In fact, all through the period of
Çaka and Pahlava rule the countries to the west and east of the Indus
were governed by members of the same royal house.
Çaka and Pahlava rule the countries to the west and east of the Indus
were governed by members of the same royal house.
Cambridge History of India - v1
D.
, since,
according to Sir John Marshall's observations, the evidence of the dis-
coveries at Takshçilā shows that he was rather later than Gondopharnes,
1 Rapson, Indian Coins, p. 16.
i
2 J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 194, note 1.
3 Rapson, J. R. A. S. , 1897, p. 319.
.
1
## p. 507 (#545) ############################################
XXII
HERM AEUS
507
who is known to have reigned during the period from 19 A. D. to 45 A. D. '
It would appear then that, while Hermaeus may have been reigning
for some time before and after c. 40 B. C. , as would seem to be indicated
by the square in his later Greek coin-legends”, a coinage bearing his
name and his types was issued by his conquerors until a much later date,
in the same way and for the same reasons that the East India Company
continued for many years to strike rupees bearing the name of the Mughal
Emperor, Shāh ‘Alam'. That these conquerors were not Kushāņas may,
from chronological considerations, be regarded as certain. That they were
the Pahlavas of Kandahār is made probable by the evidence of the coins
which were struck by Spalirises with the characteristic type of the Yavana
kings of Kābul, “Zeus enthroned' (PI. VII, 38). It was probably not un-
til at least seventy years after the death of its last Yavana king that the
Kābul valley passed from the Pahlavas to the Kushāņas, the next suzerain
power in Afghānistān and N. W. India.
1 The four stages in the currency which bears the name of Hermaeus are shown
in the B. M. Cat. : (1) pp. 62-3 nos, 1. 4, PI. XV, 1,2 ; (2) p. 63, nos. 20-1, Pl. XV, 4 ;
(3) pp. 64-5, no:. 25-40, PI, XV, 6; (4) p. 65, nos. 45-50.
2 Chapter XXIII, pp. 515-16.
3 Chapter XXIII, 518.
.
P,
## p. 508 (#546) ############################################
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
The Scythians (Çaka) and Parthian (Pahlava) invaders of India are
often mentioned in Sanskrit literature, and nearly always in association
with each other and with the Yavanas. But, as this literature is not
historical, we must turn to other sources – to Greek and Chinese historians,
to the inscriptions of Persia and India, and to coins - for information as
to their origin and their rule in India.
The Yavanas had come from Bactria over the Hindu Kush into the
upper Kābul valley, and thence along the Kābul river into India by a
route which has since been abandoned for that which now leads through
the Khyber defile. It was formerly assumed that the Çakas came directly
into India from the same region and by the same way. But this view is
attended with difficulties which cannot be explained. In the first place,
if the Çakas came through the Kābul valley, all traces of their invasion
must be supposed to have disappeared from that region : for, among the
many thousands of coins which were collected on its ancient sites at the
time when the country was still open to archaeological investigations, the
coins of the earliest Çaka kings are conspicuous by their absence ; and
secondly, it is certain that the Kābul valley remained in the possession of
the Yavana princes of the house of Eucratides after the Yavana domi-
nions in N. W. India on the eastern side of the Khyber Pass, that is to say,
in Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi, had been conquered by the Çakas. Ingress
from Bactria was therefore barred at this period.
The alternative suggestion that the Çakas may have come into India
from their northern home in the country of the Jaxartes through Kashmir
involves a physical impossibility. The geographical difficulties of this
region are such that an invasion from this direction of tribal hordes or
armies sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the Yavana kingdoms and to
conquer the whole of the N. W. Frontier Province and the Punjab is
inconceivable!
