taries of thy son Jesus, and address thee farther, trusting in his pro mises, as he vouchsafed to teach us. Our father, &c.'

M, Zollikofer's remarks on Public Diversions prove him to be a man whose genuine piety is not debased by the smallest portion of puritanical austerity. While he endeavours to guard his hearers against vicious excess in the pursuit of amusements, he assures them that he is actuated by no principle of moroseness. You know,' he says, that I am no enemy to mirth and pleasure, that 1 interdict you no kind of diversion, so long as it is innocent and harmless; and am by no means desirous of raising you to an imaginary perfection, of which the nature of man is not capable in its present state. And how could I do so without forgetting what the human creature is, and what spirit prevails in the Christian doctrine? It is observed, moreover, that the spirit of Christianity is a spirit of liberty and good humour; and in the introductory prayer, he rightly discriminates between the use and abuse of the pleasures of the world. We transcribe a part of it:

O God, who art our kind and gracious father, readily dost thou grant mankind thy children every harmless and innocent satisfaction. Thou even givest them the fullness of pleasures! Sensual pleasures, intellectual pleasures; domestic and social pleasures; pleasures of the present and of the future life: all pleasure comes from thee, it is thy special boon! Thou makest us susceptible of it, thou openest to us the sources, thou suppliest us with the means and the faculties for the enjoyment of it. Thanks and praise be to thee, the dispenser of joy, for every agreeable and delightful emotion that enters our heart-Who would not think on thee with cordial satisfaction, with alacrity lift up his mind and his heart to thee! Who would not love thee, the kind and bountiful parent of man! Who not make it his most carnest wish to please thee and to do thy will!-Oh may then every joy thou grantest us lead us to thee by rendering us more attentive and zealous in the discharge of our duty! Then should we look continually at thee, never withdraw from thee, never exceed the bounds of moderation. Then would our amusements be perfectly innocent and well-pleasing unto thee. Then would not sin so frequently turn our entertainments into folly, nor remorse and reproaches embitter their enjoyment. Ah Lord have patience with us, thy frail and feeble children!'

We need scarcely repeat our favourable opinion of the merit of M. Zollikofer as a divine, nor of Mr. Tooke as a translator. If the preacher be occasionally diffuse, his mind is stored with thought, and his heart is warm in the cause of religion and virtue. He is no common-place declaimer; and if we do not adopt all his sentiments, we cannot help feeling his piety, and loving him for his sincerity and benevolence. His discourses, considered as practical essays, deserve our warm recommendation.

ART.

ART. VIII. Coins of the Seleucide, Kings of Syria; from the Esta blishment of their Reign under Seleucus Nicator, to the Determination of it under Antiochus Asiaticus. With historical Memoirs of each Reign. Illustrated with twenty-four Plates of Coins, from the Cabinet of the late Matthew Duane, F. R. and A S., engraved by F. Bartolozzi. 4to. 21. 2s. Boards. Nichols, Payne, &c.

T is well known that the late Mr. Duane had been very assiduous in collecting antient coins; and particularly in forming a series of some of the finest of those which issued from the mints of the Syrian and Macedonian kings. These coins passed from the hands of their collector into those of Dr. Hunter, constituting a part of his Museum, and are ultimately destined to occupy a place in the cabinet of the University of Glasgow. While Mr. Duane possessed this numismatic treasure, he employed the celebrated Bartolozzi * in engraving them; with an intention, perhaps of publishing the plates, accompanied by observations on them, illustrative of the history of the region and period to which they refer. The editor of the present volume, who, for 'no inconsiderable price,' (120 guineas!) has now possession of the engravings, and has given plates of them to the public, observes that, had the original proprietor of them lived to execute his own design, no doubt can be entertained that he would have performed his task in a manner truly worthy of the subject; and that, under present circumstances, all that can be done is to accompany these fine plates with a short view of the reigns of the respective princes.'

