[ 739 ] 
truth, if we admit, what has been fuggefted by two 
(25) very great men ; viz. that this marble was 
brought to Rome from Tadmor by the emperor 
Aurelian himfelf, after he had pillaged the latter 
or thofe cities, and treated its inhabitants with un- 
common cruelty, according to one of his own let- 
ters, ft ill extant in (26) Vopifeus. Which notion 
if we think fit to adopt, we muft likewife allow, 
that the two deities exhibited by this florae were 
BAAL, BELVS, or IVPITER, andtheSVN ; thofe 
having been the deities, according to the authors who 
have efpoufed this notion, as well as (27) Zofimus, 
and not Herodian, as Dr. Hyde (28) afl'erts, whofe 
images were carried from Tadmor to Rome by that 
emperor. 
After what has been obferved on this head, I fhall 
perhaps be excufed, if I lay before the Society the 
following alphabet, deduced from the Roman Pal- 
myrene infeription publifhed by Gruter and M. 
Spon. 
(25) Selden. ubi (up. Tho. Hyd. Hijl. Rel. Vet. Per/. p, 116, 
117. Oxon. 1700. 
(26) Flav. Vopifc. in Aurelian. 
(27) Zofim. Lib. i. 
(28) Hyd. ubifup. 
5 A * The 
