I had intended to have passed over the Sub-Parthian series of coins with but scant comment, as the peculiarly degraded forms of the letters employed gave but little promise of legitimate Palæographic illustration, but the unexpected discovery of the correct attribution of an extensive class of these mintages throws new light, both historical and geographical, on the general inquiry.

A short time ago, General Cunningham, knowing that I was interested in these medals, was kind enough to bring me three pieces of the type B, on one of which was clearly defined the ordinarily-bungled and unintelligible Greek monogram

a combination that proved readily susceptible of being expanded into the full name of ATPOПATHNH. The next step in the solution of the problem was to enquire whether any and what kings claimed, during the Parthian sway, the country of Azerbaiján. A branch of a family tree opportunely presented itself in the record of two reigns in Atropatenian Media, which had been casually adverted to by classical writers, in connexion with the wars of Lucullus and Antony in the East; and, singular to say, the two designations thus preserved, approximately accorded with two of the three successions perpetuated on the coins, viz., those of the father and son, Darius and Artaxerxes. The third but earliest of the race is called ' Atúrdat, "Gift of Fire," (Aτpadáτηs), an association which, however strange to modern ears, is strictly emblematic of the early Zoroastrian creed, and clearly in unison with the parallel nomenclature of Mithridates and Tiridates. The name itself is probably identical with the Armenian Ardoates or Artovart,3 which seem to have been corrupt transcriptions of the original Oriental term, which is more accurately reproduced in the Pehlvig Japon (l) and

(اتور دات) .of the Sassanian Seals تور یزدان دات مدل دکور وسیم

(1)

We have no collateral evidence of the existence of this particular Atúrdat, but he may be conjectured to have been some relative of the great Tigranes of Armenia, and by him entrusted with the

1 Sir H. Rawlinson, Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. x. p. 65; Masson, J.R.A.S. xii. pp. 97, 122.

2 Nicolas of Damascus, quoting Ctesias, Fragm. Hist. Græc. (C. Müller, Paris, 1849), vol. iii. p. 398; Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 252.

3 The Armenians seem fully to discriminate Artovart ('Apdoáros, Diod. Sic. xxxi. 28) from Artavazt and Ardaschas. St. Martin. i. 409.

J.R.A.S. xiii. p. 245, gems Nos. 63, 68.

charge of Atropatene on its conquest.' Though Strabo is most distinct in his assertion that the successors of Atropates3 continued in independent possession of the country up to, and after the commencement of the Christian era, and it might be inferred from his expressions that they strengthened their position from time to time by matrimonial alliances with the Kings of Armenia, Syria, and Parthia; it is possible that, in all cases, the local king may have been permitted to retain the government, subject to the acknowledgment of fealty to the Suzerain of the day, whether Armenian or Parthian. However, be this as it may, we find Atúrdat's son Darius, or Dáril (Dárir), as he calls himself on the coins, fully established as king of Northern Media in B.C. 69. The appearance of a close copy of the head of Mithridates I. of Parthia (B.C. 173-136) on the obverse of the coins, may be taken to imply that Darius recognized him as the common ancestor of the dynasty, and the real founder of the Arsacidan empire. Tigranes the great is supposed by some authors to have been a descendant of Artaxias, but we know that Valarsaces I. (B.c. 149-127), the greatgrandfather of Tigranes, was placed upon the throne of Armenia by his own brother Mithridates I. of Parthia," which would seem to establish a totally different relationship, unless we may infer a descent from Artaxias by the mother's side. But under any circumstances the imitation of the style of the great conqueror on the coins of his successors, in the conjoint Armenian branches 1 Strabo, xi. c. xiv. § 15; St. Martin, i. 291, 410. 2 Book xi. c. xiii. § 1. 3 The name seems to be merely Atúr-Pati (ufa), so also the word Atropatene may have something in common with (2 to surround, to encompass), in which case the synonym 'Ayßárava would respond to fA (ANA) Ignis, "fire," Ag-paṭana, the Hagmatana of the Assyrian Cuneiform: an etymology which would sufficiently account for the frequent application of the name to the sacred places of the Persians. (Cf. 'Aypadáτns. Strabo, xv. c. iii. § 6.)

