The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.180

c10.s2.180

The connection between some of Agathocles’ coins and coins of Taxila has naturally led to the view that he must have ruled there, but that seems impossible (apart from his being a younger son), for it is certain enough that it was Apollodotus whom Demetrius put in charge of Gandhāra (p. 163) which lay between Taxila and the sub-kingdom of Agathocles. That sub-kingdom lay primarily in Iran, and Agathocles’ connections ran along the road from Alexandria-Kapisa to Seistan and not along the road from Alexandria-Kapisa to India. The explanation of the resemblances between bits of the two coinages seems simple. Many of Taxila’s coins had been explicitly issued by the merchant guilds of the city and for trade purposes;¹ also no other Indian coinage is known further to the north-west except the coins bearing the name Vatasvaka, a name connected with the Asvaka (Assaceni) of Swat and now thought to be probably another of the districts whose coinage was (practically) part of the Taxila coinage.² That coinage then had served the trade of the whole North-West; and Agathocles at Alexandria-Kapisa sat in the gate of the West, through which all overland trade with the world beyond India had to pass. What he was doing was putting into circulation under his own name³ more coins of types known and acceptable to the merchants of Taxila and the North-West.