1834.] Discovered at Beghram in Kabul. 161 



The princes, whose coins constitute the two grand classes, just noted, 

 excluding those of the recorded Bactrian monarchs, may, I conclude, 

 be supposed to fill up by their reigns the period between the overthrow 

 of the Bactrian empire and the subjugation of the provinces west of 

 the Indus by Arsaces Mithridates. The former event occurred about 

 130 years A. C. and the latter without means of reference I cannot de- 

 termine*. The coins of Beghram are by no means exhausted, and fresh 

 collections will doubtlessly put us in possession of many new ones ; 

 indeed, I have now a few unintelligible coins, both Greek and Indo-Scy- 

 thic, whose types although unrecognizable are certainly different from 

 those described. The princes whose coins are found on any known 

 spots or site, may fairly be held to have reigned there. In the first or 

 Grecian class, the Beghram collection yields us two princes of Series 

 No. 2, two at least of Series No. 3, eight at least of Series No. 4, or 

 the Nyssean princes, and two at least of the unarranged coins — making 

 a total of fourteen Greek kings. The Indo-Scythic class yields us 

 at least nine princes ; if the reigns of the whole of these princes be 

 averaged at fifteen years each, the total gives a period of a hundred and 

 forty-five years, which would bring us to about 25 A. D. New discoveries 

 will certainly carry us to a much later period. 



I shall now close these brief and general remarks on the Greek 

 and Indo-Scythic coins of Beghram, which I had intended to have 

 made public, at a future period, and in a more formal manner, in 

 England, had I not been apprized of the intense interest excited 

 by recent discoveries in this species of antiquities. I write from 

 a country particularly interesting, and the neighbouring regions are 

 perhaps as much so, at least to the antiquarian and historian, as 

 any in the world. The Hindoo Kush alone intervenes between us 

 and Badakshan, where if we may not be so sanguine as to allow 

 its princes even the honor of a bastard descent from Alexander the 

 Great, we may be gratified in beholding the posterity of Oxartes, 

 his father- in -law, and of Sisymithres, his benefactor and friend, or 

 of those who govern in their seats ; also of solving the geographical, 

 problem as to the source of the Oxus, by ascertaining whether it issue 

 from a glacier as represented to Mr. Elphinstone, or whether it 

 emanate from a lake as recorded by Pliny. 



For the last six or seven years, I have directed my attention to the 

 antiquities of Central Asia, particularly to the vestiges of its Grecian 

 conquerors and rulers. In spite of conflicting circumstances, I have 

 made many discoveries, which one day, by the favor of the Almighty, 

 I shall make public. I shall not remit my labors : notwithstanding 



* Vaillant places this event in the year 144 A. C. and the final subjugation of Bac - 

 tria by the Scythians in 126 A. C— Ed. 

 X 



