ed Coelu. They would have expressed it Coelus, or
Coelus; but the name was copied in the time of the Punic wars, before the s
final was admitted into their writings. Vaillant has given several
specimens of coins struck in this city to the honour of some of the Roman
[674]emperors, but especially of Verus, Commodus, and Antoninus Pius.

[Illustration: Pl. II. _Temple of Mithras near Naki Rustan in Persia. Also
temples in the rock near the Plain of the Magi._ From Le Bruyn.]

Among the Persians most of the temples were caverns in rocks, either formed
by nature, or artificially produced. They had likewise Puratheia, or open
temples, for the celebration of the rites of fire. I shall hereafter shew,
that the religion, of which I have been treating, was derived from the sons
of Chus: and in the antient province of Chusistan, called afterwards
Persis, there are to be seen at this day many curious monuments of
antiquity, which have a reference to that worship. The learned Hyde
supposes them to have been either [675]palaces, or tombs. The chief
building, which he has taken for a palace, is manifestly a Puratheion; one
of those open edifices called by the Greeks [Greek: Hupaithra]. It is very
like the temple at Lucorein in upper Egypt, and seems to be still entire.
At a glance we may perceive, that it was never intended for an habitation.
At a distance are some sacred grottos, hewn out of the rock; the same which
he imagines to have been tombs. Many of the antients, as well as of the
moderns, have been of the same opinion. In the front of these grottos are
representations of various characters: and among others is figured, more
than once, a princely personage, who is approaching the altar where the
sacred fire is [676]burning. Above all is the Sun, and the figure of a
Deity in a cloud, with sometimes a sacred bandage, at other times a serpent
entwined round his middle, similar to the Cnuphis of Egypt. Hyde supposes
the figure above to be the soul of the king, who stands before the altar:
but it is certainly an emblem of the Deity, of which we have a second
example in Le [677]Bruyn, copied from another part of these edifices. Hyde
takes notice, that there were several repetitions of this history, and
particularly of persons, solem et ignem in pariete delineatos intuentes:
yet he forms his judgment from one specimen only. These curious samples of
antient architecture are described by [678]Kaempfer, [679]Mandesloe,
[680]Chardin, and