1 See the authorities quoted by Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1913, p. 635. notes 1 and 2.
508
## p. 509 (#547) ############################################
xxu)
SCYTHIAN SETTLEMENTS
509
Any direct invasion from the north seems, in fact, to be out of the
question. It is therefore far more probable, nay almost certain, that the
Çakas reached India indirectly, and that, like the Pahlavas, they came
through Ariāna (W. and S. Afghānistān and Baluchistān) by the great
highway, associated in modern times with the Bolān Pass, which led from
the Parthian provinces of Drangiāna (Seistān) and Arachosia (Kandahār)
over the Brāhūi mountains into the country of the lower Indus (Sind).
This route was well known and comparatively easy. By it Craterus had
returned with that division of Alexander's army which included the
elephants
The Scythian (Çaka) settlements, which can only have been the
result of invasions along this route, gave to the region of the Indus delta
the name 'Scythia' or 'Indo-Scythia' by which it was known to the Greek
geographers, and the name 'Çaka-dvipa' or 'the river country of the Çakas’
as it appears in Indian literature. This region still continued to be gover-
ned by the Pahlavas, who are inseparably connected with the Çakas, at
the end of the first century A. D. There can be little doubt that Indo-
Scythia was the base from which the Çaka and Pahlava armies moved up
the valleys of the Indus and its tributaries to attack the Yavana kingdoms
of the successors of Euthydemus and Eucratides.
In all ages the name "Scythian' has been applied generally to the
nomads inhabiting the northern regions of Europe and Asia ; and accord.
ing to Herodotus (vii, 64), the term “Saka. ' as used by the Persians, was
equally vague. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius it denotes no less
than three different and widely separated sett lements of Scythians. These,
enumerated from east to west, have been identified as follows :
(1) The Sakā Tigrakhaudā, wearers of pointed helmets. They are
so described by Herodotus (VII, 64), who states that they were included
together with their neighbours, the Bactrians, in the army of Xerxes. They
were therefore the Çakas whose home was in the country of the river
Jaxartes (the Syr Daria).
(2) The Sakā Haumavarkā, the 'Auveriol of Herodotus (loc. cit. )
who have been identified with the Çaka settlers in the Persian pro-
vince of Drangiāna, the country of the river Helmand, which was after.
wards known as Çakasthāna, “the abode of the Çakas,' the later Persian
Sijistān and the modern Seistān.
(3) The Sakā Taradarayā, or 'the Çakas over the sea'; that is to
say, the Scythians of Europe who inhabited the steppes of Russia to the
north of the Black Sea.
1 Chapter xv, p. 340.
2 Ptolemy, VII, 1, 55 ; Periplus maris Erythraei, 38.
3 Thomas J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 186.
## p. 510 (#548) ############################################
510
[сн.
SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
These three settlements are no doubt merely specimens of the larger
deposits left by the waves of Scythian migration which may be traced back
in history to about the middle of the eighth century B. C. The flood
had now for some three and a half centuries been held in check by
the barrier maintained in Bactria, first by the Achaemenid kings of Persia
and afterwards by the successors of Alexander. But the strength of Bactria
had been sapped by foreign and domestic strife, and it was no longer cap-
able of resisting the pressure of barbarian hordes on the frontier.
The initial impulse of the tribal movements, which were destined
to overwhelm Greek civilisation in the Osus country, and to determine
the history of N. India for many centuries to come, may be traced to an
incident in the turbulent history of the Huns, against whose inroads
the Chinese emperors had protected themselves by building the Great Wall.
In the neck of country between the Great Wall and the mountains
which forms part of the province of Kan-su, lived a people known
to Chinese historians as the Yueh-chi. Being attacked and defeated by
the Huns, c. 165 B. C. , the Yueh-chi were driven from their country, and
began a westward migration which necessarily brought them into conflict
with other nomads, and produced a general condition of unrest among the
tribes inhabiting the northern fringe of the deserts of Chinese Turkestān.
The pressure caused by the steady onward movement of Yueh-chi tribes,
numbering probably from half a million to a million souls', forced before
it other nomads, and set up a flood of migration which after sweeping
away the Yavana power in Bactria, was only stayed in its westward course
by Parthia.
