C 403 ] 
Now the letter He does not appear 011 any of thefe 
medals, and confequently nothing can be inferred 
from any of them in favour of the form of that ele- 
ment contended for by M. l’Abbe. On one of thofe 
coins, however, faid by this learned antiquary to have 
been (truck at Marathus, but which in reality ought 
not to be attributed to that city, now in my poffeffion, 
the very fame character occurs, with the power of 
Mem , that M. l’Abbe exhibits on two of the medals 
of Menas as occupying the place of He. My ex- 
plication of this coin, which I then took to belong 
to Marathus, was printed here, in 1753. But I af- 
terwards obferved, that the Phoenician infcription on 
this medal confided of four letters, arm the lad of 
which was Beth ; and that on all the (imilar medals, 
or draughts of them, which I had feen, four cha- 
racters likewife appeared, the fourth of which was 
either Beth or manifedly a part of that element, 
not Ajin or Ain, as M. l’Abbe, without any manner of 
foundation, feems to imagine. Hence I concluded, 
that thefe pieces could never have been druck at 
r-nD, MARATH, or marathus, and therefore 
fcrupled not a moment to explode my former opi- 
nion. To this I was farther excited by the nume- 
ral characters in the exergues of two of them, at 
prefent a part of my fmall collection of Phcenician 
coins ; which, if I am not greatly midaken, clearly 
point out the years of Rome 748 and 749. But 
about that time Marathus was either in ruins or in- 
tirely razed, and the territory appertaining to it 
occupied by the Aradians, according to Strabo (16). 
(16) Strab. Geograph. Lib. XVI. p. 753. Luteti# Paii- 
fiorum, 1620. 
I therefore 
Ff f 2 
