were largely employed, tended to make Athenian
silver popular in the eastern countries. For the pay of these
mercenaries, the Persians and Egyptians had recourse to silver
money, and especially to those types with which the Greeks were
acquainted. Thus the prevalence of Athenian coins in the Orient
is accounted for by these circumstances. The generals of the
Persian and Egyptian armies made use of the Athenian coins
which had long been in circulation in the country. They merely
imprinted upon the coin of Attic origin a counter-mark to
officially authorize the circulation, and when the original
Athenian coins in the country were insufficient to pay the
troops, they struck off others as nearly like them as
possible--these, however, are easily recognized by the defects
of workmanship and altered inscriptions. One sort has in place
of the Greek lettering an Aramean inscription. On a certain
number of these we find the name Mazaios, the famous satrap of
Cilicia, who undertook to subdue the insurgent king of Sidon.
The imitation of Athenian coins and the coins of Alexander was
continued in Arabia down to the first century of our era. The
Athenian coins were not the only ones copied in Egypt,
Palestine, and Arabia. The coinage of the kings of Sidon were
frequently imitated by the Aramean chiefs, of whom Bagoas was
one. Then, too, the kings of Sidon had supreme command of the
imperial fleet and had the paying of the naval army. Later,
Mazaios, placed at the head of the Persian army, for a time
imitated the Sidonian coins, substituting his name for that of
the Sidonian dynasty. Bagoas, in turn, did likewise.
3. In Phornicia and northern Syria, which formed the greater
part of the fifth satrapy, a great quantity of coins were
struck off by the tributary dynasties. The kings of Tyre,
Sidon, Gebal, and Aradus had their own coinage, but there seems
to have been no satrapal coinage struck off in Phornicia. In
Page 139 northern Syria, when Mazaios added this satrapy to his own, he
levied and assembled troops from that entire region; this
accounts for the numerous issues of coins in northern Syria at
that time.
4. The dynasties of Cilicia coined money under the same
conditions as did the cities of Phornicia, Caria and Lydia. The
chief mint of Cilicia was at Tarsus, but money was also coined
at Soli and at Mallus. About the end of the fifth century a
coinage was issued from these mints which is ascribed to
uncertain satraps. The distinguishing mark of these coins,
according to Mr. Waddington, is the use of the neuter adjective
in [Greek: ikon], but this theory is not conclusive. Besides
these anonymous coins there were others coined in Cilicia
bearing the names of satraps, who were the envoys of the great
king to raise armies and equip fleets. The satrap Tiribazus
employed the mints at Issus, at Soli and Mallus; the satrap
Pharnabazus established his mints in various cities in Cilicia,
particularly at Nagidus; Datamus also issued coinage in
Cilicia. M. Six holds that Mazaios coined money, not only in
Cilicia, but also in Syria and Mesopotamia, and preserved the
right to a coinage under Alexander, but always in a military
capacity.
5. After the conquest of Alexander, his generals issued coinage
under his name in their satrapal authority. These were the
coins of Alexander, bearing on one side the particular symbol
of the generals who had issued them; there were the eagle of
Ptolemy, the demi-lion of Lysimachus or the horned horse of
Seleucus. Those of the generals who became kings, in 306,
issued coins in their own name, preserving on them the personal
emblems which they had employed in their satrapal authority.
The generals who did not become kings never issued a coinage in
their own names.
6. On the island of Cyprus are found numerous coins which
present all the distinctive signs of satrapal money; they are
believed to have been struck by Evagoras II, the successor of
Nicocles I; but the question arises, Were these satrapal pieces
of Evagoras coined on the island? It has been held that they
were issued from a mint on the continent, in Caria, because the
army of Evagoras was recruited in Asia Minor, and because their
weights are Rhodian, but the form of the letters is Phornician,
as upon all Cypriote corns; while, on the other hand, in Asia
Minor the Semitic money is inscribed with Aramean characters.
Moreover, all symbols and types which figure on these coins are
essentially Cypriote.--E. BABELON in _Revue Numismatique_,
1892, p. 277.
