Numismata hellenica: a catalogue of Greek coins; with notes, a map ...

42
Metal
M
JE
JE
Size
3+
3
Weight
M 166-4
M
M
JE
Si
H
INSULAR GREECE.
Note. The apparent age of this coin accords with the evidence of Herodotus, as to the time when
Siphnus was most flourishing.
10-5 Similar type,
of later time. R. SI*. Eagle, flying
Same type. B. SI*. Same type.
Two others similar.
SYBRITIA Oretffi.
Note.—From the magnitude and variety of its coins, this appears to have been among the greater
cities of Crete. The Tabular it Itinerary places between Eleutherna; and Gortys, at eight miles from
the former, which agrees with Scylax, inasmuch as he states Eleuthemse to have been on the
to I.
northern, and Sybritia on the southern side of the island, the ridge of Ida occurring between those
two cities. Sybritia, like Eleuthemse, still subsisted in the ninth century (Hierocl. p. C50). Its
pusition is now called Thrones, near which are three villages named collectively the Sybrites.
Bacchus, seated, adv. towards I., on panther, running to I. ; in left hand, thyrsus.
IJ. [SYB]PITIiiN. Hermes to I., naked, but with chlaniys hanging on his back ;
drawing buskin on his right foot, raised on rock ; in field to I., caduceus.
SYRUS.
Radiate bearded head to r. R. 2[YP]I ; the two middle letters covered with can-
tharus, as countermark ; goat, standing to r. ; in field to r., ear of corn ?
Head of bearded Bacchus I to r. R. SYPI. Goat to l.
Beardless laureate head to r. R. Caduceus ; across the field, SO ; below, SYPIilN.
Domitianus.
KAICAP AYrOYCTOC AOMI[TIANOC]. Head of Domitian to r. R. Two heads
opposed (Vespasian and Titus ?) ; between them, an ear of corn ; above, in two
lines, CYPI. KABIPaN.
L. Verus Ccesar.
KAICAP OYHPOC. Head of Verus to r. R. Two heads opposed; that to r.,
radiate ; the other, laureate ; between them, ear of corn ; above, in two lines,
CYPI. KABIPiiN ; below, star and bee.
Note.— In the time of Augustus, the Cabeiri were held in the highest honour in Lemuus and
Imbrus (Strabo, p. 460). From the imperial coins of Syrus we may infer, that between that time and
the reign of Titus, the principal worship of these deities was transferred to Syrus, and so continued
as late as Severus Alexander. It appears, likewise, that instead of heads of the Cabeiri, or Dioscuri,
those of two members of the imperial family were substituted.
TENEDUS.
Note.— TtvtioQ is a name not less ancient probably than the names of the other jEgsean islands J
its reputed derivation from Tennes, son of Cycnus, king of Colonse in the Troas, having been an effect
of that preference for heroic origins, which characterized the Greeks of later times, but which, in the
present instance, finds no confirmation in Homer, and is justly regarded by Strabo (p. 604) as a
mythus. The opulence of Tenedus is alluded to by Virgil \Mu. 2, v. 21), and appears, from numismatic
evidence, to have exceeded that of most of the other small islands of the jEgsean was still its
;
characteristic in the sixth century B.C., and in the fourth or third appears to have rivalled that of the
two chief cities of the Troas,—Ilium and Alexandreia. In the time of Strabo (pp. 596, 603) Tenedus
had still a Persea, or dependent territory on the continent, containing the town Achaeium, of which