[ 348 ] 
lifli, as Derceto is reprefented on the medal I am 
confidering. Nor do 1 remember ever to have feen 
Atergatis, or Derceto, in that form, or attended by a 
fidi and a pigeon, as on my medal, on any of the 
Hierapolitan coins. Laftly, I have a brafs medal of 
Afcalon (fee Tab. XIII. n.2.), in my fmall colledlion,.. 
with a galley, or little velTel, on the water, and rowers 
in it, as we find exhibited by the piece before me, over 
which the two Greek letters A'^ plainly appear ; which 
feems moft clearly to evince, at leaft the high proba- 
bility of, the point in view. It mufi: therefore be 
allowed extremely probable, if not abfolutely certain,, 
that the coin confidered here was ftruck at Afcalon, 
though current throughout Syria, Paleftine, and 
Phoenicia, before the redndtion* of thofe provinces by 
the arms of Alexander the Great. 
As no chronological charadters on the piece in 
queftion prefent themfelves to our view, it will be 
extremely difficult, if not impradficable, to afeertain, 
with any precifion, the time when it firfi: appeared. 
However, I cannot help thinking it probable, that 
the coin was firuck about 351 years before the birth 
of Christ, when the (14) provinces of Palefiine 
and Phoenicia were fubdued by Artaxerxes Ochus,. 
foon after they had revolted from him. The people 
of thofe provinces might then have ufed money 
fimilar, at lead in fome refpedfs, to that which was 
current in Perfia, either out of compliment to, or by 
the pofitive order of, that prince. This, 1 fay, 
might not improbably have been the cafe ; but that 
it really was fo, I muff not prefume abfolutely to 
affirm. Be this, however, as it will, a circuinflance 
(14) Diod. Sk.BibL Hif, Lib. XVI. 
3 
will 
