[ 3 74 ] 
that thefe pieces were ftruck at Tarfus, when the 
Parthians ( 2 %) were mailers of Cilicia. Now I 
cannot learn from hiftory, that they were ever 
poiTeffed of that province before the year of the 
Julian Period 4673, which preceded about 
forty one years the birth of Christ, when (29) it 
was reduced by Labienus ; nor after the following 
year, when they were overthrown, and expelled the 
Roman territories (30), by Ventidius. Perhaps 
(28) That the piece before me is of Parthian original, feems 
likewife farther to appear from a complex figure reprefenting a lion 
tearing (<7) ahull, the very type on the reverfesof feveral coins, men- 
tioned in the beginning of this paper, and agreeing in almoft all re- 
fpe£s with this piece, to be met with in the ruins of ( a ) Perfepo- 
Jis. For that part of thofe ruins, at leaft, are Parthian remains 
of antiquity, I have (b) formerly obfefved. But fhould any one 
confider them as Perfian monuments, and even as prior to the 
reign of Alexander the Great, yet flill the point I would in fome 
imafure fupport by them will thereby be rendered probable, if 
not inconteftable. For the Perfians and the Parthians may be 
looked upon, with fufficient propriety, as one and the fame na- 
tion ; the fame habits, the fame cuftoms and manners, and the 
fame religion, feeming antiently to have prevailed amongft them. 
Whenever therefore we find a lion tearing a bull, or a flag, 
on any Greek medals, we may conclude it not improbable, that 
the prince or people to whom they belonged adopted a type of 
Parthian, or Perfian, extraction. 
(c) Gefner affigns the coin I am confidering a place amongft 
thofe of the Syrian kings, but knows not what to make of it. He 
only ©bferves, that Morell takes it to be a Parthian medal, and 
that others entertain a different opinion ; not attempting, in any 
part of his book, to oblige the learned world with an explication, 
of it. 
(29) Dio, Lib. xlviii. L. Flor.Lib. I V. c. ix. Plutarch, in Anton, 
Appian. Alexandria in Syriac. & Parthic. & dc Bell. Civil. Lib. v. 
(^o) Dio, ubi (up. Appian. in Parthic. Li v.Epit. Lib. cxxvii. 
L. Fior. Lib. IV. c. ix. Plutarch, in Anton. 
(a) F.ng. Ksmpf. Amcemtat. Exotic, p. 339. Lemgovix, 171a, 
(b) Philof. ‘ Tranfat 1 . Vol. XL 1 X. P. i. p. 598, 599, 6eo, 
(r) Gcfn, Tab. 'Reg. Syt.lX, N. 2. Tignri, 17^8. 
therefore 
