The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.296

c10.s7.296

the part for the whole, there not being room to get in the whole spear; it lies across his knees because his raised right hand is already occupied and a *κοντός* presumably required both hands. Lastly there comes the placing of the figure on the Maues coin, which is most important. The cross-legged king Azes is of course on the obverse of his coin, that being the king’s place on coins. Were the Maues figure a king, it could only be Maues himself; but it is on the reverse, which on coins is not the king’s place but the god’s place.¹ No Greek engraver could have put Maues, the conquering ruler of a large empire, on the reverse of his own coinage.