The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.57

c10.s2.57

Demetrius II then ruled and coined in Alexandria-Kapisa. But he coined for his father, not for himself, as Antiochus I had once done:⁵ this is shown by his putting his father’s title ‘Of King Demetrius the Invincible’ on his tetradrachms, while on his square bilingual copper coins (which were struck by him and not by his father)⁶ he put not only his father’s title but his father’s head, the well-known head wearing the elephant-scalp. The tetradrachms would circulate principally among Greeks, who understood the position; hence his own head. But the copper coins would circulate, or so it was hoped, among Indians, who might not understand; hence his father’s head. But the real matter was the introduction on the coinage of a Prakrit legend, written in Kharoshthi, beside the Greek legend. The great importance of this step will be considered later; here I need only say that this radical development in policy could only have been due to Demetrius himself, not to any subking, and proves yet again that Demetrius II was coining to his father’s instructions. Demetrius himself struck no coins in India; his coins nearly all come from Iran, and are practically never found east of the Indus,¹ though one has come from the excavations at Taxila.²