1 836.] Memoir on the Ancient Coins of Beghrdm. 23 



Reverse.— Figure of Jupiter enthroned, with eagle or bird of Jova perched 

 on extended right hand. Legend Bactrian. 



These two fine silver coins were purchased at Kdbul. I have to apologize 

 for having in my memoir of last year, asserted an opinion that Herm^eus waa 

 the founder of the Greek Nysaean dynasty of kings ; although it is certain that 

 he ruled there, (that is at Nysa,) and even more easterly, as is evidenced by his 

 numerous coins found both at Jelalabad and Peshawar. The Bactrian characters 

 on the reverses of this prince's coins, were not then noted with the attention 

 they ought to have been. And the discovery since of two of his silver coins, 

 (those now delineated,) and a single copper coin corresponding to No. 15, 

 compel us to form other ideas of this prince, and authorize us to consider him, 

 at least for the present, as one of the regular Bactrian dynastry. The enthroned 

 figure on the reverse of No. 16, with the bird of Jove seated on the hand, we 

 presume, admits not a doubt, that the figure itself is intended to represent Jupi- 

 ter ; and the similar figures on the reverses of the copper coins of this prince, 

 although not manifestly exhibiting the eagle, may be supposed to personify the 

 same deity, and not Hercules as before imagined. It seems probable, that the 

 figures on the reverses of the silver coins of Euthydemus may be intended to 

 indicate Jupiter. The copper coins, we had previously found, of Herm^eus, 

 have very pointed features, and pourtray a prince considerably advanced in years— 

 the two silver coins now before us, with the single copper coin discovered this 

 year, exhibit the features of youth, and justify us in concluding that his reign 

 commenced when he was young, as the great proportion of the copper coins jus- 

 tify the conclusion, that it terminated at an advanced period of his life. We may 

 fairly allow to this prince a reign of twenty-four or twenty-five years, a term 

 which would accurately fill up the period between the demise of Euthydemus 

 and the succession of Eucratides, or, of that, from the demise of Eucratides, 

 to the alleged destruction of the Bactrian empire by the Get>e ; but a consider- 

 ation of the general style of the execution of the coins of Herm^eus, (although 

 the two coins now under notice are beautiful ones, especially No. 16,) will scarcely 

 allow us to intrude him as the successor of Euthydemus: it is fair, however, to 

 observe, that the coins of the two princes bear the same figures on the reverses, 

 and that the forms of both are circular. Neither are we willing to admit him to 

 have been the successor of Eucratides, for he would appear to have enjoyed 

 a large reign, which we hardly suppose a prince who was alike a parricide would 

 have done. It would be gratifying to detect the successor of Eucratides in 

 Bactriana proper, and amongst the whole of the coins discovered at Beghrdm, 

 holding their execution as the token of their precedence or antiquity, we find 

 none which have equal pretensions with those of Herm^eus : but this only proves, 

 that he succeeded to his authority in the Caucasian provinces, and this is what 

 we suspect to have been the case ; for when we observe his superior silver coin- 

 age, when we are satisfied that his reign was long, and that his dominions ex- 

 tended to the Indus, or beyond that of Eucratides, we repeat we can scarcely 

 believe this powerful prince, and (if we judge from his portrait) beneficent one, 

 to have been the parricide of his father, or him who was vanquished by the Get^e. 

 The silver coin (No. 16), exhibits a strong resemblance to the silver coin of 

 Menander, (No. 6), as does the bust in form and features ; the legend is also 

 similarly arranged. These circumstances may perhaps sanction an inquiry, whe- 

 ther Herm/eus may not have been the son and successor of Mbnander, depriv- 



