AKTIA, Zec. the Oly mpic, thian, Actian gum( s, Etc. A sperinien of these will be lound in a coin of Pe rinthus in Plate CCCCXX. Fig. 13.
In the Roman coins, on the other hand, there is more of the historical and the symbolical. We shall have oc casion to notice several specimens of the histolical in the sequel. Their symbolical consisted in representing all the virtues, and indeed every thing that promotes hu man happiness, by an accurate and ingenious personifi cation ; by which means a collection of Roman coins ap pears highly imaginative and poetical. Thus, Fortune is represented as a woman, with a rudder in her right hand, and in her left a cornucopix ; iinnona, or the sup ply of provisions, is represented as a woman in a sitting posture, at whose feet stands a measure filled with cars of corn, and the prow of a ship; Security appears as a woman sitting in an arm•chair, carelessly supporting her head with her hand; Eternity, as a woman, who carries in her hands the sun and moon, or the phoenix, as em blems of eternity ; and so forth.
The inscriptions give, as it were, animation to coins. They not only tell us %%hen, where, and in whose honour they were struck; but likewise help to explain much that is otherwise dark and uncertain in antiquity. It were in:possible, within any reasonable compass, to notice all the varieties of inscriptions. We shall merely advert to some of the more common and important.
The coins of the emperor Hadrian have the inscrip tion, HADRIANUS Arors.rus; those of king Demetrius, BAZIAEOE AHMETPIOY 3 those of Homer, OMHPOC, Sec. By this fortunate circumstance, we receive either the true, or at least the ideal poitraits of the great men of antiquity ; for it is certain that the portraits of the sove reigns and philosophers of the earlier ages, such as Ali tlas, Minos, Romulus, Homer, Pythagoras, &.c. are equally imaginary with those of Jupiter, Apollo, and others. But still, ideal as they are, they were conceived by ancient artists, and in times of remote antiquity.
With regard to the names of the countries and towns where the coins WCIT struck ; we read upon those of the INIacedorians MAKE6ONSIN; upon those of the Syracu sans &C. The situation of the towns is often determined by the neighbouring rivers, or moun tains, or other circumstances. This is of great advan
tage when there are several towns of the same name, such as Laodicea. Thus, we know, that colns bearing the inscription 6A06IKEO.N. TS2N. nroz.
belong to Laodicea in Syria, which was situated on the sea. The Greek towns frequently showed their vanity by the adoption of certain titles of honour, the assertion of which, however insignificant, sometimes led to the most deadly enmities. The word metropolis, in its original and literal meaning, signified the relation of a particular town to others, which had sprung from it. Thus, Tyre was the metropolis, or mother town of Carthage; rinth of Syracuse, Etc. In this signification, Heraclea, a powerful town on the Black Sea, inscribed on its coins the following title, in the Doric dialect : MATPOz. of the colonial towns. On the other hand, these colonial towns sometimes knouledged their origin, by adopting on their coins the symbols of their parent cities. Thus, Syracuse had a pegasus on its coins, bet.ause. this was the acknowledged symb31 of the parent city of Corinth. In later times, the word metropolis came to sighify a city, which as serted an acknowledged precedence over other smaller towns within a certain district, and also exercised a spe cies of jurisdiction ; such as Antioch, in Syria ; Cxsa rea, in Cappadocia ; NicomediJ, in Bithynia, Ecc. Some assumed the title of rir.9.TH, the first, or principal town of a district.
Thc towns of Greece, and pa.rticularly those situated in Asia Minor, boasted much of the title of POS ; and it is somcwhat singular, that, even at this day, it has not been precisely ascertained what species of honour they attached to this strange title. The Greek word literally means nothing more than a person who is bound to keep the temple clean. But it must certainly have denoted some very high privilege, as it is often brought forward with inuch solemnity. Some towns boasted of having enjoyed this honour twice or three times AIL' or TPIF, NE.C2KOPC2N. Nay, the Ephcsians claimed still higher rank ; and by the splendid inscrip tion, MONS:N. AIIAICH. TETPAKIE. that they alone had four times re ceived the neocorate.