آگ

4 Ὁ δὲ Πομπήϊος καὶ τὸν Ταῦρον ὑπερελθὼν, ἐπολέμησεν Αντιόχῳ τῷ Κομμαγηνῷ, ἕως ἐς φιλίαν δ ̓ Αντίοχος αὐτῷ συνῆλθεν. ἐπολέμησε δὲ καὶ Δαρείῳ τῷ Μήδῳ, μέχρις ἔφυγεν, εἴτε ̓Αντιόχῳ συμμαχῶν, εἴτε Τιγράνῃ πρότερον.-Appian. Mith. cvi. ΔΑΡΕΙΟΣ ΜΗΔΟΣ is also mentioned in the triumph of Pompey as one of the kings conquered during the war.-App. Mith. cxv i.

5 M. F. Lenormant had already recognised the likeness of the head on the obverse of these coins to that of Mithridates I., as he is conventionally portrayed on a special class of his own proper currency, a similitude which was obvious and self-evident, though not obviously material (Journal Asiatique, 1865, page 205). But the appearance of the effigy of the effective founder of the Parthian Empire no more implies contemporaneity, than does a similar imitation by Ardeshír Babegán, so many centuries later, carry any epochal value.

6 St. Martin specially mentions that the kingdom, thus established, embraced Atropatene; i. p. 289.

of the family, was quite consistent with the known reverence entertained by the Parthians for their ancestors, and the special feeling that none but the members of the family of the Arsacidæ were fit to reign. The portrait, it is true, is probably intended to represent Darius himself, though much of the likeness of the original profile is preserved, but the symbol of the half-moon upon Darius' tiara indicates alike his Armenian connexion, and marks the contrast with the star which forms the central ornament of the helmet of Mithridates I.1 The proper Armenian coins of a king calling himself, in similar orthography, Atúrdat, also exhibit on the obverse of the earlier examples, a bust, very similar to that of Mithridates I. as it is figured on the larger pieces of the Western mints, with the head uncovered and the hair merely retained by the fillet. The same local sovereign's name also appears on another class of the Armenian currency, which is distinguished by a Romanized form of the ancient Phrygo-Armenian or Mosynœcian helmet,3 surmounted by a crescent, which latter takes the place of the Roman eagle, that constitutes the crest in previous mintages. Another set of coins which connect themselves in their reverse types with Atúrdat's money, bear the name of Tiridates (7) in Chaldæo-Pehlvi, having an associate obverse device of the same uncovered head of the Mithridates style. The reverses of the Armenian coins present a different type of Fire Altar to that employed by the Atropatenians. Originally the reverse design consisted of a built-up pedestal of the height of a man, having three small altars on the top, with the King or Mobed on one side and the curious Cuneiform symbol for an Altar,1 in the form of a standard, on the other. Gradually the design of the Fire-temple is modified by the introduction of the figure of Ormazd issuing from the flames, and subsequently, as the worship of Venus, or Luna, grew upon the purer Zoroastrianism, the side altar is surmounted by a Cock," and the device assumes a near identity with

Lindsay, Pl. i., figs. 19, 20; Trésor de Numismatique, Pl. lxvii., fig. 13; Longpérier, Pl. iii.

2 Trésor de Numismatique, lxvii., fig. 10; Longpérier, Pl. iii.

3 Herodotus, vii., 61, 62, 72; Xenophon, Anab. V. c. iv., § 13; Num. Chron. 4 G. Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies I., p. 337; Num. Chron., N. S., vii., (1867), p. 238.

5 Selden, De Diis Syris, 309; Haugh, 213. The services rendered by the Cock (Parô-dars), the bird of Serosh., 18th Fagard, Z.A. M. Vámbéry in his "Sketches of "Central Asia" (London, 1868), mentions that to this day in Bokhára, a cock is offered on the Nauroz "by all Fire Worshippers."

the Ancient Babylonian illustration of the worship of the Moon,' which has been preserved on one of the Seal Cylinders discovered by Mr. Layard.

