ADARCONIM g. ; Sept. Spax,wij and xpixrds ; Vulg. drachma and aureus). Gesenius and most others are of opinion that these words, which occur in r Chron. xxix. 7 ; Ezra viii. 27; ii. 69 ; Neb. vii. 70-72, denote the Persian Dark, a gold coin, which must have been in circulation among the Jews during their jection to the Persians. The t4; is prosthetic ; and occurs in the Rabbins. Dr. Lee disputes the etymology of the word with Gesenius : but it is sufficient to observe that the Dark, which is cally included in these words, is not, as might be fancied, derived from the name of any particular king, but from the Persian A„) dare, a king. The last of these words seems to identify itself with the Greek 6pctxp.1/ ; and, observing that in some of the texts it is manifestly connected with words noting weight, and in none with names of coins, he expresses some doubt of its being the Sapetas (daric) of the Greeks. He is rather inclined to suppose, with Salmasius, that the Arabic dirhem (,.,?),) or presents us with the same word.
The opinion of Heeren (Researches, i. 410) would, indirectly, go to discountenance the notion that the daric is to be here understood. He affirms that before the time of Darius Hystaspes the Persians had no coinage of their own, and that the daricus coined by him was probably a medal (Herod. iv. 166) of the finest gold. When the darics became current, especially after the mercenary troops were paid in them, their numbers must have been greatly augmented : yet Strabo assures us (1. xv. p. to68)
that the coin was by no means abundant among the Persians, and that gold was employed by them rather in decoration than as a circulating medium.' This, however, is of little real consequence ; for it proceeds on the erroneous supposition that the coin derived its name from the first Darius, and could not have previously existed. In the later day of Strabo the coin may have become scarce, although once plentiful. Be this as it may, the daric is of interest, not only as the most ancient gold coin of which any specimens have been preserved to the present day, but as the earliest coined money which, we can be sure, was known to and used by the Jews. The distinguishing mark of the coin was a crowned archer, who appears with some slight variations on different specimens. His garb is the same which is seen in the sculptures at Persepolis, and the figure on the coin is called, in numismatics, Sagittarius. The specimens weighed by Dr. Ber nard were fifteen grains heavier than an English guinea, and their intrinsic value may, therefore, be reckoned at twenty-five shillings (Eckhel, Doctrine Nunzarum Veterzens ; Bernard, De Mem:iris et Ponderibus).—J. K.