Certain incidents in this migration, which must have extended over
some thirty or forty years, are recorded by Chinese authors. In the
country of the Ili river, now called Kulja, the Yueh-chi came upon a tribe
called the Wu-sun. The Wu-sun were routed, and their king was slain ;
and the Yueh-chi continued their journey westwards towards the Issyk-kul
Lake in the country which was until recently Russian Turkestān. Here
they appear to have divided themselves into two bands—the one, afterwards
known as the Little Yueh-chi, going southwards and settling on the borders
of Tibet, and the other, the Great Yueh-chi, continuing their movement
to the west until they came into contact with a people whom the Chinese
called Sse (Saï) or Sek, and who are probably to be identified with the
Çakas of the Jaxartes. The Yueh-chi took possession of the country of
the Çakas ; and the Çakas being driven to the south-west occupied the
country of the Ta-hia or Bactria.
The immediate cause of the downfall of Greek rule in Bactria would
therefore seem to have been an overwhelming invasion of Çaka hordes who
had been driven from their own lands. The native inhabitants of Bactria,
1 Smith, Early Hist. of Ind. (3rd ed. ), p. 248.
## p. 511 (#549) ############################################
XXI
THE CAKA INVASION
511
a
the Ta-hia or Dahae, are represented as an unwarlike people living
in towns and villages which were governed by their own magistrates.
The state of society described is such as prevailed also in India : it
is a society made up of local groups self-governed and self-contained.
In the case of such communities the military conquest of a country merely
determines the landlord to whom the customary dues must be paid.
It is probable that for a brief period Çaka warrior chiefs took the place of
Eucratides and Heliocles as rulers of the Ta-hia. Such would appear to
have been the state of affairs when the Chinese envoy in 126 s. c. visited
the Yueh-chi and found them still in the territories to the north of
the Oxus from which they had expelled the Çakas. The political conditions
then existing were in a transient stage of unstable equilibrium. They
were the outcome of a disturbance of peoples which began in far distant
China nearly forty years before. But the movement had not yet coin-
pleted its course : it was resumed in consequence of an attack on the
Yueh-chi.
The infant son of the Wu-sun king, who was slain by the Yueh-chi
in their earlier conflict, had been adopted by the Huns; and when the
boy grew up to manhood and beceme king of the Wu-sun, he with the aid
of his protectors led an expedition against the Yueh-chi and drove them
into the country south of the Oxus. The result must necessarily have been
a further dispersal of the Cakas. A concise summary of events is given in
the Chinese encyclopaedia of Ma-twan-lin :
In ancient times the Hiung. nu having defeated the Yue}-chi, the latter went
to the west to dwell among the Ta-hia, and the king of the Sai (Çakas) went south-
wards to live in Ki-pin. The tribes of the Sai divided and dispressed, so as to form
here and there different kingdoms. (Translated from Remusat, Nouveux Melanges Asia-
tiques, 1, p. 205.
This account is supplemented in the Annals of the Han Dynasty
which state that the Çaka king became the lord of Ki-pin? .
The summary records the complete annihilation of Çaka rule in
Bactria. The king himself becomes king in Ki-pin-a geographical term
which is used in various senses by Chinese writers, but which, in this case,
would most naturally mean Kāpiça (Kāfiristān) ; and the tribes formerly
under his command are dispersed. There is no indication that any con-
siderable body of Çakas accompanied their king to Ki-pin. The main
movement, impeded by the Yavana power in Käbul, would naturally be
westwards in the direction of Herāt and thence southwards to Seistān. The
tide of Scythian invasion had no doubt been flowing in these directions since
the time when the Çakas were first expelled from their territory beyond the
Jaxartes by the Yueh-chi ; for there is good evidence to show that the
earlier Scythian settlements in Irān were reinforced about the time when
the Çakas first occupied Bactria. The kings of Parthia who now held eastern
1 0. Franke, Beiträge aus chinesischen Queilen, pp. 46, 54,
## p. 512 (#550) ############################################
512
[Ch.
