Note 89 — Chapter III

A fine specimen of this coin (one of Antiochus VIII., king of Syria) was in the cabinet of the late General C. R. Fox. It was found, in 1848, in a leaden box, between Adana and Tarsus, some twenty feet under the surface of the ground. It has been engraved by Mr. Vaux, in his “Nineveh and Persepolis,” 4th ed. 1856, p. 62. As its type—the so-called tomb of Sardanapalus—is found on other coins of Tarsus, as late as the time of Gordian, it is certain this myth maintained its hold on the popular mind for a long period. The story of the pageant of Cleopatra (Plut. Vit. Antonii) shows that the Cydnus must, in those days, have been navigable up to Tarsus, some eight or nine miles from the sea.