1334.] discovered at Beghram in Kabul. 155 



attempt their arrangement, and if my plan be found correct, the classi- 

 fication I should hope will materially assist the study of these coins, 

 and their application to historical elucidation. In this memoir I shall 

 only treat of the two first classes, as I have not leisure to include the 

 three other classes — the study of which, however useful and necessary, is 

 more obscure, and cannot be conducted without the assistance of histori- 

 cal reference, which of course I cannot command here. Of the Guebre 

 coins, which are found in considerable numbers, it may be generally 

 observed, that the conquests of Arsaces Mithridates will explain their 

 appearance in these countries j but I incline to think we may recognize 

 a distinct Parthian dynasty, which may possibly have been founded by 

 some enterprising viceroy under his successors. I sometimes indulge 

 the hope of identifying a Parthian metropolis in the neighbourhood of 

 Kabul. As Sassanian coins are also discovered, it would seem probable 

 that these countries were also at some period dependent on the princes 

 of the house of Sassan. The Brahminical coins, that is, such as are 

 clearly so from their Nagree inscriptions, I calculate may chronologically 

 be placed in succession to the Sassanian ones ; and that they formed 

 the circulating specie of these countries at the period of the Muhamme- 

 dan invasion, is proved by coins with Nagree legends on the one side, 

 and Cufic on the other. 



General Observations. — Class, Grecian — Series No. 1. 

 Coins of the Recorded Kings of Bactria. 

 The Greek coins found in these countries are naturally the most 

 interesting. Of the recorded kings of Bactria, we find at Beghram the 

 coins of three only, viz. Menander, Apollodotus, andEucRATiDES the 

 1st or Great. It may sometimes happen that a medal of Euthydemus is to 

 be met with at Kabul, but it must always be considered an importation 

 from Balkh. The coins of the two first Bactrian princes, Theodotus I. 

 and Theodotus II. we ought not to expect here, as it is certain that 

 their rule did not extend south of the Caucasus, the present Hindoo 

 Kush. Euthydemus, the third prince, we may conjecture profited by 

 the diverted attention of Antiochus the Great from his eastern provinces 

 to the Roman invasion, and passed this mountain range ; but the absence 

 of his coins leads us to infer that he may have died before he had 

 effected a settlement of the countries invaded by his arms. Of the 

 celebrated Menander, we have numerous coins ; the features on most of 

 them, those of youth ; on none of them, those of age. The legend of no 

 one coin describes him as king of Bactria and India, nor is the epithet 

 NiKATnP to be found, as applied to him by Schlegel, but that of 

 SnTHP. His recorded conquest of a great part of India must there- 

 fore have been subsequent to his ascending the throne in Bactria. 

 u 2 



