24 Memoir on the Ancient Coins of Beghrdm. [Jan. 



ed of his Caucasiau provinces by Eucratides on the death of his father, and 

 recovering them after the murder of this prince, during the anarchy that then 

 naturally prevailed. It is however more probable, as we have before hinted, that 

 Eucratides committed this act of aggression when Menander was still living, 

 and this seems corroborated by all the coins of Herm^us found at Beghrdm 

 displaying an aged prince, while the coins before us prove, that he also ruled 

 when young ; whence we infer, that he must originally have reigned elsewhere, 

 and as we find that his coins are met with very far eastward, we may presume 

 that his original seat of empire was in that quarter, and that from thence he 

 marched to the Caucasus, when the death of Eucratides allowed him the op- 

 portunity : and in confirmation of which we find, that the Beghrdm coins of this 

 prince refer to the latter part of his reign. The proportion of his copper coins 

 found at Beghram, may also guide us in our estimate of the duration of his reign 

 there. Eucratides, we suppose, reigned 24 years ; in 1833, we found 70 of his 

 coins, and in 1834, 92, or 162 for 2 years; in 1833, we found of the coins of 

 Hermjeus 34, and in 1834, 31, or 65 for 2 years. Now by the common rule of 

 three process, if 162 yield 24, 65 will yield 9+, say 10 years for the reign of 

 HermjEUS at Beghram : but we find that he must have reigned much longer some- 

 where else, which seems to verify the inferences we have before drawn ; and as, 

 we hope, in Antimachus we have found a son and successor for Euthvdemus, 

 so we hope that in Herm^eus we have discovered the son and successor of Me- 

 nander. The difference in the execution of the coins of this prince and of other 

 Bactrian kings, as well as the striking diversity in the purity of the Greek cha- 

 racters, may perhaps be accounted for by supposing, that the better coins are 

 those struck at the metropolitan mints, where Greek artists would be found, and 

 that the inferior ones were struck at provincial mints, where, if Greek artists 

 were not to be procured, the more expert native ones would be employed. We 

 have discussed at some length the merits of the coins of Herm^eus, but let us 

 mislead no one ; on subjects so difficult as these Bactrian coins, much is still left 

 to conjecture, and at present, little more can be done than to expose the difficul- 

 ties that attend them. 



Diomedes. 

 No. 17. (Fig. 10J Obverse. — Two erectfigures, standing to the front, right hands 

 holding spears, swords by the side. Legend Greek IA€n2.nTHP02 AIOMHAOT. 

 Reverse. — Humped cow. Legend Bactrian. 



This is the type of a single quadrangular copper coin procured this year from 

 Beghram, fortunately presenting without doubt in the legend, the nomen and 

 cognomen. Diomedes Soter. The monogram on the reverse p<4; is also found 

 on the coins of Antimachus and Apollodotus. 



Antilakides. 

 No. 18. Obverse. — Bust, the hair of the head behind, bound into a kind of 

 pod resembling a bag- wig. Legend Greek, obscure, but undoubtedly BA2IAE&2 

 NIKH*OPOT ANTIAAKIAOT. (See vol. iv. PI. XXVI. fig. 10.) 



Reverse. — Two conical emblems, with two palm branches fixed between them. 

 Legend Bactrian. This is a single specimen, (as to the circular form of the coin,) 

 procured this year from Beghram. The coin do doubt refers to the same prince 

 whose coins are delineated in figs. 13 and 14, of Series 2, Class Grecian, of my 

 last year's memoir. The features of the prince on this coin are much younger than 

 those marked on the quadrangular coins, and the monogram varies, being 



