The Greeks in Bactria and India c13.38

c13.38

Account must also be taken of known centres of trade; for example, the great mass of coins of many kings which Masson got about Begram reflects the fact that Alexandria-Kapisa was the gateway of the trade between India and the West, but does not necessarily show who ruled there. It also has to be borne in mind that the coins of some kings continued to be struck after their deaths. Eucratides was not long in India, but Masson picked up his copper coins at Begram by the thousand; Euthydemus was almost certainly dead when Demetrius conquered Seistan, but his copper issues are said to be the only money which has been found in that country in any quantity; the copper money of both must have continued to be coined after their respective deaths. The most curious instance, for which the evidence is unimpeachable, is that the money of both Apollodotus and Menander was circulating in Barygaza in the middle of the first century A.D. (p. 149), two centuries after their deaths, though Surastrene had long been lost to the Greeks. It must be supposed that the great trading port, having found that these coins were good media of exchange, continued to copy them indefinitely for trade purposes; the Saca rulers would not desire to interfere with what was presumably a lucrative procedure.