SASSANIAN COINS.--The Museum of the Hermitage has just come
into possession of the collection of coins of General Komarof,
Page 140 once governor of Russian Turkistan. It consists of more than
two thousand pieces, of which sixty are of gold. The most
remarkable coins of this rich collection are: Four Sassanian
pieces in gold, unpublished, (one of Hormuzd II and three of
Sapor II), a dinar of Nasr I, a dinar of Kharmezi of Tamerlan,
a dinar of Abdallah-ben-Khazim, and about fifty unpublished
Sassanian silver coins.--_Revue Numismatique_, 1892, p. 348.
PERSEPOLIS.--CASTS OF SCULPTURES.--The English archæologist Mr.
Cecil Smith has lately returned from an expedition to Persia.
He had with him two Italian makers of casts, and by their means
has obtained a valuable series of casts of the sculptures of
Persepolis from moulds of a fibrous Spanish paper. Among the
casts are those of a long frieze (perron) which decorated the
stairway of the main hall or "apadâna," erected by Xerxes; it
represents a procession of figures presenting to the king the
reports of his governors and the offerings of his subjects.
Another cast is that of the famous monolith of Cyrus.--_Chron.
des Arts_, 1892, No. 31. We understand that the collection of
casts of the Metropolitan Museum is to receive a copy of all
these casts.
SYRIA.
EDESSA.--HISTORICAL SKETCH.--M. Rubens Duval, the eminent
Syriac scholar, has been publishing in the _Journal Asiatique_
a history of the city of Edessa under the title: "_Histoire
religieuse et litteraire d'Edesse jusqu' à la première
Croisade_", (_Jour. As._ t. 18, No. 1 to t. 19, No. 1). This
monograph has been crowned by the French Academy. It includes a
considerable amount of information concerning the monuments of
the city, especially those belonging to the early Christian
period, and some idea can be gained of them by the following
abridged note. As Edessa was one of the principal cities of the
Christian East, the information is of interest. Edessa was from
its position a fortress of the first rank and reputed
impregnable. The citadel rose on a peak on the southwest angle
of the rampart. At the west end there still remain two columns
with Corinthian capitals, one of which bears an inscription
with the name of Queen Shalmat, daughter of Ma'nu, probably the
wife of King Abgar Ukhama. Within the citadel, on the great
square called Beith-Tebhara, King Abgar VII built, after the
inundation of 202, a winter palace, safe from the river floods,
and the nobles followed his example. In the city itself were
the porticoes or forum near the river, the Antiphoros or
town-hall, restored by Justinian. In 497, the governor of the
city, Alexander, built a covered gallery near the Grotto Gate
Page 141 and Public Baths, near the public storehouse; both the summer
and winter baths were surrounded by a double colonnade. To the
south, near the Great Gate, were other baths, and near them the
theatre. Within the Beth Shemesh Gate was a hospital and
outside it a refuge for old men. North of the city, near the
wall, was the hippodrome, built by Abgarus IX on his return
from Rome. The city had six gates which still exist under
different names.
Edessa is one of the few cities that are known to have had a
Christian church as early as the second century. This church
was destroyed by the inundation of 201, was then rebuilt, being
the only church in the city, suffered from the inundation of
303 and was rebuilt from its foundations in 313 by Cona, bishop
of Edessa, and his successor Sa'd. It was called the Ancient
Church, "the cathedral," also sometimes the Church of St.
Thomas, because in 394 it received the relics of the apostle
Thomas. The Frankish pilgrim woman who visited it at the close
of the fourth century, or later, speaks of its size, beauty and
the novelty of its arrangement. Duval believes her words to
relate to Justinian's building, believing in a later date than
is usually assigned to the above document. In 525 the church
was overthrown by an inundation and then rebuilt by Justinian
in such splendor as to be regarded as one of the wonders of the
world. It was overthrown by earthquakes in 679 and 718.
The other churches were as follows:
370. The Baptistery is built.
379. Church of S. Daniel or S. Domitius, built by Bishop
Vologese.
409. Church of S. Barlaha, built by Bishop Diogenes.
412. Church of S. Stephen, formerly a Jewish synagogue,
built by Bishop Rabbula.
435. The New Church, called later the Church of the Holy
Apostles, built by Bishop Hibhas.
" Church of S. John the Baptist and S. Addasus, built by
Bishop Nonnus (died 471), successor of Hibhas.
" Church of S. Mar Cona.
489. Church of the Virgin Mother of God, built on the site
of the School of the Persians after its destruction in
489.
c.505. Martyrium of the Virgin, built by Bishop Peter early in
VI century.
