886 Lieut. Cunningham on Bactrian coins, [No. 105. 



any Parthian prince, unless we suppose his father Undopherras to have 

 been also a king of Parthia ; a supposition which would only involve us 

 in still greater difficulties. 



There is a curious passage in Tacitus (Ann. lib. xi. c. 10.) which, 

 if true, would almost show that the Parthian arms had not penetrated 

 into the country of the Paropamisades before a. d. 44. In speaking 

 of the successes of Bardanes, who had pushed his conquests beyond the 

 river Sinde, which divided the territories of the Dahse and the 

 Arians, he adds, " igitur extructis monumentis, quibus opes suas 

 testabatur, nee cuiquam ante Arsacidarum tributa illis de gentibus 

 parta, regreditur." Professor Heeron, however, says, that Mithridates 

 1st extended the frontiers of the Parthian empire as far eastward as 

 the Hydaspes. Tacitus indeed does not say that no former Parthian 

 king had pushed his arms so far ; but when he says that none of the 

 Arsacides before Bardanes had taken tribute from those nations, we 

 may suppose that none had before penetrated so far to the eastward ; 

 for in all wars, and more especially in those of the east, conquest is 

 followed by exactions, which are usually called by the victors by the 

 milder name of tribute. The authority of Tacitus is also much 

 strengthened by the silence of Justin, who in mentioning the conquests 

 of Mithridates 1st, over the Medians, Hyrcanians, and Elymseans, merely 

 adds " imperiumque Parthorum a monte Caucaso, multis populis in 

 ditionem redactis, usque ad flumen Euphratem protulit." 



From these passages therefore it would seem to be almost impossible 

 to identify our Indo-Parthian king with the 1st Vonones, who was 

 one of the predecessors of Bardanes. Professor Lassen, however, sup- 

 poses him to be the same as the 2nd Vonones, who reigned for a few 

 months only in a. d. 50 : but I have already shown that our Vonones 

 must have been nearly cotemporary with Azas, about 80 b. c ; as their 

 coins are similar in type, make, and genarel appearance. In addition 

 to which we have the united testimony of the Chinese historians, and 

 of Ptolemy the geographer, in favour of our Vonones having been an 

 independent prince : for they both declare that the country in which 

 his coins are found, was under the dominion of the Indo- Scythians j 

 during the reign of the 2nd Vonones of Parthia ; but on this subject I 

 shall speak more fully when I come to describe the coins of the Indo- 

 Scythians themselves. 