SCYTHIN AND PARTHIAN IANVADERS
Irān were engaged during two reigns (Phraates II, 138-128 B. C. , and
Artabanus 1, 128-123) in unsuccessful struggles with their Scythian sub.
jects ; and the contest was only decided in favour of Parthia in the reign
of the next monarch, Mithradates II the Great (123-88). Parthia had now
taken the place of Bactria as the barrier which impeded the westward
course of migrations from upper Asia. But the stream of invasion was
only diverted into another channel : checked in Ariāna, it forced its way
along the line of least resistance into the country of the lower Indus (Indo-
Scythia). The Çaka invasion of India, like the invasion of the Huns
(Hūņas) between five and six centuries later, was but an episode in one of
those great movements of peoples which have so profoundly influenced the
history not only of India, but also of Western Asia and Europe.
On a few of their coins, generally imitated from those of their
Yavana predecessors (e. g. B. M. Cat. , Pil. XVI, I ; XVII, 7 ; XIX, 12) the
Caka and Pahlava kings repeat the Greek royal title 'King' or 'Great King;
but their normal style is 'Great King of Kings,' a title which is distinctive-
ly Persian. It has a long history from the Kshāyathiyānām Kshāyathiya
of the inscriptions of Darius down to the Shāhān Shān of the present day.
Like the Indian Chakravartin, 'the wielder of the discus,' the Persian 'King
of Kings' was the supreme monarch to whom other kings paid homage.
In the Parthian empire the title was probably first assumed by Mithradates
II the Great (123-88 B. c. ) in imitation of his predecessors, the Achaemenids.
It was in his reign that the struggle between the kings of Parthia and their
Scythian subjects in eastern Irān was brought to a close and the suzerain-
ty of Parthia over the ruling powers of Seistān and Kandahār confirmed.
In these subordinate governments Parthians (Pahlavas) and Scythians
(Çakas) were so closely associated that it is not always possible to distin.
guish between them : the same family includes both Parthian and Scythian
names. It is therefore little more than a convenient nomenclature which
labels the princes of the family of Maues, who invaded the lower Indus
valley, as Çakas, and those of the family of Vonones who ruled over
Drangiāna (Seistān) and Arachosia (Kandahār), as Pahlavas. The relation
between Maues and Vonones is uncertain ; but it is clear that their families
were associated in a later generation.
It has been supposed that the introduction into India of the Persian and
Parthian title, 'Great King of Kings,' was the result of an actual conquest
of N. W. India by Mithradates I ; and a statement of the historian Orosius
that this monarch conquered all the peoples between the Hydas pes and the
Indus has been interpreted to mean that he extended the power of Parthia
beyond the Indus as far as the Indian Hydaspes (the Jhelum)? . But to an
1 Some numismatists attribute the Parthian coins on which the title first
occurs to Mithradates I (171-138). See Wroth, B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. note.
2 Smith Early Hist, of Ind, (3rd ed. ), p, 228,
## p. 513 (#551) ############################################
xxt]
THE ÇAKA KING OF KINGS
513
author who is writing from the standpoint of Parthia, the expression
between the Hydaspes and the Indus' must surely connote an extension
from west to east - from a Persian river to the great Indus which has so
often in history been the boundary between Irān and India. Hydaspes is
a Persian name, and the river mentioned in this passage is no doubt the
Medus Hydas pes of Virgil (Georgics, IV, 211)'. The theory of a conquest
of N. W. India by Mitbradates I would therefore seem to be founded on a
misunderstanding of the historian's statement. The invasion of India must
be ascribed not to the Parthian emperors, but to their former feudato-
ries in eastern Irān ; not to the reign of Mithradates I, put to a period
after the reign of Mithradates II, when the power of Parthia had declined
and kingdoms once subordinate had become independent. The association
to which the coins bear witness is not one between Parthia and eastern
Irān, but between Irān and N. W. India.
