XXXI. Description of a very rare Samaritan Coin, struck at Azoth Segol. In a Letter to the President, by the Rev. Stephen Weston, B.D. F.R.S. and F.A.S.

Abstract

I have the honour to exhibit to your Lordship and the Society, a very rare unpublished Samaritan Coin, struck at Azoth Segol, by order of Antigonus, King of Judæa, on his advancement to the crown by the aid of the Parthians, whom he bribed with a thousand gold talents, and five hundred female slaves. Hyrcanus the Second had been some time Prince and High Priest of the Jewish nation; but during the unsettled state of the Roman empire, after the death of Julius Cæsar, Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, brother of Hyrcanus, made himself master of Jerusalem and all Judæa; and having thrown Hyrcanus into prison, gave him up to the Parthians. Herod, upon this, fled to Rome; and having engaged Marc Antony in this favour, was sent back to Judæa with the title of King, and in three years got possession of the whole country, took Antigonus prisoner, and sent him to his patron Antony, who ordered his head to be cut off; and he was accordingly decapitated, and became the first martyr of a Monarch to the Roman axe. See Josephus, p. 741, vol. i. ed. Hudson, and Havercamp.—Having said thus much of the history, I proceed to speak of the Coin.