king. Greek moneys and inscriptions equally prevailed under the succeeding monarchs of that dynasty. One specimen from John Foy Vaillant we present: The obverse presents the head of Seleucus covered with a lion's skin, the reverse a figure of Jupiter sitting with an image of victory, (dextera victoriolam tenens,) in his right hand, and in his left an inverted spear. The epigraph is Greek-BAZIΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ. Antiochus Soter, in like manner, Antiochus Deus, Seleucus Callinicus, Seleucus Ceraunus, Antiochus Magnus, and the other kings who followed, coined Greek money. Noris and Vaillantt are our principal authorities upon these points, and afford valuable information. From his time, too, the inhabitants of Syria are ascertained to have used the Greek language in the composition of books. Seleucus Nicator himself wrote a book, ni Elinvoμou, mentioned by Athenæus, in which he treated of the Greek vocabulary, the origin and use of words. Posidonius Apameensis, so called from his birthplace, Apamea, composed a work, nepi Пloadareiar opozor. Pherecydes, the philosopher, also a Syrian,‡ * Noris, tom ii. in Dissert. de Anno Syro-Maced. [Henricus N. Cardin. nat. 1631, ob. 1704. Annus et Epoche SyroMacedonum in vetustis urbium Syriæ nummis præsertim Medicæis expositæ, 4to. ED.] + Vaillant in Historia Seleucidarum. ["Pherecydes Syrus primum dixit animos hominum esse SEMPITERNOS." Cic. Tusc. Disp. lib. 1, c. 16. Videas, lector, quomodo Donatus vocem "sempiternus" definit in Ter. And. act. v. sc. 5; qui longe aliter ac Diodati explicat; cui velim adjungas ea quæ celeberrimus ille Warburton super hac quæstione docte admodum et subtiliter, uti solet, disseruit in "The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated," book 3, § 4. ED.] who, Cicero assures us, first publicly taught the immortality of the soul, wrote many treatises in Greek, all of which are hopelessly lost. Isæus, a Syrian too, composed his orations in such elegant Greek, that the ancients admired them as marked by all the grace of the Attic style. How exquisitely and wittily Lucian also knew how to employ the language, it were superfluous to mention here. It is well known that Syria claims him also as her son. But not to dwell on individual instances, Jamblichus, Nicomachus, Arimedeus, St. Lucian of Antioch, Meleager, Luke the Evangelist, wrote in Greek, and countless others, whose names should I attempt to give, it were scarce exaggeration to say with Plautus: "The night would fall ere I could close my strain." But the questions may be asked here, Was not St. Ephrem a Syrian, and did he not write in Syriac rather than in Greek, as Jerome and Photiust testify? and are there not coins extant of Antiochus IV. and Demetrius II., with partly Greek and partly Phoenician inscriptions? Nay more, are there not some wholly inscribed with Phoenician characters copied in Spanheim,‡ Vaillant, and more recently still, in Barthelemy, in his essay lately published in Paris ?§ Our reply is, that these facts do not make against us in the slightest degree when they are properly understood. Our observations are confined to Syria of Palestine, within the Euphrates, having for its northern boundary Cilicia and Cappadocia, on the east the Euphrates, on the south Arabia Petræa, and on the west the Mediterranean Sea. This entire region was covered with Grecian settlements, and gave prevalence to Hellenic speech and usages among the Jews, as we shall more widely unfold hereafter. But St. Ephrem was born at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, beyond the Euphrates. Although this region. bore the common name of Syria, and formerly belonged to that kingdom, yet was it at a considerable distance from that Syria proper of which I speak. That the Greek language should not Hieronym. in Catal. Script. Eccles. cap. 115. † Photius in Bibliotheca, cod. 169. Spanheim, De usu et Præst. Numis. diss. 2. § Lettre de M. l'Abbé Barthelemy à Messieurs les Auteurs du Journal des Savans sur quelques Medailles Phéniciennes. have become familiar in that remote district, excites in us no surprise, as it presents no obstacle to our conclusion. I remember perfectly well reading, among the acts of the Council of Chalcedon, (A. D. 451) a document (postulationem) forwarded by a certain clergyman of Edessa, to which the names of the greater part of the clergy were subscribed in Greek, but many of the Presbyters, Deacons, and Sub-deacons are reported to have written theirs in Syriae, (καὶ ἡ ὑπογραφή Συριακή.*) In the acts of the same council we read that one Uranius, a Bishop of Mesopotamia, was present, to whom was interpreted in Syriac what the fathers transacted in Greek.