[ 8o 7 1 
dicate the piece to have been ftruck in the twenty- 
firft year of the proper Sidonian aera (54), as Mr. 
Malfon and F. Frcelich are pleated to alfert, can never 
be proved. On the contrary, the improbability of 
fuch a notion may be inferred from two fimilar let- 
ters, behind the turrited head of the Dea Syria (jf), 
on a Phoenician coin, which Mr. Malfon makes to 
point out the forty-firft year of the proper epoch of 
Sidon ; whereas, in truth, that piece feems to have 
been ftruck either in the reign of Demetrius I. or An- 
tiochus IV. (56) many years before. Nay, that it 
was actually ftruck when Demetrius I. fat upon the 
Syrian throne, is rendered almoft inconteflable by a 
medal of that prince now in my polfeffion, with a 
Beta behind the head on the anterior part, and the 
very reverie of the laft-mentioned coin. From the 
former of which circumftances it farther appears, 
that the alphabetic chara&ers M A, fuppofed by 
Mr. Malfon to denote 41, are by no means to be 
taken for a date. To which we may add, that 
the head on a Phoenician medal, with the two 
Greek elements AK behind it, publifhed by Mr. 
Reland (5-7), is apparently that of Demetrius I. ; 
and that the pofterior part of this coin is nearly the 
fame, in all refpe&s, with the reverse of that" fup- 
pofed to (58) appertain to Demetrius III. by Mr. Maf- 
( 54 ) Nicol. Haym Roman, ubi fup. p. 101. Erafm. Free], ubi 
fup. p. ur. 
(55) Nicol. Haym Roman, ubi fup. p. 105, 106. 
(56) Joan. Foy-Vaill. ubi fup. p. 200. Erafm. Free!, ubi fup. 
p. 63. Tab. VIII. Num. 30. 
(57) Hadr. Reland. P aloft. lllujirat. p. 1014. 
(58) Nicol. Haym Roman, ubi fup. p. 100, 101. 
fon 
