C 3 53 ] 
That the piece theji was ftruck in Paleftine, or 
Phoenicia, vvhilih under the domination of the 
Perfians, there is, I think, little reafon to doubt j 
though it may, perhaps, be not altogether fo eafy 
to afeertain, with any precifion, the time when it 
firfl: appeared. There is, however, one period, and 
one only, as I apprehend, in the Perhan hiftory, to 
which this may, with the dridieft propriety, be re- 
terred ; and that is, immediately after the reduftion 
of Sidon, by Artaxerxes Och.us, when the Phoeni- 
cians, who had before entered into an alliance 
with Nedanebus, king of Egypt, and afferted their 
independency, made their (25) fubmidion to him. 
This happened in the year of the Julian period 
4363, about 351 years before the (26) birth of 
Chrifl. That prince having then intirely fub- 
dued the Phoenicians, v.?ho had revolted from him, 
and reinforced his army with a body of looco 
Greeks, refumed his defign of invading Egypt; 
and, (27) after the furrender of Jericho, probably 
advanced at the head of his forces to Afcalon and 
Gaza, through which he might have paffed, on his 
route to that country, though he feems to have un- 
dertaken the Egyptian expedition, or rather to have 
entered Egypt, the following year. Upon his arri- 
val at Afcalon, he may naturally be fuppofed to have- 
llmck fome of the pieces, at lead, conhdered here; and 
particularly that which is the prefent objeft of my at- 
tention, with the reprefentatioa of a Perfian king, in a 
triumphal car, upon it. For this mud: feem naturally to 
liavc announced the intire redodion of Syria and, 
Phoenicia, that had juft before fubmitted to him.. 
(25) Diod. Sir. ubi fup. 
(26) Jac. Ufler. Anml. ad An. Jul. Period. 4363. p. 146, 
t47. Geneva', 1722. (27) Sniin. cap. 33. 
VTl. LXL Z z 
