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

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Metal Size<br />

M<br />

M<br />

AFRICAN GREECE.<br />

CYRENAICA.<br />

Weight BARGE.<br />

in grains<br />

Troy. Note.— Barce was founded about 550 b. c, by seceders from CjTene. It stood at a distance <strong>of</strong> ten<br />

or twelve miles from its harbour, which, in the time <strong>of</strong> the first or second Ptolemy, was renewed or<br />

enlarged, and was named Ptolemais. This place still preserves its ancient name, <strong>with</strong> ruins <strong>of</strong> several<br />

<strong>of</strong> its public edifices. Of Barce itself the site can now scarcely be recognized. In the time <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Roman empire it had already been so<br />

entirely abandoned, that the name was preserved only as a<br />

chorographical appellation, or as a synonym <strong>of</strong> Ptolemais.— (Strabo, p. 837.<br />

Plin. H. N. 6, 5.)<br />

104'6 Youthful head to r., <strong>with</strong> cornu Ammonis round the ear (Bacchus, son <strong>of</strong> Amnion<br />

and Amaltheia). R. Silphium ; in field to I., BA ; below which, a plant, <strong>with</strong><br />

round fruit on it (apples <strong>of</strong> the Hesperides ?) ; in field to r., 2.<br />

Note.—On <strong>coins</strong> <strong>of</strong> the Cyrenaica, the silphium is generally represented <strong>with</strong> a thick stem, having<br />

at the top a round clustered head, consisting apparently <strong>of</strong> umbellate flowers ; on either side <strong>of</strong> the stem<br />

is an alternation <strong>of</strong> two or three leaves, and as many cauline shoots ending in small beads, similar to<br />

the principal one. The only plant which modern travellers have found in the Cyrenaica, resembling<br />

that on the <strong>coins</strong>, has been called by botanists Thapsia Silphium. Theophrastus (de Plant, 6, 3)<br />

describes it as resembling the vap9t]i (ferula). Great virtues were attributed to the inspissated<br />

juices <strong>of</strong> the stem and root, which were distinguished by the name KavXiai and pi?i'ac. The latter<br />

name accounts for the root being <strong>of</strong>ten represented on the <strong>coins</strong>. Pliny states that the laser, or<br />

silphium <strong>of</strong> Cyrene, had become so scarce in his time, in consequence <strong>of</strong> the avidity<br />

<strong>with</strong> which it is<br />

eaten by sheep, that an inferior sort was brought from Media and Armenia ; and we have the testimony<br />

<strong>of</strong> Aristobulus, one <strong>of</strong> the companions <strong>of</strong> Alexander, that a similar plant was found on the Paropamisus<br />

(Arrian. Exp. Alex. 3, 28. Jud. 43), which is confirmed by modem travellers.<br />

266-8 BAPKA(i'wv). Head <strong>of</strong> Jupiter Ammon to r., in linear circle, <strong>with</strong>in beaded circle.<br />

JJ. Silphium. — Electrotype from the B. M.<br />

Note.—This coin has two indentations on its margin, one <strong>of</strong> which extends nearly to the center <strong>of</strong><br />

the coin. These notches are similar to those on some archaic <strong>coins</strong> <strong>of</strong> Athens, Macedonia, and Cilicia,<br />

already described in this <strong>catalogue</strong> ; and they are such as I have never found on the <strong>coins</strong> <strong>of</strong> any<br />

place <strong>of</strong> which the Pei'sians had not been in possession, at the time, or after the time, when the <strong>coins</strong><br />

appear, from their style, to have been struck. Hence I have inferred (similar marks being found on<br />

modem, or, at least, mediaeval Oriental <strong>coins</strong>), that these notches were Persian countermarks. The<br />

present specimen differs in style from the others <strong>of</strong> Barca in the British Museum, being apparently<br />

more ancient, and may be supposed to have received the countei-marks after the capture <strong>of</strong> Barca by<br />

the Persians <strong>of</strong> Aryandes, who was governor <strong>of</strong> Egypt, and issued a coinage <strong>of</strong> silver darics after<br />

the death <strong>of</strong> Cambyses, which occurred in 621 B.C. (Herodot. 4, 166, 201.)

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