The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.226

c10.s1.226

As to gold, Bactria-Sogdiana did not produce any, and the fact that in Darius’ inscription no gold came from Sogdiana shows that the Greek name for the Zarafshan river, Polytimetus ‘the most precious’, referred not to gold-washing but to its value for irrigation. Now the first and best-known sign of independence, in king or country, was to coin gold. Both Diodotus and Euthydemus struck a few gold staters, but they are said to be rare⁴ and these coinages cannot have been large; those of Euthydemus were struck early in his reign⁵ and may have only meant the putting into circulation of the accumulated reserve which must have existed in Bactria as in every satrapy. But after Euthydemus no king of or in Bactria, not even Demetrius, ever coined gold: the 20-stater memorial piece of Eucratides and his solitary gold stater (p. 208) were probably struck from the gold he brought from the west in his war-chest. There was no real supply of gold in Bactria or coming to it, and even in India no Greek or Saca king coined gold;⁶ one gold coin of Taxila, presumably pre-Greek, is known, the only gold coin of ancient India itself.⁷ A true gold coinage first occurs with the Kushans; that is much later than the period I am considering, and their gold was imported from the Western world.⁸