Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/488

 464 History of Art in Antiquity. with an attendant behind carrying the sceptre and censer. On the reverse is a war-galley, an emblem singularly appropriate for a maritime city such as Tyre, or to denote perhaps that the coin was intended for the payment Fic. 230.— Daulile siglos. SUver. H arclav Head, Ctinage, Plate III. Fig. 1. of the fleet In this class of pieces Phoenician letters ap- pear in the field, sometimes on both sides, as in Fig. 230, at other times on one side only (Fig. 231), clearly show- ing that they were struck on Syrian soil. The letters on the reverse vary from one coin to another, and seem to indicate the year of the reign in which they were minted. A curious de- tail about these pieces, and one that implies their royal provenance, is- that, although the type remains unchanged, the attendant behind the king in his chariot often wears the ps/tcnt : hence the inference that similar coins were struck in Egypt, Phoenicia, or Cilicia.^ The reappearance of these same types, slightly modified, as also of Punic letters, assign the same origin to another series of sigli, of which several varieties are known. On the obverse, the king in bis chariot with galloping horses ; at the side a run- ning animal, seemingly the wild goat. On the reverse, Fig. 231. — Double Mglos. Silver. JUd., Plate II. Fig. 19. Fig. 232.— Double ngloe. i^lvcr. /^.tf., fig. 4. original si/c {f.rt antique de la Pcrsr, torn. iii. Fig. 122), because the devices which it bears have no connection with the series we are considering. The t pes on one side are the Athenian owl and the Egyptian symbols of the crook and Hail ; on the Other, Melkarth riding over the waves upon a sea-horse, and beneath the waves sporting dolphins. Phoenician letters appear sometimes in the field, a Mim and an A in beside the owl. Barclay V. Head attributes the specimen to Tyre (Hist. Numorum^ p. 674, Fig. 356). V is the initial letter of the name of Tyre.— Trs. Digitized by Google
 * We have not reproduced the coin, which DIeulafoy has engraved four times its