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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0060
ANTIQUITIES AT DELOS. 27
The coin also here adduced from the Hunterian Collection, imprinted with the Mithraic sym-
bols, which 1S placed in the catalogue of Combe among the Nummi Incertia, is attributed to a Cilician
city, since there exist inscribed coins of Olba, and Megarsus b, cities in Cilicia alluded to by Straboc,
on the reverse of which are seen triangular figures very similar to that on this coin, which the learned
Eckhel has observed on coins of the Argives, from whom the Cilicians were colonized, and boasted
their origin; and a triangular figure is displayed on coins of cities in other countries of Argolic foun-
dation'. From this chain of evidence, results the proof of the intercourse with the Greeks, particu-
larly with those of Delos, of a free Cilician people, whose Numismatic relics thus tend to confirm the
testimony of Plutarch, regarding their Mithraic idolatry, and give reason to decide on the purpose to
wllich the remarkable fragments represented on this Plate, were devoted.
Pig. 1.—The Han of the Capital, a view of which is seen in the preceding Plate, shewing the
two bulls attached to a single semi-column. In a volume on Antiquity', not long since produced,
purporting to have been formed from the unedited drawings of Stuart and Revett, this Capital is incor-
rectly delineated, the bulls being represented as detached from each other, which is not the fact,
and two semi-columns are there erroneously introduced behind them, instead of one as engraved here,
following the admeasurement of the original.
Figs. 2 and 3.—Restored elevations of the front and profile of the two Capitals seen at Delos.
Kneeling bulls are introduced in the frieze of the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis or Ba'albeck g. At
the Temple of Solomon, the molten sea, or 'labrum,' wrought by a Tyrian artist, stood upon twelve
"oxen," which were placed in four groups of three, side by side, and probably with their hind parts
enveloped in the substance of the metal. It is remarkable, that on the antique celestial globes1, the
sign laurus was represented having the hind part deficient as if cut off, like those of our capital.
Eratosthenes said, this was done to leave room in the astronomic sphere for the constellation called
Ueiades"; and bulls were often so defined on Greek coins, as on many of Samos.
Figs. 4 and 5.—Elevation and profile of the Triglyph, restored from the fragment which lately
appeared in such a degraded state of mutilation, perhaps from Iconoclastic violence, that the original
form was almost obliterated. The only other example we are acquainted with, of triglyphs charged
witli extraneous ornament, is on a frieze used in building the wall of the Cathohcon, or Metropolitan
k church at Athens, where the triglyphs alternately display in relief, vases, and torches crossed
with stems bearing pomegranates', which perhaps originally belonged to a Temple of Ceres.
rigs. 6, 7, ancj 8>—-yye naye jiere delineated our conjectural restoration of a portion of a pronaos
of Delos, and sold them tllcre to thc Greeks, through whose d Eckhel,NumiVct.Anccd.p.79.Tab. VI.n.G.Tab.XIII.n. 10.
hands they usually passed to Rome. Those slaves, therefore, who e Visconti also viewed the triangular object on the coins of the
had lived the longest with their Grecian masters, and conse- Cilician cities, as symbolic of their Argolic origin ; and this as the
quently talked Greek the best, were the most practised in all only explanation of the emblem which could be admitted. V.Icono-
the little tricks and craft that servitude naturally teaches, which graphie Grecque, Tome III. PL I. Figs. 2 and 3, representing coins
old Cicero," the grandfather of the Orator, " like Cato the Censor, of Princes of Olba in Cilicia. See also a triangular symbol com-
imputed to the arts and manners of Greece itself." Note in posed of three limbs like the Sicilian ' Triquetra,' on coins of
Middleton's Life of Cicero, Sect. 1. Aspendus in Pamphylia, a city, said by Strabo, L. XIV, p.
The modern Greeks will, it is to be hoped, in an ascending 667, to have been founded by Argives. Cat. Num. Pop. et Reg.
ratio, shew the degrading effect of slavery,' by assuming a in Mus. Brit. p. 183.
rank in the moral Scale of Society, in proportion as their late f FoL published by J. Taylor, 1816, C. VI. PI. I. and II.
shackles by an odious tyranny become forgotten. g Cassas, Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie, Tom. II. PL 16, 17.
' Mus. Hunt. Tab. 66, Fig. 24. Eckhel, Do'ct. Num. V. IV. h Kings, B. I. C. VII. v. 25. Chronicles, B. II. C. IV. v. 4.
* " _ ' See in Spence's Polymetis, the Farnese globe belonging to the
md. Tab. 36, Fig. 22, belonging to thc Hunterian Cabinet statue of Atlas, represented at PI. XXIV. Inghirami, Monum.
0 Ant. Coins now at Glasgow. See also Note *. Etrus. Serie VI. Tav. I. 2.
_ a °> ■*■'■ XIV. C. DCLXXII. DCLXXVI. Steph. Byz. k 'Etri TVS xttoto^s to? Tav^ov, TVi KaXovjj.ivrii Pa^Eoc, IlAtia; sVti.
• agarsus. The site of this city has been lately verified in Eratost. in art. TlMm-.
e survey of the coast of Cilicia, by a distinguished and scientific ] See Vignette to Vol. I. C.I. of Stuart's Athens, or at PL
naval officer. Karamania, by Captain Beaufort, R.N. p. 293. II. Vol. I. p. 25, of the accompanying edit, of 1825.
