vol.. LVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 33? 



high as 37°, and 2 days after sunk as low as 23° below zero, a difference of 60" 

 in the space of 2 days only. 



XXXVII. On two Parthian Coins, never before published. By the Rev. John 



Swinton, B. D., F. R. S. p. 296. 



Mr. S. met with two ancient brass coins, pretty well preserved, that had for- 

 merly had a place in the valuable collection brought by Dr. Pococke out of the 

 east. The workmanship of these pieces seems considerably different from that 

 both of the Parithian coins, hitherto published, and those struck by the Persian 

 princes of the house of Sassan. It somewhat however resembles that of the brass 

 medals of one or two of the later Parthian kings. These pieces have several 

 unknown characters on them, which can by no means be deemed the same with 

 those preserved on the Persian coins struck by the princes of the house of Sassan; 



These two medals are of the size of the smaller middle Roman brass, or nearly 

 so. Their workmanship, as just remarked, is inelegant, or rather somewhat 

 rude. They are so similar to each other, that they may be considered, without 

 any great impropriety, as duplicates of the same medal. Both of them, on the 

 anterior part, seem to have retained the effigies of the same Parthian king ; and 

 on the reverse they both exhibit a human head, with the hair formed into curls, 

 on which is just visible a rude sort of crown. Before the face of the latter, the 

 Greek elements n,P,0,Z,0,T, or nPOZOT, on both plainly enough appear; though 

 one of them only presents to our view, before the face of the Parthian king, a 

 complex character, or monogram, seemingly composed of the Greek letters E,A, 

 and three or 4 unknown characters, that have suffered a little from the injuries 

 of time. 



With regard to the word, or rather name, IIPOZOT, Mr. S. hesitates not a 

 moment to read and pronounce it riEPOZOT ; instances of the omission of a 

 Greek letter, having been often met with on the Parthian coins. Nor can this 

 be matter of surprize to any one who considers, that Greek words are sometimes 

 very inaccurately expressed on those coins. The unusual curls, on the reverse, 

 may possibly be thought to point at Armenia, as the country where these pieces 

 were struck ; especially, as the complex character, if it is a monogram formed of 

 the Greek elements E,A, or EA, seems to direct us to the city of Elegia in Ar- 

 menia, where a whole Roman army was cut off by Vologeses II. And this will 

 appear still more probable, after we have discovered the monarch denominated 

 Perozes, or Peroz, and the reason of that name. 



Vologeses II. having finished his preparations for a war with the Romans, in 

 the reign of Antoninus Pius, soon after that prince's death, made an irruption 

 into the Greater Armenia. This happened, according to Dio, in the year of 

 Rome 915, or of Christ 161. Meeting with little or no opposition, he advanced 



