The singularly opportune offer of an already-prepared and hitherto-unpublished plate of coins, bearing directly upon the dynastic reconstruction of the ancient Persian empire, which it has been the object of the preceding pages to illustrate from other sources, has induced me, not unwillingly, to extend the original design of this Essay, so far as to embrace a limited. series of the introductory Numismatic remains of the period, and to exemplify, by means of the coined money of the day, the transitional portraiture which maintained such typical significance in the public life of Oriental nations, as well as to complete the other more important Palæographic section of the previous investigation, by tracing through an independent class of national monuments the earlier epochs and concurrent developments of the sister alphabets under their squared and formal Numismatic aspect, as contrasted with the freedom enjoyed by the designers of the lapidary epigraphs. Passing by the early Armenian treatment of the normal alphabet of the West, which has only an indirect bearing upon the more comprehensive range of the double set of letters of the Parthians and Persians, we find that the coins of the Arsacidæ suffice to prove, in casual but sufficiently consecutive examples, the existence of the parallel systems of Chaldæo-Pehlvi and Sassanian writing from A.D. 2 to the final extinction of the dynasty by Ardeshir Babegán in the first half of the third century. They establish further the curious coincidence of a complete disregard of any critical adherence to either one or the other approximate alphabetical systems— letters following either one form or the other seem to have been taken at hazard; and, more singular still, to have been combined in juxtaposition-sometimes one type of letter being used, sometimes the other, as if both alphabets had been in equal acceptance, whether with the ruling classes or the vulgar, for whose sake local writing, as opposed to the official Greek, may have been designedly employed. There is one check and failure as yet in the evidence of the coins, in that we cannot, with any certainty, interpret their mint monograms, which clearly typified the place of issue;-these are, in truth, so susceptible of the almost endless trans 4 positions of their crypto-characters, that the most confident Numismatists are unable to determine, with any unanimity, to what geographical section of the empire they refer; but without entering into the controversy as to whether the monogram on No. 1 symbolizes la Satrapie Apolloniatide,1 Tambrace, Assyria,3 or other localities, the coincidence of its issue by one of the members of the Bactrian branch of the Imperial Arsacidæ,5 pushes the conjoint alphabets very far to the eastward, and leaves us to speculate vaguely upon the boundary line of Aryan Bactrian and that far earlier civilization, in Khárism, of which Sir H. Rawlinson has given us so interesting a glimpse. 1 Visconti, iii., pl. xlix., figs. 12, 15. pp, 479, 483. "AП and AÑO.” 2 Lindsay, pl. xi. 3 D. Scott, Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xvii., p. 171. Trésor de Numismatique (M. C. Lenormant), pl. Ixviii., fig. 18, p. 143. "KAT." I must confess a preference among these readings for Tambrace. The TaλaBрókn in Hyrcania of Strabo (xi., c. vii., § 2). The Taußpat of Polybius (x.. c. 31, § 5). We find TAM and TAMB, in the form of independent letters on the obverses of the coins of the early Arsacidæ, and we meet with a more elaborated Monogram, similar to that under discussion, on the Western money of Mithridates I., which embodies every letter of the word TAMBPAX. It is possible that the traditional reverence for an early capital may have secured the perpetuation of its name among the later metropolitan cities. 5 The Armenians, who knew more about Parthian history than other people, divided the ruling families into six branches. 1. The Parthian Arsacidæ. 