In fact, all through the period of
Çaka and Pahlava rule the countries to the west and east of the Indus
were governed by members of the same royal house. There were normally
three contemporary rulers of royal rank-a King of Kings associated with
some junior member of his family in Irān, and a King of Kings in India, and
the subordinate ruler in Irān usually became in due course King of Kings
in India.
The assumption of the imperial title, 'King of Kings,' by these Çaka
and Pahlava suzerains is most significant as testifying, in a manner which
cannot be mistaken, to the diminished power of Parthia at this period. In
Parthia itself the title remained in abeyance during the interval from 88 to
57 B. C. which separates the reigns of Mithradates II and III ; and in the
meantime it was assumed not only by the Çaka king Maues in the East, but
also, in the years 77-73, by Tigranes, king of Armenia, the great rival of
Parthia in the West? .
In eastern Irān the ‘King of Kings' and the prince of his family who
was associated with him in the government issued coins bearing the names
of both – the former in Greek on the obverse, and the latter in Kharoshthi
on the reverse. Greek was the ordinary language of coins throughout the
Parthian empire : it was not characteristic of any particular province.
Kharoshtbi, on the other hand, was, in eastern Irān, restricted to Aracho-
sia (Kandahār). We may reasonably infer therefore from his Kharoshthi
coin-legends that the viceroy governed this province in the upper valley of
the Helmand and its tributaries. The other province, Drangiāna (Seistān),
was most probably under the direct rule of the suzerain.
In India the ‘King of Kings' ruled with the aid of satraps and
1 Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, s. v. Hydaspes (2) The remark in Rapson,
Anc. Ind. , p. 171, should be corrected.
2 Wroth, B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. XXV, note ; Head, Historia Numorum (2nd ed. ),
p. 732 ; von Gutschmid, Gesch. Irans, p. 81.
## p. 514 (#552) ############################################
51+
CH.
SCYTHI AV AND PARTHIAV INVADERS
a
military governors. The first three Caka suzerains who succeeded to the
diminions of the Yavanas in the N. W. Frontier Province and the Punjab
were Maues, Azez I, and Azilises. Their numerous coinages are, almost
without exception, copied from those of their Yavana predecessors : and it
is therefore probable that the coins represent only those districts of the
Çaka realm which were formerly held by the Yavanas'. The great variety
of the types thus imitated indicates the wide extent of these territories ;
- and the astonishing difference of style shown by coins struck in the same
reign proves that the art of different regions varied enormously at the same
period. The best coins belong no doubt to Gandhāra (Puskalāvati and
Takshaçilā). Inferior workmanship is a sign of remoteness from this
region rather than of a late date, as the numismatists have commonly
assumed. It was in Gandhāra that the Graeco-Buddhist school of art, the
outcome of a fusion of Greek and Indian ideais and methods, grew up and
flourished, but it was not until the end of the first century A. D. that this
school reached its highest state as seen in the religious sculptures of the
Kushāņas. Its beginnings are no doubt to be traced in the coins of an
earlier date, and such beginnings were naturally progressive. The finest
coins of Maues, for instance, are excelled by those of Azilises two reigns
later. The early date, viz. c. 120 B. C. , which is usually assigned to Maues
?
entirely on grounds of style and on the gratuitous assumption that art was
retrogressive from the time of the Yaranas onwards, cannot therefore be
maintained. It is far more probable that he invaded India after the end of
the reign of Mithradates II (123-58 B. C. ) when Parthia ceased to exercise
any real control over Seistān and Kandahār.
The precise date of Maues cannot at present be determined. He is
undoubtedly to be identified with the Great King Moga, who is mentioned
in the Takshaçilā copper-plate inscription of the satrap Pātika. The
inscription is dated in the reign of Maues and in the year 78 of some
unspecified era. None of the known Indian eras seems to be possible in
this case ; and it may not unreasonably be suggested that the Çakas, like
other foreign invaders at all periods, may have brought with them into
India their own system of reckoning, and that this may be the era used
in Seistān. The month of the inscription is Parthian ; and from this fact
it may be in ferred that the era itself is probably of Parthian origin. It may
possibly mark the establishment of the new kingdom in Seistān after its
incorporation into the Parthian empire by Mithradates I, c. 150 B. c. If so,
the date of the inscription would be c. 72 B. C. , a year which may well have
fallen in the reign of Maues.
