SIGEBERT HAVERCAMP’S

NOTES

ON

TWO NUMISMATIC TABLES,

WHICH CONTAIN 41 COINS FOR

ILLUSTRATING VARIOUS PASSAGES OF JOSEPHUS.

A decorative initial "N" features a seated figure and classical architectural motifs, typical of early 18th-century scholarly printing.

Num. 1. Emperor Hadrian Caesar original: "ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟΣ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ". The head of Hadrian, adorned with a laurel crown from which rays emerge, as if he were a second Apollo. On the other side is half of a ship, with certain letters that are difficult to read, but from whose remains it appears the coin belongs to the people of Dora, who, because of some benefit received from Hadrian, call themselves "Sebastenos," that is, "Caesareans."
Josephus mentions Dora, a city of Phoenicia, more than once in Antiquities, Book XIII, Chapter VII, pages 655 and 656. For where he describes the battle between Antiochus and Tryphon, and how the latter was driven out of Upper Syria into Phoenicia, he adds that Antiochus pursued Tryphon as far as Dora, where he had retreated; he notes that the place was well-fortified and difficult to capture. This city was situated in Phoenicia near Mount Carmel, as Flavius Josephus testifies in Book II, Against Apion, § 9, page 478. There, a little earlier, he recounts a witty little fable by the same Apion: namely, that while the Jews were at war against the Idumaeans for a long time, a man named Zabidus came to the Jews from a certain city of the Idumaeans where Apollo was worshipped. He is said to have promised them that he would hand over Apollo, the god of the people of Dora, to them; and that the god would come to our temple if everyone went up and brought the entire multitude of Jews. Zabidus, however, supposedly constructed a wooden machine, placed it around himself, and fixed three rows of lamps upon it; he walked in such a way that to those standing far off, he appeared like a star traveling across the earth. The Jews, stunned by the unexpected vision, remained still while they were at a distance. Zabidus, meanwhile, came to the temple in great silence, pulled down the golden head of a pack-animal original: "cantherii caput." This refers to the infamous "donkey's head" libel against the Jews. (for so he wrote, wishing to seem clever), and quickly retreated back to Dora. Therefore, we may also say that Apion burdens the ass—that is, himself—and makes himself weighed down by both folly and lies. For he places locations that exist nowhere on earth, and through ignorance, he misplaces cities. For Idumaea borders our region, placed near Gaza, and there is no city called Dora within it; but in Phoenicia, near Mount Carmel, there is a city called Dora, which has nothing in common with Apion’s nonsense. For it is a four-day journey away from Judea. Why then does he further accuse us of not having gods in common with others, if our fathers so easily believed that Apollo would come to them, and thought they saw him walking upon the earth with stars? Indeed, it is manifest that they had never before seen a lamp—they who celebrated so many and such great festivals involving the lighting of lamps!
I have quoted this passage in full because it shows that the city of

Dora was associated with the worship of Apollo (even though it was wrongly attributed to Idumaea, from which, as we are taught in the Notes, it was a four-day journey away), so much so that Apollo is called the "God of the Dorenses." That this belongs to Dora in Phoenicia, however, is taught by this remarkable coin, which the people of Dora minted under Hadrian. On one side, they add the symbols of Apollo—the rays besides the laurel—to the Emperor’s head; and on the other side, they express their naval power through the figure of a ship. For this city was famous for that reason, which is why it was also called Naulochos or "Naval Station," as Spanheim observes in his Additions to Book V of the Antiquities, Chapter I, page 422. The most Noble and Generous Joannes Aegidius van Egmont van Nieuwburg brought this coin back with him from his Greek and Asiatic travels, and through his kindness, I ordered it to be drawn for my use, and perhaps eventually for the public, among other unpublished coins of every kind.
Num. 2. Hero Eurypylus original: "ΗΡΩΣ ΕΥΡΥΠΥΛΟΣ". The head of the Hero Eurypylus; on the other side, the temple of Paphian Venus, with the inscription: "Of the Pergamenes under Strategos Pollio" original: "ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ ΕΠΙ ΣΤΡΑ. ΠΩΛΛΙΩΝΟΣ". Why Eurypylus is an ornament on the coins of the Pergamenes is explained learnedly (as usual) by Spanheim in On the Use and Excellence of Coins, page 479 of the smaller edition. We bring forward this coin, however, to show—as we say in the Notes to Antiquities Book XIV, Chapter XIV, page 722—that the name is always rendered with a double "Lambda," and that "Pollio" was written as Polliona original: "ΠΩΛΛΙΩΝΑ" by the ancients just as often as Poliona, which is also shown by the coin that appears below at number 32, and the one observed at Num. 11.
Num. 3. A double-faced head, male and female; on the other side, a double-axe term: "bipennis" — a two-headed sacrificial or battle axe is seen enclosed in laurel, between a certain monogram, a cluster of grapes, and a quiver, with the letters "Of the Tenedians" original: "ΤΕΝΕΔΙΩΝ". Illustrious Spanheim, in his Notes to Antiquities Book XI, Chapter VI, page 568, alludes to coins similar to this one (which now appears for the first time from the Museum of the most Noble Markius). There, regarding the King of the Persians, whose throne the guards surrounded with axes—"they stood holding axes on their shoulders"—he notes that axe-bearers were likewise around the throne of Tenes or Tenedos, so that the guilty might be immediately punished with the axe.
Num. 4. "Moca, Sacred, Inviolable, Autonomous" original: "ΜΟΚΑ ΙΕΡ. ΑΣΥ. ΑΥΤΟ.". These epithets declare that the city of Moca was sacred, enjoyed the right of asylum, and used its own laws. The coin itself, drawn in Patin page 184, belongs to Antoninus Pius and displays the Goddess Fortune in a four-columned temple term: "tetrastyle" — a temple portico with four columns. In another coin of the same city (which Vaillant mentions under Severus on page 84, though I have not yet found it depicted anywhere), the same epithets occur, and a female figure is perceived, holding ears of corn and a poppy in her right hand, while holding a cornucopia in her left, to indicate the supreme fertility of that region. Moca was a city of Arabia, called Maacha by others, concerning which the note by Spanheim may be consulted, who cited these coins in Antiquities Book VII, Chapter VI, page 378.
Num. 5. Servius Galba, Emperor Caesar Augustus original: "SER. GALBA IMP. CAES. AUG.". The laureated head of Galba. On the other side, enclosed in laurel, this inscription is read: "Under Mucianus, of the Antiochians, Year 117" original: "ΕΠΙ ΜΟΥΚΙΑΝΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΕΤ ΙΖΡ". This indicates in which year of the era...