VOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 103 



XI L Interpretation of Two Punic Inscriptions, on the Reverses of two Siculo- 

 Punic Coins, published by the Prince di Torremuzza, and never hitherto ex- 

 plained, liy the Rev. John Suiiuton, B.D., F.R.S. p. Ql. 



These two Punic legends have been published, with 3 others, by the Prince 

 di Torrimuzza, in his voKime of ancient inscriptions, printed at Palermo 

 in 1769. 



The first of these minute inscriptions, which is the first of those published by 

 the Prince di Torremuzza, in the place here referred to, adorns a fine Punic 

 tetradrachm, as it should seem, well enough preserved; which on one side pre- 

 scuts the head of a woman, and 3 fishes, but on the reverse the head of a horse, 

 behind which stands a palm tree, attended by an inscription in the ezergue 

 formed of 7 Punic letters. The workmanship, as well as the types, is probably 

 similar to that of the silver medals of Menae, described and explained in a for- 

 mer paper. The import of the inscription, in Roman letters, he thinks is am 

 SEftHEGT, or SEGKGHTH, which is but a small variation from the word segeste, 

 or SEGESTA, the Greek and Latin name of a considerable maritime city of Sicily, 

 not far. from Eryx, where money was coined, after the Greeks had possessed 

 themselves of the place. The medal therefore adorned with this minute Punic 

 inscription may, without any impropriety, be supposed to have been emitted from 

 the mint at Segesta, as the Punic words, am seghegt, or segegth, popvlvs 

 8EGESTANVS, appear on it, when the Carthaginians were masters of that city, 

 and occupied all the adjacent territory appertaining to it. 



As no chronological characters occur on the piece considered here, the time 

 when it was struck cannot with any precision be ascertained. That operation 

 nmst however have preceded the conclusion of the first Punic war; since the 

 Carthaginians, by the treaty of peace which terminated that war, ceded the 

 whole of their possessions in the island of Sicily to the Romans. Nay this medal 

 was probably prior, perhaps many years, to the surrender of Segesta to the Ro- 

 mans, in the beginning of the first Punic war, when the inhabitants of Segesta 

 put the African garrison there to the sword, about 258 years before the birth of 

 Christ; the Carthaginians seeming never to have been possessed of this ancient 

 city, after that tragical event. 



The second of the inscriptions is composed of 7 letters, which he shows from 

 the two words r^jnon DJf. am hammahanoth hammehnoth, or hammenoth, 

 POPVLVS MENENivs, Or MENARVM POPVLVS, as wc may find rendered incontes- 

 table by other similar coins. 



The medal which has conveyed down to us this inscription, through such a 

 series of ages, is of the tetradrachmal form, and of a very considerable antiquity. 

 On one side it exhibits the head of a woman, goddess, or tutelary deity of the 