1 The province of Indo-Scythia (Sind) appears to be very inadequately repre-
sented hy coins. It may, perhaps, have been held by the viceroy together with
Arachosia.
2 Whitehead Lahore Mus. Cat. , Indo. Greek Coins, p. 93.
## p. 515 (#553) ############################################
XXIII)
THE DATE OF AZES I
515
The coins of Maues are copied from those struck by princes of both
the Yavana houses (PII. VI, 2, 9, 12 ; VIII, 48, and Summary, pp. 529 ff. )
The numismatic evidence combined with that of the Takshaçilā copper-
plate indicates that he conquered Gandhāra -- Pushkalāvati to the west of
the Indus (Pl. VI, 12, and Summary, p. 530) as well as Takshaçilā to the
east- and it is possible that he may have invaded the Yavana dominions in
the eastern Punjab. But it is clear that in the direction last mentioned the
Çaka conquests failed to reach their limit during his reign. For a time the
remnants of the two Yavana houses in the upper Kābul valley and in the
eastern Punjab seem to have been separated by the Çaka dominions which
lay between them in the valley of the Indus.
The evidence for this is supplied by the coins of Azes I and Azilises,
who not only continue the issues of Maues (Summary, pp. 530-2), but also
strike a number of additional types which are manifestly borrowed from
those of the Yavana princes whose kingdoms they conquered! . The most
noteworthy of these is the rev. type 'Athene Promachos' which is charac-
teristic of the families of Apollodotus and Menander in the eastern Punjab.
It appears on coins of Azes I, but not on those of Maues (Summary, p.
532). Such additional types bear witness to a considerable extension of the
Çaka dominions, and seem to indicate that after the reign of Manes the
house of Euthydemus was extinguished and Yavana rule in the Punjab
brought to an end. The house of Eucratides, now probably represented by
its last king, Hermaeus, still continued for a while to hold the upper
Kābul valley - the base from which the Yavana power had first extended
to Arachosia and to India.
To Azes I has been attributed the foundation of the Vikrama era
beginning in 58 B. C. , and, according to Sir John Marshall, an inscription
discovered by him at Takshaçilā is actually dated 'in the year 136 of Azes. '
This interpretation may well be correct (v. inf. p. 524), in spite of the
tradition that this era was founded by King Vikramāditya of Ujjain to
commemorate the defeat of the Çakas ; and, whatever may have been the
origin of this era, the assignment of the reign of Azes I to this period is
justified by other considerations. It is consistent with the date ascribed
independently to his predecessor, Maues (o. 75 B. C. ), and with the date of
his third successor on the throne, Gondopharnes, who almost certainly
began to rule in 19 A. D. (p. 520); and it is supported by evidence drawn
from the epigraphy of the Greek coin-legends.
On the earlier coins of the Yavanas and on those of the first Çaka
king, Maues, the round form of the Greek omicron only is found. On some
of the later Yavana coins, e. g. those of Hippostratus, and on the coins of
Azes I the square form, (), makes its appearance side by side with the
mplete list of types is given in the Lahore Mus. Cat. , vol. I.
1 The
aost
## p. 516 (#554) ############################################
516
[Ch.
SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
round form. The same change took place in Parthia during the reign of
Orodes I (57-38 B. c. )". That at this period there was constant communica-
tion between Parthia and India there can be no doubt. It is reasonable,
therefore, to suppose that this epigraphical change is due to a fashion
which spread from one country to the other, and that the occurrence of the
square omicron on a Parthian or Indian coin is an indication that its date
is not earlier than c. 40 B. c. ?