2. The Armenian. Then, une troisième branche des Arsacides règnait dans le pays des Kouchans et des Thétals (ancienne Bactriane et Caboul). (M. E'variste Prud'homme, Journal Asiatique, Feb. 1866, p. 124). These latter were the kings whose successors are subsequently found reigning in the Punjab. Wilson, Ariana Antiqua; Lassen, Ind. Alt.; Prinsep's Essays, etc. 6"The belief in a very early empire in Central Asia, coeval with the institution of the Assyrian monarchy, was common among the Greeks long anterior to Alexander's expedition to the East, and could only have been derived from the traditions current at the court of the Achæmenian kings. This belief, again, is connected through the names of Oxyartes and Zoroaster with the Iranian division of the Aryan race, and receives confirmation from the earliest memorials of that people... the opening chapters of the Vendidad indicate the progress of Iranian colonization during the earliest phases of the national existence; and it is thus of much ethnological importance to find that the empire commenced with Sogdiana, Merv, and Bactria; that in its subsequent development it included the modern provinces of Khorasan, Afghanistan, and Kharism, and finally, at its period of greatest extension, stretched from Seistan on the south, to the Jaxartes on the north, and from the Indus on the east, till it touched the extreme limit of the Median frontier to the west. It is with the Eastern Iranians, however, that we are principally concerned, as the founders of Central Asian civilization. This people, on the authority of the Vendidad, may be supposed to have achieved their first stage of development in Sughd. Their language was probably Zend, as distinguished from the Achæmenian Persian, and somewhat more removed than that dialect from the mother tongue of the Arians of the south. A more important evidence, however, of the very high state of power and civilization to which they attained is to be found in the information regarding them preserved by the cele The subjoined series of coins exemplify the nearly consecutive use of the fellow alphabets. No. 1. Silver. Size, 4. Weight, 58 grains. B. M. Unique. OBVERSE. Head of king to the left, thinly but not closely bearded, with a low Parthian tiara surmounted by two rows of studs. Monogram, ND. REVERSE. The usual Parthian type of the king seated on his throne, holding out a bow. Monogram, (Tambrace?). Legend in imperfect Greek, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΑΝΑΒάρους. No. 2. Copper. Weight, 111·5 grains. B. M. Unique. OBVERSE. Head of king to the left, lightly or meagerly bearded, wearing the Parthian cap studded with jewels. Close fitting vest. with jewelled collar, and a boldly ornamented border to the outer garment. Legend. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ μεγας. REVERSE. Winged figure of Victory, to the right, holding out chaplet, as on the Bactrian coins of Manas, Azas, etc. Legend. ΣΑΝΑΒΑΡΟΥΣ. This coin, though unpublished, has long been known, having been brought to England many years ago by Captain Hollings, of the Bengal Army. It was properly classed in the Bactrian series in the British Museum, but it was left for General Cunningham to detect its association with the quasi Parthian coin (No. 1) of the same monarch. brated Abu Rihan, himself a native of the country, and the only Arab writer who investigated the antiquities of the East in a true spirit of historical criticism. This writer supplies us with an extensive specimen of the old dialects of Sugdh and Kharism. He gives us in those dialects the names of the twelve months, the names of the thirty days of the month, and the five Epagomenæ, together with the names of the signs of the Zodiac and of the seven planets, and lastly of the mansions of the moon. A portion of this nomenclature is original, and offers a most curious subject for investigation; but the majority of the names can be compared, as was to be expected, with the Zend correspondents, and, indeed, are much nearer to the primitive forms than are the better known Parsee equivalents. According to Abu Rihan, again, the solar calendar of Kharism was the most perfect scheme for measuring time with which he was acquainted; and it was maintained by the astronomers of that country that both the solar and lunar Zodiacs had originated with them, the divisions of the signs in their system being far more regular than those adopted by the Greeks or Arabs Abu Rihan asserts that the Kbarismians dated originally from an epoch anterior by 980 years to the era of Seleucidæ, a date which agrees pretty accurately with the period assigned by our best scholars to the invention of the Jyotisha or Indian calendar." —Quarterly Review, October, 1866, p. 488, etc. No. 3. The next appearance of the local alphabets is on a coin of Arsaces XVI. (A.s. 315A.D. 4), which has been published in the Révue de la Numismatique Belge (4th series, vol. iv. p. 369), and described by M. de Baron B. de Kochne, who, by a most singular hallucination, has converted the initial letters of the name of Arsaces () on the reverse into the Greek characters