[ *600 ] 
confequently it muft have been, even if we follow 
them, the principal refidence of Monnefes and Volo- 
gefes III. as they (43) make the Afhkanians, Afhga- 
nians, or Arfacidse, to have formed the preceding 
dynafty of the antient Perfian kings. This feems to be 
confirmed, and even rendered inconteftable, by the 
infcriptions juft touched upon. The authority there- 
fore of thofe writers, thus fupported, cannot be 
impugned by the modern geographers, in the point 
before us ; when they affert, perhaps without the 
leaft fhadow of rational proof, that the city of (44) 
A 1 Madayen was in reality no other than the Ctefi- 
phon of the antients. 
1 2. That the fecond Roman Palmyrene infcription, 
whofe age cannot be determined with any precifion, 
is neverthelefs inferior in point of antiquity to the 
third of thofe publifhed by Mr. Dawkins, the forms 
of the letters themfelves (45), preferved on the ftones 
that exhibit them, which io greatly refemble the cha- 
radters appearing on my Parthian coin, feem manifeftly 
to prove. As the third of Mr. Dawkins’s Palmyrene 
infcriptions muft therefore be looked upon as a very 
valuable acquifition to the learned world, I fhall here 
beg leave to propofe to the confideration of the Royal 
Society a new interpretation of the firft part of this 
infcription ; though it be not very different from that 
(43) Khondemir, AI Emir Yahya Ebn Abd’ollatif A 1 Kazwini,. 
in Lebtarikb, D’Herbel. ubifup. p. 135. 
(44) D’Herbel. Bibliotb. orient, art. Madain , p. 525. 
(45) Philofopb. T'ranfatt. Vol. xlviii. Tab. xxiv. xxx. 
which 