Outside the walls were the following churches:
Towards the N. Chapel of SS. Cosmas and Damian, built by Nonnus
(middle V century).
E. Church of SS. Sergius and Simeon, which was burned in 503 by
the Persian King Kawad.
Page 142
W. Church of Confessors, built in 346 by Bishop Abraham,
and burned by Kawad in 503.
Church of the Monks, near the citadel.
The cliffs to the west had been from early times excavated for
burial purposes. In the midst of the tombs rose the mausoleums
of the family of the Abgars, especially that of Abshelama, son
of Abgarus. They were also honeycombed with anchorites' cells.
This mountain received the name of the Holy Mountain and was
covered with monasteries, among which were the following:
Eastern Monks; S. Thomas; S. David; S. John; S. Barbara; S.
Cyriacus; Phesilta; Mary _Deipara_; of the Towers; of Severus;
of Sanin; of Kuba; of S. James. Arab writers mention over 300
monasteries around Edessa. Two aqueducts, starting from the
villages of Tell-Zema and Maudad to the north, brought
spring-water to the city; they were restored in 505 by Governor
Eulogius.
Bishop Rabbulas (412-435) built a hospital for women from the
stones of four pagan temples which were destroyed. He destroyed
the church of the sect of Bardesanes and the church of the
Arians, erecting other structures with their materials. After
the Persian wars (505) Eulogius, governor of Edessa, rebuilt
many of the damaged public monuments. He repaired the outer
ramparts and the two aqueducts; rebuilt the public baths, the
prætorium, and other structures. The bishop, Peter, restored
the cathedral and built the Martyrium of the Virgin, and also
covered with bronze one of the cathedral doors. Justinian
restored and rebuilt many buildings after the inundation of
524-25. Even under the early period of Muhammadan rule the
Christian structures were cared for. Under the Khalif
Abd-el-Malik (685-705) the Edessene Christian Athanasius, who
enjoyed great political influence, rebuilt the Church of the
Virgin, which was on the site of the School of the Persians;
rebuilt also the Baptistery in which he placed the portrait of
Christ sent to Abgarus and placed in it fountains like those of
the Ancient Church, decorating it also with gold, silver and
bronze revetments. He also built two large basilicas at Fostat
in Egypt. There is an interesting account of an artistic
treasure of great value discovered in a house belonging to a
noble family of the Goumêaus in 797 and belonging to the Roman
and Byzantine period; it is supposed to have been hidden in
609. The churches were often destroyed and rebuilt according to
the tolerance or intolerance of the Muhammadan governors. At
one period of persecution, c. 825, a mosque was built in the
_tetrapylum_ in front of the Ancient Church. It is not
important to trace the vicissitudes of the building of Edessa
any further.
Page 143
COINS OF THE KINGS OF EDESSA.--Marquis de Vogué sends to M.E.
Babelon a description of a bronze coin brought from Syria,
found either in the province of Alep or of Damas. It bears the
name of Abgarus, the name of several of the kings of Edessa.
The type is that of the small bronze pieces attributed to
Mannou VIII; the character and inscriptions are the same. It
must then be attributed to a king Abgarus whose reign
approaches as nearly as possible that of Mannou VIII. Mr.
Rubens Duval, in his history of Edessa, mentions two kings of
this name, Abgarus VIII, whose reign cut into that of Mannou
VIII, and Abgarus IX, who succeeded him. It is to one of these
two princes that this coin must be assigned. It is possible
that this monument may shed some light upon a portion of
Oriental chronology, hitherto very dark. Two other coins are
described from M. Vogué's collection, one of which, it seems,
should be attributed to the same king Abgarus as the preceding;
the other bears a name which M. Duval assigns to Abgarus XI,
who reigned for two years during a short restoration of the
government of Edessa.--_Revue Numismatique_, 1892, p. 209.
SINJIRLI.--SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS.--The German Oriental Committee
discovered, as is well known, an ancient city buried under a
number of mounds at a place called Sinjirli in the Amanus
Mountains. Here were found a number of statues bearing cuniform
inscriptions, Hittite inscriptions and two long Aramean
inscriptions of the VIII or IX century B.C.
