20000 20000000000 VI. NEW GREEK COINS OF BACTRIA AND INDIA. Ir is scarcely a year since the British Museum Catalogue of Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of India appeared; but already the Museum has acquired some very important additions to the series there published. First among these must be mentioned a most interesting and wonderful decadrachm found two or three years ago at Khullum, in Bokhara, and presented to the British Museum by Mr. A. W. Franks. Its authenticity seems to be above suspicion. Its description follows: Obv.-Macedonian horseman, wearing conical helmet and cuirass, charging with lance couched an elephant retreating r., bearing on his back two gigantic warriors, one of whom seizes the lance as it penetrates his back; the other, with raised hand, threatens the enemy with some weapon. VOL. VII. THIRD SERIES. A A Rev.-A king, as Zeus, standing I. He is clad in Persian cap (?), cuirass, and cloak; a sword hangs at his waist; he holds in r. hand a thunderbolt, in l. a spear; in field 1. A.1 R. 14. Wt. 653 grains. (Pl. VII., 1.) Looking for the first time at this extraordinary coin, or rather medal-for it is clearly a historical monument— everyone will be tempted to exclaim, "Alexander and Porus!" I do not, however, believe that this is the correct explanation of the obverse type, though the true explanation is scarcely less interesting. Let us first consider the place of issue and date of the coin. It is fairly certain that it was found on the north of the Paropamisus, and its art and fabric are like those of the coins of the early Antiochi, which come from that region. It would seem, then, to have been certainly issued in Bactria, and not in India; and as it was issued by Greeks, it must be given to the period between Alexander's invasion of B.C. 330 and about B.c. 125, when Bactria passed finally into the hands of the Yueh-chi. This date is confirmed by considerations of style. The horseman of the obverse, with his firm, vigorous seat, clearly belongs to a period earlier than that which produced the horsemen of the coins of Philoxenus and Hippostratus ; the elephant, too, is of excellent style. The contrast between the Hellenic warrior and his barbarous foes is admirably rendered. When we turn the piece, we find a somewhat 1 Or, for there seems to be a trace of a second B after the A as well as of one before it. It looks as if the die-engraver had begun to make the B after the A, and then abandoned his intention and made it in front instead. inferior style; the standing king reminds us not a little of the king on coins of Kadphises and Kanerkes, and his cloak hangs as a background-just like cloaks on their coins. But we must not press this likeness; after all it only shows from what school the Kushan kings procured the artists who made their coins-from Bactrian rather than Indian cities. After considering place of mintage and style we have next to find an explanation of the types: here we will begin with the reverse. We can scarcely be mistaken in discerning in the deified standing king Alexander the Great, who was represented by Apelles, the painter, as holding a thunderbolt. He is fully armed as a cavalry soldier, wearing cuirass and chlamys, but no greaves; a sword is slung round his body; on his head, in place of a helmet, is what seems to be a Persian mitra, with long ends hanging over the neck. This Persian head-dress must contain a reference to Alexander's position as successor of the great Kings of Persia. The letters AB or BA, which constitute the whole legend of the coin, do not afford us any safe clue for its attribution. We may perhaps read them Βασιλεὺς ̓Αλέξανδρος, or we may consider them as an abbreviated form of ABIA, which appears on certain eastern coins of Antiochus I.2 Turning to the obverse we find a life-like battle scene. A horseman, who is every inch a Greek, pursues and pierces with his lance a gigantic foe scated on an elephant. On the back of the elephant is a second rider, who seems to threaten the charging foe with some weapon. As to the nationality of these barbarous elephant-riders there can, I think, scarcely be a dispute. Their physiognomy 2 Num. Chron. 1889, p. 190. |