The Greeks in Bactria and India c28.32

c28.32

The point I want to make myself is one of which no theory has yet taken account, the close connection between Maues and an obscure Indo-Greek king called Telephus. Telephus’ coins are very rare,⁸ only nine specimens being actually known, but one of them gives a tiny picture of Mt Pilusāra¹ like the well-known one on the ‘Kapisi’ coins of Eucratides (p. 213); that, and the type ‘Zeus enthroned’ on his bronze money, show that he ruled and coined in Kapisa. His coins show two peculiar monograms, which can only be those of his moneyers in that city (see App. 1); and these two monograms also occur on coins of Maues and are said to occur nowhere else.² Maues then not only coined in Kapisa—that could be deduced from his coins which show the ‘Zeus enthroned’ type of Kapisa³—but coined there with the same two moneyers as Telephus, and therefore either directly before or after him; as the extreme rarity of Telephus’ coins points to a very short reign, Maues’ date at Kapisa in either case is substantially the date of Telephus. What is that date?⁴ Telephus’ coins all show the round omicron alone, which *prima facie* puts him before c. 50 B.C. if not before 50 B.C. (p. 326); in fact no numismatist, on numismatic grounds, has ever classed him with the really late kings like Hippostratus, Nicias, Hermaeus. Now the round and the square omicron (p. 326) afford a good test for comparative dating in the *same locality*; and this makes it impossible to put Telephus after Hermaeus, who also ruled and coined in Kapisa. For Hermaeus’ coins show both the round and the square omicron, and their abundance postulates a reign of some length; and on this ground alone he cannot well have come to the throne later than c. 50 B.C. or died before 30 B.C. (see generally Chap. VIII). Indeed if, as seems almost certain, he was Yin-mo-fu of the Ch’ien-han-shu (p. 340), then there is evidence that he came to the throne before 48 B.C. and was alive at some date after 32 B.C.; the end of Greek rule in the Paropamisadae, *i.e.* his death, falls about or soon after 30 B.C. (p. 350). But immediately before Hermaeus comes the reign of his father Amyntas (p. 331), of unknown length; keeping everything as late as possible, that still puts Telephus, and consequently Maues, not later than about 60 B.C. at latest.¹