M. Helévy, the well-known French Orientalist, was sent by the
Paris Institute to the Museum of Berlin, where these statues
are placed, to report upon the inscriptions. M. Helévy finds
that the two kings were rulers of Yadi and that their reigns
were a century apart. The first statue is that of Panémon,
founder of his dynasty--a 40 line inscription relates the
events of his reign, the protection of the Jews, _etc._ The
second is a king who was a vassal of Tiglath-Pilezer, king of
Assyria. The inscription describes wars of his father, his own
relations with Assyria, his defeats and victories. It gives an
account of his own reign and terminates by invoking the
protection of the gods.
M. Helévy says that these inscriptions are not in the Aramean
language, as was first supposed, but a Phornician dialect very
analogous to Hebrew, which was spoken by the people whom the
Assyrians named Hatte, that is to say, Hittites or Hetheim. He
adds that the current opinion as to their not being of Semitic
race is quite erroneous and that the hieroglyphics discovered
in various parts of Asia Minor are of Anatolian and not of
Assyrian origin, the few texts of this kind found at Hamath and
Page 144 Aleppo being due to Anatolian conquerors, whose domination,
however, was very temporary in character.--_Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, Oct., p. 887.
NAMES OF CITIES AT MEDINET HABU.--Prof. Sayce writes: The list
of places conquered by Rameses III in Palestine and Syria,
which I copied on the pylon of Medinet Habu, turns out to be
even more interesting than I had supposed, as a whole row of
them belongs to the territory of Judah. Thus we have the "land
of Salem," which, like the Salam of Rameses II, is shown by the
Tell-el-Amarna tablets to be Jerusalem, _arez hadast_, or "New
Lands," the Hadashah of Joshua (XV. 37), Shimshana or Samson,
"the city of the Sun" (Josh. XV. 10), Carmel of Judah, Migdol
(Josh. XV. 37), Apaka or Aphekah (Josh. XV. 53), "the Springs
of Khibur" or Hebron, Shabuduna, located near Gath, by Thothmes
III, and Beth-Anath, the Beth-Anoth of Joshua (XV. 59). The
discovery of these names in the records of an Egyptian king,
who reigned about 1200 B.C., raises a question of some interest
for students of the Old Testament.--_Academy_, April 2.
JAFFA.--The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund have
received through Mr. Bliss a squeeze of a long inscription
stated to have been recently discovered at a place not far from
Jaffa, which appears to contain about 250 letters in the
Phornician character.--_Academy_, March 5.
JERUSALEM.--A BYZANTINE BRACELET.--Mr. Maxwell Somerville of
Philadelphia has added to his collection a large bronze
bracelet found near Jerusalem and bearing a Greek inscription.
It was communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ by M. le Blant.
At one end of the inscription is a lion _courant_, at the other
a serpent _rampant_. On the left end is soldered a small round
plaque on which is engraved a subject identical with that found
on some of the amulets published by M. Schlumberger in the
_Rev. des Études Grecques_ (see under _Byzantine Amulets_ in
Greek news of this number). A mounted warrior--whom Mr.
Schlumberger identifies as Solomon--pierces with his lance a
prostrate female figure who apparently represents the devil, a
"Fra Diavalo."--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 23.
RETHPANA-DEAD SEA.--Prof. Sayce has discovered at Medinet Habû
the Egyptian name of the Dead Sea. Between the names of Salem
and Yerdano and the Jordan comes "the lake of Rethpana." As the
Dead Sea is the only "lake" in that part of the world, the
identification of the name is certain. Rethpana could
correspond with a Canaanite Reshpôn, a derivative from Reshpu,
the sun-god, who revealed himself in flames of
fire.--_Academy_, May 14.
Page 145
TEL-EL-HESY--LACHISH.--CUNEIFORM TABLET.--We quote from a
letter written to the Times by Mr. James Glaisher, chairman of
the executive committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund:--
The excavations commenced two years ago by Dr. Flinders Petrie
at a mound in Palestine named Tell-el-Hesy have been continued
during the last six months by Mr. F.J. Bliss, of Beirût. The
Tell has been identified by Major Conder and Dr. Flinders
Petrie with the ancient city of Lachish, an identification
which is now amply confirmed.
