The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.174

c10.s6.174

Beside Hermaeus’ own coinage, some issues exist which connect him with the first Kushan king, Kujula Kadphises (Kadphises I).⁵ The five chiefs of the Yueh-chi have already been mentioned; Kadphises, the chief (*yabghu* or *yavuga*) of the Kuei-shuang tribe or section, the Kushans proper, conquered the other four chiefs and made himself king of the whole people, thenceforth known to history as Kushans. The event is recorded in the Hou-han-shu, and as that history professedly starts from the events of A.D. 25 it is recognised that the date at which Kadphises seized the supreme power cannot be earlier. But it is also certain that Hermaeus did not live till A.D. 25 or anywhere near it, and it is now generally recognised that Greek rule had ended long before Kadphises I invaded and conquered the Paropamisadae.⁶ The old belief that these coins were a joint issue of Hermaeus and Kadphises I has in consequence been universally abandoned,⁷ for it is recognised that a considerable interval of time separated the two kings; but nothing else has taken its place. I see no reason to doubt that, like other coins we have met with—coins of Antimachus and Agathocles (App. 3) and of Eucratides (Chap. v)—these are *pedigree coins* (App. 17): an ancestor of Kadphises, probably his grandfather, had married a relative of Hermaeus, and Kadphises was commemorating his relationship to the last Greek king. The reason is obvious: in his struggle with the then Pahlava rulers of the Paropamisadae he was trying to get the Greeks on his side by proclaiming that he was no foreign conqueror but their legitimate king, relative and heir of Hermaeus, whose power he magnified accordingly. The ancestor of Kadphises in question must have been Miaos (his name is uncertain), the only Kushan before him to issue a Greek coinage; he is considered in Appendix 17.