rious dissertation upon a coin of Philip the elder, which was struck at this place, and contained, on its reverse an epitome of this history. The reverse of most Asiatic coins relate to the religion and mythology of the places where they were struck. The inscription upon the forepart is ATT. K. ΙΟΥΛ. ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ. ΛΥΓ. Upon the reverse is de lineated a kind of square machine, floating upon the water. Through an opening in it are seen two persons, a man and a woman, as low as to the breast; and upon the head of the woman is a veil. Over this ark is a kind of triangular pediment, on which there sits a dove; and below it another, which seems to flutter its wings, and holds in its mouth a small branch of a tree. Before the machine is a man following a woman, who by their attitude seem to have just quitted it, and to have got upon dry land. Upon the ark itself, underneath the persons there inclosed, is to be read, in distinct characters, NOE. The learned Editor of this account says, that it had fallen to his lot to meet with three of these coins, They were of brass, and of the, medaglion size: one of them he There is a coin of the emperor Adrian; the reverse a river-god between two rocks, like the Petræ Ambrosiæ: inscribed ΑΠΑΜΕΩΝ ΜΑΡΣΥΑΣ ΚΙΒΩΤΟΣ. Also a coin with a ship: inscribed ΑΡΓΩ ΜΑΓΝΗΤΩΝ, Patini Numism. P. 413. mentions to have seen in the collection of the duke of Tuscany; the second, in that of the cardinal Ottoboni; and the third was the property of Augustino Chigi, nephew to pope Alexander the seventh. Nor had this people only traditions of the Deluge in general. There seems to have been a notion that the ark itself rested upon the hills of Celænæ, where the city Cibotus was founded for the Sibylline oracles, wherever they may be supposed to have been composed, include these hills under the name of Ararat; and mention this circumstance. 90 Εςι δε τις Φρυγίης ύπερ ηπείροιο μελαινής, Ληξαντων υδατων. We may perceive a wonderful correspondence be tween the histories here given, and of the place from whence they came. The best memorials of the ark were here preserved, and the people were styled Magnetes, and their city Cibotus: and upon their coins was the figure of the ark, under the s Orac. Sibyllin. p. 180. name of Agya MayunTwv: all which will be farther explained hereafter. Not far from Cibotus was a city called " Baris; which was a name of the same purport as the former, and was certainly founded in memory of the same event. Cibotus signified an ark, and was often used for a repository; but differed from xn, cista, by being made use of either for things sacred, or for things of great value, like the Camilla of the Latines: 93 ή μεν εις υποδοχήν εδεσμάτων, ἡ δ ̓ ἱματίων και χρυσε xBwTos. The rites of Damater related to the ark and deluge, like those of Isis: and the sacred emblems, whatever they may have been, were carried in an holy machine, called 9 K.ßuros. 92 93 The ark, according to the traditions of the Gentile world, was prophetic, and was looked upon as a kind of temple, a place of residence of the Deity. In the compass of eight persons it comprehended all mankind; which eight persons were thought to be so highly favoured by heaven, that they were looked up to by their posterity with great reverence, and came at last to be re 91 Near Beudos, in Pisidia, and not a great way from Cibotus. Ptolem. 1. 5. p. 142. Hieroclis Synecdemus. Pisidia. p. 673. Beudos, Baris, Bootus, were all of the same purport. 92 Schol. in Aristophan. Iss. v. 1208. 93 Pausan. 1. 10. P. 866. |