† Theodoret, too, mentions Abraham, a Bishop of Charræ, who was ignorant of the Greek language. Nothing could be more natural nor more easily explained than that St. Ephrem, an Edessene by birth, should write in Syriac rather than in any other tongue. With respect to the coins said to exist, having inscriptions in Greek and Phoenician, or in Phoenician alone, I can scarcely prevail on myself to believe them genuine. For, after Alexander of Macedon and his successors obtained possession of the country, the native tongue of the inhabitants totally disappeared, (prorsus evanuit,) and the Greek took its place so completely that the Phoenicians used no other. In proof of this, I appeal to those two very remarkable remains given by Gruter, namely, the letter of the Phoenicians residing at Puteoli to the senate (ordini) and people of Tyre, and their answer, both written in Greek. Besides, in the writers on numismatics, we * V. Acta Syn. Chalced. act. 10, p. 250 ad 256. Ibid. p. 219 ad 222. tom. vii. ex edit. P. Mansi. Theodoretus in Hist. Relig. cap. 17, p. 849, tom. iii. Monumenta hæc pluribus mendis inquinata habes in Gruteri Thesauro. (') Sed ea oppido quam emendata, ac Latine insuper versa reperies in quantivis pretii opere, cedroque li nendo, "I Fenici i primi abitatori di Napoli, ()" nuper edito a Duce Michaele Vargas Macciucca, nobilissimo_juvene, longeque ornatissimo, qui vestigia clarissimi patrui Equitis Francisci Vargas Macciucca viri de literis, de literatis hominibus, deque re Neapolitana omni publica optime meriti premens, ατρίας αρχαιολογίας diuturno labore, summoque studio illustrat decoratque. () Gruterus in Thesaur. Inscript. p. 1105. (2) Dell'antiche Colonie venute in Napoli, p. 331, 333. find coins unnumbered of the Tyrians, Sidonians, and other Phoenicians, bearing Greek inscriptions only. But, upon this subject, Vaillant, who contends for the genuineness of the coins, had better be consulted. The epoch of the Seleucidæ, from which the Phoenicians reckoned, even when they came under the Roman yoke, being signalized by the ascendency of Greek, yet appearing on these coins in Phoenician characters, strengthens my suspicion of their spuriousness. While my thoughts were thus employed, I received no little pleasure from finding my own opinion confirmed by that of a person of the weightiest authority, Otho Sperling, whose words I quote: "Afterwards the Greeks occupied Tyre, and built a mint and treasury, and coined zeroadoaquors. The Tyrian coins, therefore, mentioned by Josephus, ought to be understood as Greek and not native; inscribed with Grecian letters, and not Hebrew, Syriac, or ancient Tyrian. For, ever since Alexander and his Greek successors took possession of the country, the inhabitants came to speak and write in the language of their masters, all the affairs of the government were administered after the Greek fashion, Greek moneys were struck, and, as a natural consequence, the old Tyrian or Phoenician character and language fell completely into disuse." (Omnisque Tyria vel Phoenicia scriptio vetusta et inscriptio evanuit, ac periit.†) But, even should we concede these coins to be genuine, the admission would not affect our argument. For we speak not so much of Phoenicia as of Syria, and, in this latter, beyond all question, the Greek was vernacular about that time. But let us hear Vaillant again: "Seleucus Nicator, as soon as he had seized on Syria, intending to make it the seat of his government, not only gave Grecian names to most of the cities, but also imbued the people with the language, and strictly enjoined its use in all transactions of a public nature," &c., &c.‡ To the same purpose is the testimony of Noris:|| "When Seleucus Nicator, after the violent death of Antigonus, became master of Syria, and had distributed the Mace Vaillant Hist. Reg. Syr. p. 81, 86, 131, 132, 150. V. Noris Dissert. 4, de Epoch. Syro Maced. cap. 3, 4, 5. Sperlingius de Num. non. cusis, p. 51. Vaillant in Hist. Reg. Syriæ, p. 109. Noris de An. Syro-Maced. diss. 1, cap. 3, p. 38. donian soldiers as settlers throughout the cities he built or repaired in that country, the Syrians straightway embraced the laws and language of the conqueror, and, by a general consent, the year and its months soon came to be known all over the land, by the Macedonian names only." Joseph Stephens,* Salmatius,† Emmius, and almost all the learned bear the same testimony, but I spare the reader the tediousness of quotation. One class of testimony, however, of higher authority than any yet adduced, I cannot merge in a simple allusion, viz., that of the sacred Scriptures. In them we find the most explicit reference to Syria, Egypt, and their inhabitants, as Greek kingdoms and people. The author of the First Book of Maccabees, after describing how the Jews fell under the power of the Egyptians and Syrians, proceeds: "Judas chose Eupolemus and Jason, and sent them to Rome, to close an alliance and treaty and to remove from the Jews the yoke of the Grecians"-meaning by this, of course, the Egyptians and Syrians.|| The author of the Second Book of Maccabees calls the prevalence of Syrian manners among the Jews "the supremacy of the Greek, (ακμή τις Ἑλληνισμοῦ,) and shortly afterwards the glory of the Syrians, " Grecian glories."§ To the same effect is the testimony of the Fourth Book of Maccabees, whatever degree of credit may be attached to that production. But the prophet Daniel led the way in this usage. In his visions he regards Syria and Egypt as parts of the Greek empire.** Throughout his prophecies, which relate to the kingdoms that were to precede the advent of Christ, he seems to pay especial attention to these two countries between which Judea lay, and from which it derived its new habits, laws and language. So also Zechariah.†† In the same style of nomenclature we find Josephus the Jew calling the Egyptians and Syrians by the name of Macedonians.‡‡ * Stephanus Com. ad c. 1 lib. 1 Mach. p. 49. Salmasius in Fun. Ling. Hell. p. 42. Ubbo Emmius de Græcia Vet. lib. 6. || Lib. 1 Mach. cap. 8, v. 17. [18, τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν Ἑλλήνων.] § Lib. 2 Mach. cap. 4, v. 13, 15. Ἑλληνικὰς δόξας. Lib 4 Mach. cap. 4, v. 3, et 5. ** Daniel, cap. 7, v. 6, cap. 8, v. 8, et alibi. tt Zacharias, cap. 6, v. 3. Joseph. lib. 13 Antiq. p. 631, 634, 635, 638. |