1840.] Notes on Captain Hay's Bactrian coins. 539 



s till able, from the remaining portion of the Bactrian legend, to attribute 

 this piece to its proper owner. 



Obverse.— Apollo standing naked, inclined to the left, his left 

 hand resting on a bow, and his right hand holding an arrow. Greek 

 legend in three lines /3a2IAEQea7roAAoc)orou SQTHPoc, " (Coin) 

 of the saviour king (Apollodotus)." 



Reverse. — A tripod and a Grecian monogram in the field. Bactrian 

 legend in three lines, Maharajasa Apaladatasa dadatasa — " (Coin) 

 of the great king Apollodotus, the saviour." 



No. 6. — This is apparently a stone having a rude representation 

 of a horse upon it. 



Sassanian Coins. 



Of these Sassanian coins, Nos. 6 and 7 alone have any interest 

 attached to them, in the remarkable appearance of a human head 

 rising from the midst of the flames of the altar, supposed by Mars, 

 den to be " the genius" of the king himself brought to view by 

 " the performance of religious rites;" but Sir W. Ouseley suggests that 

 "in the human head placed on a fire altar, we may discover Ormuzd, 

 or the divinity existing amidst flames." The former supposition 

 however appears to me the more probable; for in " Hyde's Religio 

 Veterum Persarum," we see a sculpture taken from a Persepolitan 

 Mausoleum, representing, as described by Hyde himself, "a king 

 standing before a fire (altar) and before the sun, as if about to wor- 

 ship, whose spirit or small image is seen about to ascend to heaven 

 on a cloud" and this ascending figure is identical in dress, 

 appearance, and attitude, with the figure of the king worshipping before 

 the fire altar below. 



PLATE IV. 



No. 1. — A round copper coin of large size, very much defaced, but 

 still easily recognizable as a specimen of the common round type 

 of Apollodotus. 



Obverse. — Figure of Apollo naked, standing, half-turned to the 

 right, having a quiver attached to his shoulder, and holding in his left 

 hand an arrow inclined downwards : at his back a Grecian monogram 

 legend in pure Greek BA2IAEQ2 2QTHP02 AflOAAOAO- 

 TOY. « ( Coin) of the saviour king Apollodotus." 



