The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.169

c10.s6.169

Many Kharoshthi letters appear on Hermaeus’ coinage, but always in company with a Greek monogram; they point to native mint officials. Kharoshthi letters are common on the coinages of the later Euthydemid kings east of the Jhelum (pp. 356 sq.), but had so far never appeared west of the Jhelum or on the coins of any descendant of Eucratides. They might perhaps be an argument that Hermaeus did not belong to Eucratides’ line; but they are more likely to mean that he was seeking to strengthen his revived kingdom by a large enfranchisement of Indians.¹ Hermaeus’ abundant tetradrachms, like those of Hippostratus, witness to an increased trade with the West; and Hippostratus may have got his silver from the Panjshir mines in Hermaeus’ kingdom. Indeed trade in Hermaeus’ reign must have been brisk all round; a coin of his has even been found in Chinese Turkestan,² and there has also come from Khotan a much defaced piece which apparently bears his name and has a legend in half-obliterated Chinese characters.³ It was doubtless of local manufacture;⁴ but his traders may have travelled far, and it would seem that in some way his sphere and that of China may have been in contact.