The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s3.133

c10.s3.133

The portrait of Eucratides in his helmet upon the tetradrachms of his second series,¹ a portrait engraved after he was in possession of Bactra itself, is so striking, with its look of a British officer in a sun-helmet, that one is at first tempted to attribute it to the great artist whom I have called *X* and rank it as a fourth beside his portraits of Euthydemus, Demetrius, and Antimachus. But this can hardly be the case. One characteristic of the work of *X* is its uncompromising truth and fidelity to the facts, while this portrait of Eucratides is idealised, like the Alexander-heads on Lysimachus' money; this can be seen by glancing at the bare-headed portraits of his first series, by another engraver,² where his face is quite ugly and bears a strong resemblance to the ugly features of his son Heliocles³. There was evidently more than one great portrait-engraver in Bactra, and if their names are forgotten, forgotten also are the names of the men who worked for Lysimachus and of many another fine artist. Their names are forgotten; but their honour lives in their work.