SAL.-- These three letters are engraved on a
silver coin of Sextus Pompey, immediately
beneath the head of Cn. Pompey his father.--
On the subject of this singular abbreviation,
which has given rise to some conflicting conjectures, Jobert, amongst others, reads it SALduba,
which was the old name of Caesaraugusta
(Sarragossa.) Bimard, on the other hand, shews
the fallacy of this opinion ; but, in its place (for
reasons with which, however, he seems himself
not sufficiently satisfied), proposes that it should
be read SALus.-- There is ingenuity in the
explanation offered by Vaillant, citing Appian,
who reads it SALacia, a marine goddess regarded
as the spouse of Neptune. Vaillant thinks,
therefore, that as Sextus Pompey had, on other
denarii, caused himself to be called the son of
Neptune, so, on the coin in question, he openly
professes to be the son of Salacia.-- Against
Vaillant's ingenious interpretation is the question
as to what the word in the Greek text of
Appian may have been, for it reads ??alssh
and not Salatia, and thus would mean merely
mare, the sea. Still Eckhel thinks the latter
may have been the word, as in H. Stevens'
edition, quoted by Vaillant, and that it may
have been altered by some transcriber who was
ignorant of the goddess Salacia.-- See Doct.
Num. Vet. vol. vi. pp. 27 and 28.
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