The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c28.52

c28.52

The Yüe-chi conquests opened up the overland path of commerce between the Roman empire and India. Kadphises I, who struck coins in bronze or copper only, imitated, after his conquest of Kābul, the coinage either of Augustus in his latter years, or the similar coinage of Tiberius (A. D. 14 to 38). When the Roman gold of the early emperors began to pour into India in payment for the silks, spices, gems, and dyestuffs of the East, Kadphises II perceived the advantage of a gold currency, and struck an abundant issue of orientalized *aurei*, agreeing in weight with their prototypes, and not much inferior in purity. In Southern India, which, during the same period, maintained an active maritime trade with the Roman empire, the local kings did not attempt to copy the imperial *aurei*, which were themselves imported in large quantities, and used for currency purposes, just as English sovereigns now are in many parts of the world.¹