The coin also here adduced from the Hunterian Collection, imprinted with the Mithraic sym-
bols, which 1S placed in the catalogue of Combe among the Nummi Incertia, is attributed to a Cilician
city, since there exist inscribed coins of Olba, and Megarsus b, cities in Cilicia alluded to by Straboc,
on the reverse of which are seen triangular figures very similar to that on this coin, which the learned
Eckhel has observed on coins of the Argives, from whom the Cilicians were colonized, and boasted
their origin; and a triangular figure is displayed on coins of cities in other countries of Argolic foun-
dation'. From this chain of evidence, results the proof of the intercourse with the Greeks, particu-
larly with those of Delos, of a free Cilician people, whose Numismatic relics thus tend to confirm the
testimony of Plutarch, regarding their Mithraic idolatry, and give reason to decide on the purpose to
wllich the remarkable fragments represented on this Plate, were devoted.
Pig. 1.—The Han of the Capital, a view of which is seen in the preceding Plate, shewing the
two bulls attached to a single semi-column. In a volume on Antiquity', not long since produced,
purporting to have been formed from the unedited drawings of Stuart and Revett, this Capital is incor-
rectly delineated, the bulls being represented as detached from each other, which is not the fact,
and two semi-columns are there erroneously introduced behind them, instead of one as engraved here,
following the admeasurement of the original.
Figs. 2 and 3.—Restored elevations of the front and profile of the two Capitals seen at Delos.
Kneeling bulls are introduced in the frieze of the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis or Ba'albeck g. At
the Temple of Solomon, the molten sea, or 'labrum,' wrought by a Tyrian artist, stood upon twelve
"oxen," which were placed in four groups of three, side by side, and probably with their hind parts
enveloped in the substance of the metal. It is remarkable, that on the antique celestial globes1, the
sign laurus was represented having the hind part deficient as if cut off, like those of our capital.
Eratosthenes said, this was done to leave room in the astronomic sphere for the constellation called
Ueiades"; and bulls were often so defined on Greek coins, as on many of Samos.
Figs. 4 and 5.—Elevation and profile of the Triglyph, restored from the fragment which lately
appeared in such a degraded state of mutilation, perhaps from Iconoclastic violence, that the original
form was almost obliterated. The only other example we are acquainted with, of triglyphs charged
witli extraneous ornament, is on a frieze used in building the wall of the Cathohcon, or Metropolitan
k church at Athens, where the triglyphs alternately display in relief, vases, and torches crossed
with stems bearing pomegranates', which perhaps originally belonged to a Temple of Ceres.
rigs. 6, 7, ancj 8>—-yye naye jiere delineated our conjectural restoration of a portion of a pronaos
of Delos, and sold them tllcre to thc Greeks, through whose d Eckhel,NumiVct.Anccd.p.79.Tab. VI.n.G.Tab.XIII.n. 10.
hands they usually passed to Rome. Those slaves, therefore, who e Visconti also viewed the triangular object on the coins of the
had lived the longest with their Grecian masters, and conse- Cilician cities, as symbolic of their Argolic origin ; and this as the
quently talked Greek the best, were the most practised in all only explanation of the emblem which could be admitted. V.Icono-
the little tricks and craft that servitude naturally teaches, which graphie Grecque, Tome III. PL I. Figs. 2 and 3, representing coins
old Cicero," the grandfather of the Orator, " like Cato the Censor, of Princes of Olba in Cilicia. See also a triangular symbol com-
imputed to the arts and manners of Greece itself." Note in posed of three limbs like the Sicilian ' Triquetra,' on coins of
Middleton's Life of Cicero, Sect. 1. Aspendus in Pamphylia, a city, said by Strabo, L. XIV, p.
The modern Greeks will, it is to be hoped, in an ascending 667, to have been founded by Argives. Cat. Num. Pop. et Reg.
ratio, shew the degrading effect of slavery,' by assuming a in Mus. Brit. p. 183.
rank in the moral Scale of Society, in proportion as their late f FoL published by J. Taylor, 1816, C. VI. PI. I. and II.
shackles by an odious tyranny become forgotten. g Cassas, Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie, Tom. II. PL 16, 17.
' Mus. Hunt. Tab. 66, Fig. 24. Eckhel, Do'ct. Num. V. IV. h Kings, B. I. C. VII. v. 25. Chronicles, B. II. C. IV. v. 4.
* " _ ' See in Spence's Polymetis, the Farnese globe belonging to the
md. Tab. 36, Fig. 22, belonging to thc Hunterian Cabinet statue of Atlas, represented at PI. XXIV. Inghirami, Monum.
0 Ant. Coins now at Glasgow. See also Note *. Etrus. Serie VI. Tav. I. 2.
_ a °> ■*■'■ XIV. C. DCLXXII. DCLXXVI. Steph. Byz. k 'Etri TVS xttoto^s to? Tav^ov, TVi KaXovjj.ivrii Pa^Eoc, IlAtia; sVti.
• agarsus. The site of this city has been lately verified in Eratost. in art. TlMm-.
e survey of the coast of Cilicia, by a distinguished and scientific ] See Vignette to Vol. I. C.I. of Stuart's Athens, or at PL
naval officer. Karamania, by Captain Beaufort, R.N. p. 293. II. Vol. I. p. 25, of the accompanying edit, of 1825.