Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/74

52 (Edioth, ii, 9), so that the latter was the halfpenny. The silver Mina of Tyre was worth five Sela’ or twenty shillings, being nearly equivalent to the gold Dinar (Bicuroth, viii, 7). The current coin of the country recognised by the Roman Government included copper coins of various cities, such as Jerusalem, Tyre, &c., which had pagan superscriptions in Greek. Pompey had forbidden the Phoenicians to coin silver; and gold was only stamped by the central government. Tyrian coins from 145 B.C. to 153 A.D. are well known. The Jews used such coinage in dealings with the Gentiles, as, for instance, in selling sheep, calves, &c. (Pesakhim, iv, 3). The value of a bull appears to have ranged from £2 10s. to £10. A bull of 1,000 dinars is noticed, but these probably were not of gold (Baba Kama, iv, 1; Kholin, iii, 7). 

The Jews had to deal with Greeks, Romans, pagan natives, and a few Christians, whom they appear to have called Minim, a term which some have connected with the name of Manes the heretic. The prevailing religion of the country was a Polytheism partly Greek and partly native, and its character is established by the texts found in the ruins of pagan temples, especially in Bashan and in Syria. The statue of Hadrian continued erect on the Holy Rock of the Jerusalem temple even as late as the fourth century. The temples to Augustus at Samaria and Cæsarea, and those at Ascalon, at Gaza, and at Afka, at Daphne and at Carchemish in Syria, were all still standing. Those of Baalbek and on Hermon, at Gerasa and Rabbath Ammon, still remain in ruins, with traces of smaller sanctuaries, and especially of the Temple to the pagan deity Aumo, raised by Herod the Great in Bashan.

The inscriptions tell us that the deities worshipped by the Greek speaking population included Zeus Keraunios, Zeus Kassios, Kronos, Athene Gozmaia, Tyche (or fate), to whom one text is addressed showing that a temple was built to her (Waddington, No. 2413), with Herakles, Helios, Selene, Atergatis and Theandrites. Among the native gods were Marna of Gaza, Aumo, Aziz, and Du Shera, all of whom have Greek texts ill their honour, with Baal Markod near Beirut, and the Palmyrene gods Baal Samin, Melek Baal, and Aglbaal, while at Daphne there was still a priest of Apollo. The worship of some of these deities continued even after the establishment of Christianity, especially among the Arabs. Aumo is invoked in 320 A.D. (Waddington, 2393). Du Shera was worshipped in 164 A.D. (No. 2023).

An important, tract (Abodah Zara) relates to the Jewish dealings with Pagans, but the only deities named are Aphrodite (iii, 5), whose image stood in the public bath at Accho, and Markulim or Mercury (iv, 1), who was represented by a stone before which a dolmen altar of three stones was placed. The Epicureans (Beracoth, ix, 5; Sanhedrin, xi, 1) and philosophers (Abodah Zara, iii, 5) are noticed, and the Asharoth or sacred trees (iii, 7), under which sometimes, as at Sidon (iii, 7) was a stone heap, including a rude hermaic image. All images were unlawful, including 