Mr. Bliss has found among the _débris_ a cuneiform tablet,
together with certain Babylonian cylinders and imitations or
forgeries of those manufactured in Egypt. A translation of the
tablet has been made by Prof. Sayce; it is as follows:--
'To the Governor. [I] O, my father, prostrate myself at thy
feet. Verily thou knowest that Baya (?) and Zimrida have
received thy orders (?) and Dan-Hadad says to Zimrida, "O, my
father, the city of Yarami sends to me, it has given me 3
_masar_ and 3 ... and 3 falchions." Let the country of the King
know that I stay, and it has acted against me, but till my
death I remain. As for thy commands (?) which I have received,
I cease hostilities, and have despatched Bel(?)-banilu, and
Rabi-ilu-yi has sent his brother to this country to [strengthen
me (?)].'
The letter was written about the year 1400 B.C. It is in the
same handwriting as those in the Tell-el-Amarna collection,
which were sent to Egypt from the south of Palestine about the
same time.
Now, here is a very remarkable coincidence. In the
Tell-el-Amarna collection we learn that one Zimrida was
governor of Lachish, where he was murdered by some of his own
people, and the very first cuneiform tablet discovered at
Tell-el-Hesy is a letter written to this Zimrida.
The city Yarami may be the Jarmuth of the Old Testament.
'Even more interesting,' writes Prof. Sayce, 'are the
Babylonian cylinders and their imitations. They testify to the
long and deep influence and authority of Babylon in Western
Asia, and throw light on the prehistoric art of Phornicia and
Cyprus. The cylinders of native Babylonian manufacture belong
to the period B.C. 2000-1500; the rest are copies made in the
West. One of these is of Egyptian porcelain, and must have been
manufactured in Egypt, in spite of its close imitation of a
Babylonian original. Others are identical with the cylinders
found in the prehistoric tombs of Cyprus and Syria, and so fix
the date of the latter. On one of them are two centaurs
arranged heraldically, the human faces being shaped like those
Page 146 of birds. European archæologists will be interested in learning
that among the minor objects are two amber beads.--_Academy_,
July 9.
The _Quarterly Statement_ of the Palestine Exploration Fund for
April contains a detailed report of Mr. F.J. Bliss's
excavations at Tell-el-Hesy, the site of Lachish, during last
winter, illustrated with several plans and woodcuts. The most
interesting objects found were a number of bronze weapons, and
fragments of pottery with markings, both from the lowest or
Amorite town. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie adds a note on the
weights discovered, almost all of which belong to the Phornician
and Aeginetan systems.
ARMENIA.
SEALS OF KING LEO II AND LEO V.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des
Inscr._ M. Schlumberger communicated three magnificent bulls or
gold seals of Leo II, king of Lesser Armenia. These gold bulls,
appended to letters from this king to Pope Innocent III,
written early in the XIII century, are preserved in the Vatican
archives, and are probably the only examples of the king in
existence. Leo II, in royal costume, is on one side; the lion
of Armenia on the other. Another royal Armenian seal is
preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It is that of Leo V,
the last king of the dynasty, who died, an exile, in
Paris.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No, 6.
CAUCASUS.
THE IRON AGE.--M. Ernest Ghautre has given a statement of his
ideas on the iron age in the Caucasus and elsewhere in a
pamphlet entitled, _Origine et Ancienneté du premier age du fer
au Caucase_, Lyon, 1892. He says: "Necropoli of unequalled
richness have been discovered in the Great Caucasus and on
several points of Transcaucasia. These necropoli, in which
inhumation appears to have been almost exclusively used, should
be divided into two large groups. The most ancient corresponds
to the Hallstatt period; the later to the Scythian period in
the East and the Gallic period in the West. The Hallstatt type
or that of the first iron age is met with especially in the
most ancient tombs of the necropolis of Kobau, in Ossethia;
those of the second iron age are to be found essentially in the
necropolis of Kambylte in Digouria and certain localities of
Armenia. The first iron age was introduced into the region of
the Caucasus between the XX and XV century B.C. by a
dolichocephalic population of Mongolo-Semitic or Semito-Kushite
and not of Iranian origin. It was transformed toward the VII
century by the invasion of a brachycephalic Scythian people of
Ural-Altaic origin."
Page 147
ANI.--The Russians are excavating at Ani, in Turkish Armenia,
the ancient capital. They have found some ecclesiastical and
other antiquities.--_Athenæum_, Sept. 3.
ASIA MINOR.