The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 77
and then published by Muller in his Supplement. 54
Both authors, however, miss the significance of the
inscription on the obverse, and take the retrograde 9
(which the engraver has placed so that the dotted circle
encroaches upon its upright stroke) for a symbol,
" possibly the half of a grain of silphium." The /? 55
then becomes the beginning of a name, for Bompois
that of a town, Darnis or Ardanixis, for Muller that
of a magistrate. The shape of the B is very similar
to that on Nos. 3 and 22. Once the first letter is
recognized as a B we cannot resist recognizing the
whole as the beginning of the ethnic BAPKAION, so
that, if TE represents Teucheira, the piece falls into
line with the contemporary alliance pieces of Gyrene
and Euesperides. Such a connexion would be amply
of Barce
confirmed by what we know of the history
and Teucheira. Teucheira was a port which served the
inland city of Barce. It was close to it geographically,
and was politically subordinate. Herodotus calls it
iro\iv rr
54
p. 15.
55 The occurrence of a monogram so early is rather surprising ;
but not much later, in the next period at Gyrene, on one of the
earliest coins of the magistrate NiW, we find the O and N of the
ethnic ligatured.
56 iv. 171. In Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. Barke, it is stated that Euesperides
was also at some time part of the domain of Barce, but the
only reference given in support of this statement rather points to
the opposite, The passage is in Diodorus, xviii. 20. 3, and is perhaps
worth giving to correct the error. Thimbron having overawed the
Cyrenaeans 8ie7rpe
TO> Qiftpwvi Kvpijvaloi . . fTropOovv rf]v TO>V atrrvvofuov xpav. This is
confirmed for an earlier period by the language of Herodotus in
the passage quoted above. 'Ao-ftvcrTcwv fie e \ovrat TO irpbs c