nz, or, in their capacity of numerals, into the figures for 280; and as he had already been obliged to recognise the proper Seleucidan date of TIG 315 on the obverse, he proceeded to propound an elaborate theory, which was to set at rest that still undetermined problem, the true initial epoch of the Arsacidæ, by the aid of the numbers expressed in the conjoint dates. The obverse of this coin presents the head of Arsaces Phrahataces, with the numeral letters TIG on the flowing fillet at the back. The reverse displays the head Mousa,' the Queen Mother, with the Greek letters OEAΣ on the margin, outside the fillets, and between the fillets and the Queen's neck, looking at the coin from the same point of view as is necessary to make the Greek legible, there are seen in a parallel line, though reading from the opposite direction, the two ChaldæoPehlvi letters ar. The first of which partakes somewhat of the Sassanian form of the character, while the is more like a Chaldæo-Pehlvig or, an outline the Parthian r was frequently made to follow, as may be seen in examples of the bronze coins described below, under No. 9,2 as well as in the curious developments of the r on the money of Artavasdes, No. 13. If there were any doubt about the propriety of reading these letters as the initials of a name, it would be set at rest by the location of the monogrammatic symbol for the name of Mousa, which is inserted in exactly the same position, in proximity to the Queen's. head, on the coins of Phraates IV. A coin of this Prince, figured by M. de Longpérier, which marks the first introduction of the bust of a female on the Parthian currency, seems to have been influenced in its details by some Oriental reserve in regard to so decided an innovation; and though the word OEA is inserted in i The Italian slave "Thermusa" of Josephus, xviii., c. ii., § 3. The name is indubitably s. मूषक, म. legro, P. Lŵgo, mûs, mus, “a mouse.” A de signation still largely affected by Hindu Anonymas. ? See also Numismatic Chronicle, xii., plate, fig. 1, p. 84; xvii., 167; Longpérier, pl. xvii.; Dr. Levy, Zeitschrift, 1867, pl. ii., fig. 13. 4 1 the margin, the name of the favourite is subdued into the elegant monogram, which, however, clearly embraces all the letters of the word MOTZAZ. In coins of a later period, all disguise is laid aside; and although the identical monogram is retained in its original position, Mousa's name and titles are given in full, as EAC OTPANIAC MOTCHC BACIA [ooas]. Epithets she certainly did not deserve, if we are to credit Josephus. It may seem over-venturesome for one who has not seen the coin itself to attempt to correct the reading of so high an authority as M. de Koehne, who has had the piece under close and deliberate examination; but the truth is, the suggestion of the discovery of any new system of dating in the East has such charms for those who are enquiring into the primitive condition of Central Asia, that I tested every possible solar and lunar variety of methods of calculation to see if this new theory would hold water; but as these comparisons all ended in simple chaos, there can be little objection to submitting the leading evidence to a more practical and mechanical proof. No. 4. Vologeses I. (A.D. 52 to 60). "Buste barbu et diadémé de Vologèse, à dr., une verrue au front, la barbe moins longue que celle de Gotarzes, mais coupée de la même manière; derr. VOL en caract. araméens. REV. 1. BACIAENC BACIAEON. 2. APCAKOY. 3. EYEPTETOY. AIKAIOY. 4. ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝ. Le roi assis, à dr., tenant l'arc; dans le champ, TA. Being unable to refer to any original coins of this particular type, I had sedulously transcribed the above description from M. Rollin's "Sale Catalogue," under the impression that M. de Longpérier, having withdrawn from circulation, as far as he was able, all copies of his Mémoires. . des "Rois Parthes Arsacides" (Rollin, Paris, 1857), was desirous that the work should be altogether ignored by those who might have access to impressions still unredeemed and at large; but the Publisher's note at p. 541 of the Catalogue seems to relieve me of any such needless reserve; and 2 1 ΜΟΥΣΑΣ and ΜΟΥΣΗΣ were used indifferently on the coins.Lindsay, pl. iii., figs. 62, 63, and p. 171. 2 "C'est encore à M. de Longpérier que la science est redevable de la découverte de ces légendes araméennes, dès l'année 1841, dans la Revue de Numismatique française, pages 250 et 251. Le savant académicien faisait pressentir sa précieuse |