Phillips ; «w lucL.'i, 



to these coins Pliny referred when speaking of the booty carried away by 

 the !I 'in ms from Spain, arg n'tum signatum oscense. 



The coin of which we arc speaking has been ascribed by both Henin and 

 A.kerman to the city of Tarragon, the capital of the Province of the same 

 name, inncli celebrated in ancient authors for its beauty and opulence. 

 Pliny writes of it that it was Scipiorum opus ut Carthago Panorii.ui. 

 Augustus erected in honor of his visit, an altar, upon which subsequently a 

 palm tree grew. It issued coins while under the dominion of the Romans, 

 and there are sonic extant bearing the heads of the Gothic rulers of Spain. 



Carthage is probably one of the best known cities of antiquity, and abund- 

 ant specimens of its coinage have descended to our own times. The pieces 

 in the exhibition are small bronze coins bearing on the obverse the head of 

 Demeter (or Persephone) adorned with necklace, earrings, &c., and oa the 

 reverse the figure of a horse and a palm tree. 



The Carthaginians adopted from Sicily the worship of Demeter and Per- 

 sephone, and the horse possibly refers to Libya, which was famous for its 

 horses, or perhaps to the horse's head fabled to have been dug up at the 

 foundation of the cit3 r . Carthage was ultimately destroyed by the Romans 

 14(5 B. C , and the coin was probably issue 1 about the third century before 

 the present era. 



There is a very fine didrachm of Velt.v in Lucania bearing on the 

 obverse a beautifully executed head of Apollo, and on the reverse a lion 

 in the act of leaping upon a stag, which it is rending to pieces. The 

 muscles are admirably portrayed, and the action is depicted entirely with- 

 out stiffness, but with the case and grace which arises from the conscious- 

 ness of power and strength. 



Velia was a large and prosperous city founded by the Greeks, and its 

 coinage exhibits the undoubted confirmation of history. Greek culture 

 alone could have produced such fine specimens of Art It is now known as 

 Castela mar delta Brucca, and lies between Polieastro and the Gulf of Sa- 

 lerno. It was mentioned by both Slrabo and Pliny, and was the seat of 

 the Eleatic sect of Philosophers, who received their appellation from the 

 city ; their leaders were Zenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus. The 

 speculations of this school rose to a higher region of pure thought than 

 those of the Ionic or Pythagoric schools, and among the Eleatics for the 

 firs! time comes distinctly into play the dialectical movement in human 

 thought. 



Corinth, in Achaia. is represented by a fine didrachm, bearing on the 

 obverse helmeted head of Venus ; and on the reverse, Pegasus, wi'di the 

 letter j (Koph), the ancient or Phoenician form of K. " A city," says 

 Strabo, "large, rich and prosperous; replete with men tit for the handling 

 of every sort of affair, civil, artistic and political." Founded by Bellero- 

 phon, the type of the reverse refers to his subjugation of the steed 

 Pegasus. 



The coinage of this city exhibits a high degree of artistic culture, a 

 thorough proof, were any wanting, of the truths which history records of 