As we have only scanty materials for the composition of a history of the Syrian Kings, and some dissonance appearing in the accounts, it is very properly conjectured by (Mr. Gough) the editor, that an exhibition of these coins will be not only pleasing but instructive by shewing what credit is due to his

* We copy with regret the note relative to this artist: Mr. Bartolozzi was driven by adverse circumstances, at a very advanced period of his life, to seek that comfort and independence on a foreign shore which his imprudence in suffering himself to be imposed on by his countrymen, who have taken advantage of his easy temper and carelessness about his affairs, have deprived him of the hope of enjoying here. His reception in Portugal, in November 1802, was most fattering. He has consented to pass the remainder of his life there on what in this country would be deemed a very moderate pension. A national academy of arts is to be established at Lisbon, under his superintendance, with two pupils from this country, and a handsome suite of apartments, and a salary of near two hundred pounds per

annum.'

torians,

torians, and by filling up the deficiencies of succeeding later writers.'

• Petavius (continues the editor) observes, that it is for the interest of sacred as well as profane history, that we should have an exact knowledge of the order and succession of those kings, who after Alexander the Great reigned in Syria, exhibiting the events of their reigns in chronological order, and their connexion with the story of the Maccabees. This last advantage is not a little improved by the frequent dates on their coins, which ascertain the exact series and succession, the number of years of their reigns, or the beginning or end of them, which had been left undetermined or imperfect in ancient historians and annalists: and thus the construction of the famous æra of the Seleucida may be settled. Various circumstances are recorded on these coins, the names of the several kings, and their distinctions from each other: antient historians having frequently omitted their surnames and titles, which serve not a little to illustrate their history; some of their actions, scarcely known from other means, but from hence more fully cleared up names and situations of celebrated cities of Syria, Phonicia, and Palestine, where they were struck: æræ, religious rites, deities, dignities, privileges, as that of being held sacred, inviolable, independent, ΙΕΡΑΣ, ΑΣΥΛΟΥ, ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΟΥ, all which particulars are frequenstly expressed on these coins.'

From Froelich, (who cites in his work the Samaritan coins of the Maccabean princes, which is a class omitted by Mr. Duane,) is copied, with brief explanations, the table of the monograms to be found on the coins represented in these plates; and in opposition to Pinkerton, who says that "the coins of kings very seldom have contractions," it is remarked that 'more of the coins here exhibited have contractions than are without them.'

The first of these plates contains the coins of Seleucus I. called Nicator, the founder of the Syro-Macedonian empire, who had the figure of an anchor impressed on his coins; owing, as Appian says, to his having found a small anchor under a stone against which he stumbled in his march to Babylon. Another reason is assigned by others: but whatever was the origin of the anchor the Seleucidæ after him always used it on their seals. The plates then continue in series, through the reigns of the other monarchs, to that of Antiochus IV., king of Commagene; of whom this short account is subjoined:

This little fertile country, situate on the borders of Syria and Cilicia, had for its capital, in its centre, the fortified city of Samosata. It was subject to the king of Syria, and had been left to Antiochus the Great, by the treaty with the Romans, after the battle of Magnesia, whence, it is probable, that it was seized by some of the princes of the Seleucian family, during their intestine wars; for we find no mention of a king of Commagene till the time of Pompey, by whom Selenia, a castle in Mesopotamia, was added to it; and the names of those who afterwards

afterwards reigned there are entirely Syrian. The kingdom subsisted from the time of Pompey the Great to Vespasian.

The first is Antiochus, who, opposing Pompey as he entered Syria after the defeat of Tigranes, was repulsed by him; but afterwards restored and assisted Pompey in his war with Cæsar.

Antiochus II. was put to death by order of Augustus, for having caused an embassador of his brother Mithridates to be assassinated. Mithridates was excluded from the succession, and another person of that name, not related to that family, set up by Augustus, who after his death, suffered Antiochus III. son of Antiochus Il. to succeed.

'Antiochus III. died in the reign of Tiberius, and Commagene became a Roman province. Caligula restored it to Antiochus IV. son of Antiochus III. and added to it the maritime parts of Cilicia. He assisted Vespasian against Vitellius; and was with Titus at the siege of Jerusalem; but being suspected of holding a correspondence with the Parthians, he was banished to Lacedæmon, and afterwards suffered to lead a private life at Rome. He left two sons, Antiochus and Callinicus, and a daughter Iotape. Antiochus IV. surnamed Epiphanes, served under Otho and Vespasian at the siege of Jerusalem. But Vespasian, having reduced Commagene to a Roman province, would not allow any of the sons of Antiochus to succeed him.'