The son of Darir, who is entitled Ardeshír on the coins, may fairly be identified with the king designated by Dion Cassius as the Aprαoáσons' of Northern Media, at the period of Antony's invasion of that province in 36 в.C. The general character of the coins, in fabric, types and forms of letters, coincides completely with the issues of Darir, the one exception being that Ardeshír introduces the striking novelty among Oriental peoples of a veritable well-formed coronet crown, which seems to have been imitated from the "Corona Muralis" of the Romans, with this improvement, however, that whereas the Western model was formed of a mere succession of towers with triple pinnæ, which had an air of much sameness, the Eastern coronet was designed after their own system of battlements of three gradational steps, which produced a much more open and bold effect. How the King of the Medes of those days came to affect such a head-dress it would be rash to say, but there may have been a vague design and a covert taunt in the Oriental mind which suggested the assumption of the Mural crown that the defender of the enceinte of Phraata3 so well deserved. Though it is possible that the subsequently friendly relations established between Antony and the same King of the Medes may have had something to do with the foreign adaptation.

4

1 Layard, Nineveh, pp. 538, 539; King's Gems, pp. 129, 137. Strabo (xi. c. xiv. § 16) specially mentions that the Armenians had associated with their system of Fire-worship great reverence for Anaïtis, and had built numerous temples to her honour.

2 Καὶ ἦλθε μέχρι τοῦ Εὐφράτου, νομίζων ἔρημον αὐτὸν φρουρᾶς εἶναι· ἐπεὶ μέντοι πάντα τὰ ταύτη διὰ φυλακῆς ἀκριβοῦς ὄντα εὗρεν, ἐκεῖθεν μὲν ἀπετράπετο, ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν τῶν Μήδων βασιλέα ̓Αρταουάσδην τῷ τῆς ̓Αρμενίας τῆς μείζονος βασιλεῖ, ὁμωνύμῳ τοι καὶ ἐχθρῷ ὄντι, πειθεὶς στατεῦσαι, πρὸς τὴν ̓Αρμενίαν εὐθὺς ὥσπερ eixev èxwpnoe'-Dion Cass. xlix. 25. [Editor's note] Alii 'Apráßajov habent. See also xlix. 33, 40, 44, and li. 16.

3 Sir H. Rawlinson in his exhaustive Memoir on the site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana (Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc.. x., p. 65), has traced, with much care the new names assigned at various epochs to the "Seven-walled City" of Dejoces, Ecbatana, Phraata, Praaspa, Vera, Gaza, Gazaca, Canzaca (Kandsag), Azergeshesp, Azerbadegan, Atún-Pádegán, Azerekhsh (Derekhsh), Shíz (Arrán), Takht-iSoleïmán. See also Strabo, xi. c. xiii. § 3; Ker Porter, ii. 97.

• Plutarch in Antony.

DARIUS, KING OF MEDIA ATROPATENE.

CLASS A.-Silver.

OBVERSE. Head similar to that of Mithridates I.' with the the Parthian tiara, with the side ornament of a half moon.

No legend.

REVERSE. Device: A Mobed ministering before a small Fire Altar.

.דאריל מלכא בריי יתורדת מלכא .Legend

Dáril, king, son of Itúrdat, king.

CLASS A. a. There is a parallel series of coins of this prince with a similar reverse device (but with far more crude legends), which are remarkable as having a coarse Parthian head on the obverse, something in the style of the portraits of Phraates II. These pieces probably belonged to a different division of the kingdom of Northern Media. There are, at times, traces of a name on the obverse, but the specimens available do not suffice to determine its purport.

CLASS A. b.-Daril's name occurs also on a coin, in the East India Collection, having on the

OBVERSE. A Parthian head.

REVERSE. A small standing figure, with a star and crescent to the front (similar to the reverse figured under No. 4, Plate xv. Ariana Antiqua).

דאריל מלכא .Legend

ARDESHIR, SON OF DARIUS, KING OF MEDIA ATROPATENE.

CLASS B. Silver. Weight, 63 grains. B.M.2

OBVERSE. Head of the King3 wearing a crown, similar to that on No. 3 of the accompanying Plate, but more highly finished. (No legend.) Traces of a similar monogram to that above noticed.

1 For engravings of similar coins see Ariana Antiqua, pl. xv. fig. 2; Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xii. pl., p. 68, figs. 5, 6, 7; Lindsay, pl. x. figs. 27, 28; Zeitschrift, vol. xxi. pl. ii. figs. 2, 3, 4, 5.

2 There are great varieties of sizes and weights of this issue, indicating a complete and comprehensive system of currency,-the smaller pieces go down as low as 9 grains.

3 For engravings of similar coins see Ariana Antiqua, pl. xv. fig. 3; Num. Chron. xii. pl. fig. 8; Zeitschrift, vol. xxi. pl. ii, figs. 9, 10.