The same system of coinage was continued under the Seleucidw and Lagicim, and we find the same and other mints in Palestine. The history, from the present time to B.C. 139, will be found under ANT1OCHUS, MACCABEES, and other names, and would be out of place in an article which more especially treats only of money.
The next distinct allusion to coined money is in the Apocrypha, where permission to strike money is granted to Simon Maccabwus. This passage has raised many opinions concerning the Jewish coin age, and among the most conspicuous is that of M. de Saulcy, whose classification of Jewish coins has been generally received and adopted. It has been fully treated upon by Mr. J. Evans in the Numismatic Chronicle (vol. xx. p. 8, seq.), and by Mr. Poole in his article MONEY in Dr. Smith's Diet. of thee Bible. Though the writer of the present article does not adopt many of De Saulcy's theories, it will be as well to give shortly De Saulcy's classi fication, and to state the principal objections.
M. de Saulcy has classified Jewish coins into three epochs :—(t.) Autonomous coins struck during the reign of Alexander the Great ; (2.) Coins of the Asamonman princes ; (3.) Coins struck during the revolt of the Jews, including those of Simon Bar cochab. M. de Saulcy classes to the rst epoch the shekels and half-shekels of silver, and the half shekel and quarter-shekels of copper ; also the copper coins inscribed try; with a vase similar to the shekels, and on the reverse mit, mt.), the fourth year,' and the lulab between two ethrogs (citrons).
These coins De Saulcy has assigned to the pontificate of Jaddua, and it appears that Jaddua lived barely four years after B.c. 332. His reason fur assigning them to Jaddua rests only on a doubt ful historical passage in Josephus, where Alexander is said to have had an interview with this high priest at Jerusalem. But it does not appear that Alexander granted the Jews perfect liberty, though he allowed them to live according to their own laws. It is curious, too, that no coins have been found belonging to a later date than ` the fourth year of the deliverance of Zion,' and not easy of comprehension why the liberty granted by Alex. ander from B.C. 332 should have lasted only four years, and not till the time of his death. More over, these shekels, had they been struck in the time of Alexander, would have been of the same weight as the tetradrachms of the Macedonian conqueror, for Alexander suppressed all weights excepting the Attic, and was not likely to have allowed Jaddua to issue a coinage different from the Attic. It appears, however, that they contain a sixth of copper mixed with the silver (Bayer, De Mini. Hebr., p. 66), and so do the coins of the last Syrian kings and the Parthian kings contempo rary with Simon Maccabmus. Thus far we must
object to M. de Saulcy's theories.
The coins of the ad epoch, or those struck by the Asamonman princes, are mostly of copper, and all, save Antigonus, of small module. Coins are ascribed by De Saulcy to the following princes : Judas Maccabmus - - - B.C. 164-16r. Jonathan B.C. 161-143.
John Hyrcanus - - - - B.C. 135-106.
Judas Aristobulus Antigonus 106-r05.
Alexander Jannnus - - B.c. to5-78.
Alexandra B.C. 78-69.
Antigonus B.C. It will here be seen that to Simon Maccabteus, to whom nearly all the Jewish coins have hitherto been ascribed, no coins are assigned. The coins given by De Saulcy to Judas bear the title of high-priest, and it is not at all certain that Judas ever had this office. It is true that Josephus calls Judas high priest of the nation,' and says that he was elected by the people after the death of Alcimus ("dlg. xii. lo. 6.); but, on the other hand, we find in the Maccabees (1 Maccab. x. 2o) that Alcimus did not die till after the death of Judas, and that Alexander conferred the priesthood on Jonathan, the brother of Judas. Indeed, Josephus elsewhere states that first of the sons of Asmonnus, who was high priest, was Jonathan' ( Vit., sec. t). It may be that Judas held an inferior office under Alcimus, or if elected by the people in opposition to Alcimus, was never confirmed in his post by the Syrian kings. Many other objections can be raised, but an obser vation made by Mr. Poole (art. MONEY, Smith's Diet. of Bible) sets the matter at rest—' These small copper coins have for the main part of their reverse types a Greek symbol, the united cornu-copim, and they therefore distinctly belong to a period of Greek influence. Is it possible that Judas the Maccabee, the restorer of Jewish worship, and the sworn enemy of all heathen customs, would have struck money with a type derived from the heathen, and used by at least one of the hated family that oppressed Israel—a type connected with idolatry, and to a Jew as forbidden as any other of the re presentations on the coins of the Gentiles? It seems to us that this is an impossibility, and that the use of such a type points to the time when pros perity had corrupted the ruling family, and Greek usages once more were powerful in their influence. This period may be considered to commence in the reign of John klyrcanus, whose adoption of foreign customs is evident in the naming of his sons far more than in the policy he followed.' The origin of the type of the cornu-copise will be spoken of under the coins of John Hyrcanus. The 3d epoch of De Saulcy consists of the coins of Simon Bar cochab. New attributions have, however, been attempted by Dr. Levy of Breslau, in his yiidische Miinzen, which will be given in their proper place.