540 Third Memoir of the Ancient Coins. [Sept. 



coins of the Sassanides of Persia, and whether they may not rather refer 

 to distinct princes, that we believe Persian authentic history attests to 

 have flourished in these countries, as at Zabulistdn, &c. 



The characters of the inscriptions on the Beghrdm coins, some of 

 which command attention from their peculiarity, may be also useful 

 in determining the periods at which particular dialects ceased and 

 became used in Afghanistan. The earlier Greek-Bactrian sovereigns, 

 as Euthydemus, being guided by coins hitherto found, placed on their 

 monies only Greek inscriptions ; some of their successors, as Eucra- 

 tides, have coins bearing in the same manner only Greek legends, and 

 others exhibiting both Greek and native legends ; while others, and 

 the majority of them, as Apollodotus, Menander, &c. have on their 

 coins invariably both Greek and native legends ; no one coin of these 

 sovereigns having been met with bearing simply a Greek inscription. 

 The opinion might be advanced, that native legends were first adopted 

 by those princes who extended their empire by the acquisition of 

 distant provinces, and their absence on the coins of Euthydemus 

 will not controvert it, as it is nearly certain that he could have 

 carried his arms across the Causasus or Hindu Koosh, only towards 

 the close of his reign. Another question will then arise, whether the 

 characters of these native legends refer to a language common in 

 Bactria or the countries north of Caucasus, or prevailing only in 

 the Indian provinces south of it : — -the latter may be suggested, by those 

 who suppose Menander to have ruled in India before he conquered 

 Bactria ; for if he did, so did Apollodotus ; and on the coins of these 

 princes, these characters will then be first noted. It is not, however, 

 positive that Menander preceded Eucratides ; for although generally 

 believed, the scant historical data left us are as much against the 

 belief as for it. The language itself, that of this part of Asia, two 

 centuries before Christ, will not have become obsolete until the period 

 or nearly so of the Mahommedan era ; for although the coins of Kad- 

 phises, whose epoch we would fain believe was about 200 A. D. are 

 the latest apparently which exhibit them, — excavations near Jeldldbdd, 

 in the burial grounds of the ancient Nagara, have elicited inscriptions 

 in the same character, which may safely be assumed to have been 

 deposited at some period within the century preceding the Mahom- 

 medan era. Indeed, if the famous Manikydla tope be an erection 

 subsequent to this era, as we suspect to be proved by some of the 

 coins extracted from it, the language may have continued in use to a 

 much more recent period ; and all these circumstances may be adduced 

 to support the opinion, that it is of Indian rather than of Bactrian 

 origin. Mr. Prinsep has admirably commenced the investigation of 