We cannot think that Mr. Gough has displayed great penetration and accuracy, in his explanations and illustrations of the coins exhibited in the plates. To mention a few instances.

Plate I. fig. 4. The king's head in a lion's skin' this is an evident mistake, for the head on the coin is that of Hercules adorned with the spoils of the lion. In the four following, the head of Hercules is also positively assigned to the king; though at p. 18. it is doubted whether the heads so habited were those of the monarch.

Fig. 9. Old bearded head, laureate.' This might be understood by the uninitiated to signify an old bearded head of a poet laureate; whereas it is the head of Jupiter bearded and laureated, with no other marks of old age than its beard. On the reverse of this coin, the Elephants are made five, while Froelich makes them only four.

Fig. 11, 12, 13. Heads laureate without beard.' These are all heads of Apollo laureated; -Apollinis sine barbâ.

Fig. 14. Old head laureate with a beard, perhaps of Hercules.' This bearded and laureated head belongs to the coins of Pergamus, as is evident by the inscription гAMHNON on the reverse. Dr. Combe does not call it Hercules; see Plate of Cities 45. fig. 12. where the whole legend, ITEPTAMHNON, is perfect. Does not the eagle standing on the thunderbolt in the reverse indicate the head to be that of Jupiter? This coin is probably not of Seleucus the king, but of a magistrate of Pergamus, for it wants Carinews.

REV. OCT. 1805.

N

Plate

Plate II. fig. 2. Pallas armed as before.-Before her the anchor erect, and on each side of the handle the badges of the Dioscuri.' The pilei or badges of the Dioscuri are not on this coin. In Plate III. fig. 14. however, they occur.

P. 31. Apollo with a dart reclining on a tripod.' This is obscure. It should be Apollo reclining on a tripod, with a dart in his right hand. Mr. G. is not uniform in his descriptions of the same coins. At plate XXII. fig. 3. the description is as we have given it.

Plate III. fig. 1. Apollo sitting on a rock.' It should be, Apollo sitting on the cortina.

In Plate III. fig. 5. Mr. G. subjects himself to the risk of confounding the type with the countermark. Here the anchor, or countermark, which signifies that this coin was current elsewhere, is in black, while the type is white. See also fig. 3. and fig. 19.-Fig. 16. A laureate head with a wing over the ear;' it has only a fillet.

Plate IV. fig. 4, 5, 6, 7. exhibit Seleucus III. with the type of Antiochus II. The true Seleucus III. is in Plate III. fig. 22. with a type different from Antiochus II. father of Seleucus II. and his own; which is more likely to be that of Seleucus III. than Seleucus II., since, Seleucus III. reigned but two years, and Seleucus II. reigned twenty; whence it is improbable that, in so short a reign, the son should strike four coins with the same type, and not differing from those of his father and grandfather.

Plate VIII. fig. 7. the legend is ANTIOXEON TON EIIKAAAIPOHN. Mr. G. inserts ПPOE: but this is not justified.

Пoridav тçoxalos is by Mr. G. elegantly translated at p. 91. Neptune the Turner,' as if he had been a workman in wood or ivory. Tropeus Jupiter, and Tropean Juno, mean in Greek Jupiter and Juno; and here, Neptune, because on his aid the

battle turned.

We know not whether sufficient pains were taken by Mr. Duane to guard against mistakes: but we wish that Mr. G. had compared his plates with the coins themselves in Dr. Hunter's collection; since it easily might have happened that, in the hurry of professional engagements, when Bartolozzi called on him, Mr. Duane may suffer the artist to take with him some that did not belong to the plate which he was engraving; and this we suspect to have been the case in a variety of instances.

It is also to be lamented that Mr. G. did not procure somebody to assist him in publishing these plates, who had more knowlege of the handling than he seems to possess; as then he would not have subjected himself to the mistake of con

founding