Judged by this test, the Yavana king, Hippostratus, must have con-
tinued to reign after the death of Maues ; and he must have been con-
temporary with the successor of Maues, Azes I, who restruck his coins and
continued to use some of his most distinctive monograms, no doubt after
the conquest of his kingdom. 3
There is no reason to question the almost unanimous opinion of
numismatists that Azes I was succeeded by Azilises; but there was certainly
a period in which these two kings were associated in the government. On
some coins which they issue conjointly both bear the imperial style, 'Great
King of Kings' ; but Azes I, as the elder, occupies the place of honour on
the obverse with its Greek legend (B. M. Cat. , p. 173, Pl. XXXII, 9).
On other coins, however, the same two names appear with the same
titles, but with a change of position-Azilises occupying the obverse with a
Greek legend, and Azes the reverse with a Kharoshthi legend (B. M. Cat. ,
p. 92, Pl. XX, 3); and, as degrees of dignity or seniority are undoubtedly
indicated by these positions in similar instances, it has been inferred that
Azilises was associated with two kings named Azes- possibly with his
father and predecessor at the beginning of his reign and with his son and
successor at its close. The existence of a second Azes might well be
questioned if it could be proved by no more cogent argument than this.
But the coins which bear the name show so great a diversity of style that,
from this fact alone, numismatists have suspected that they must have been
struck by more than one king; and, if our system of chronology be
correct, the Azes who succeeded Maues in 58 B. C. cannot possibly have
been the Azes who was succeeded by Gondopharnes in 19 A. D. (p. 520).
At some time during the period when the first three Çaka kings were
establishing their empire in India, Vonones was reigning as suzerain over
the kingdoms of eastern Irān with the same imperial title, "Great King of
King. It is inconceivable that such a dignity should have been usurped
in this region so long as it remained under the suzerainty of Parthia.
1 B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. 73, no. 37, Pl. XV, 2, a tetradrachm of the later coinage
struck in 40-39 B. C.
? This chronological test must be applied with caution. Isolated instances occur
earlier ; and the squared forms of the Greek letters J, [, and are characteristic of
certain regions. In other regions they are not found. See Rapson, J. R. A. S. , 1903, p. 285.
3 Lahore Mus. Cat. , p. 122, note ; B. M. Cat. , pp. 59, 73.
2
## p. 517 (#555) ############################################
XXIII)
VONONES
517
Vonones, like Maues, must, therefore, be later than the reign of Mithradates
II the Great (123-88 B. C. ) - precisely how much later must for the present
remain uncertain.
The two classes of coins which bear his name are distinguished res.
pectively by the type of Demetrius, 'Heracles standing,' and the type
of Heliocles, 'Zeus standing' (Pl. VII, 27, 31). They were issued pre-
sumably in districts of Arachosia which were once under the sway of these
Yavana kings. Their Greek legends show the round form of omicron which,
in some other cases, indicates a date earlier than c. 40 B. C. ; but it appears
that this epigraphical test cannot be applied in this particular instance,
since the square form seems not to occur in connexion with these types
until much later (Summary, pp. 532-33). The most trustworthy evidence as
to the date of Vonones is supplied by the coins of Spalirises, 'the
king's brother. ' If 'the king,' who is not named, was Vonones himself,
as is usually assumed, the earlier coins of Spalirises i. e. those
struck by him before he became suzerain of eastern Irān in succession
to Vonones, may perhaps afford a valuable historical indication. There
are two classes of these, both of them issued in the district in which the type
of Heliocles, Zeus,' standing,' prevailed (Summary, p. 533). In the first,
Spalirises appears alone as 'the king's brother' without any distinctly royal
title. In the second, he as senior (Greek legend) is associated with Azes as
junior (Kharoshthi legend), both of them bearing the subordinate or
viceregal title 'Great King'. Vonones was evidently still reigning as
Great King of Kings at this time. The relationship of Azes to Spalirises
is not expressed in the Kharoshthi legend ; and in such cases it seems to be
assumed that the junior is the son of the senior : otherwise i. e. when the
junior is a brother or a nephew, the relationship is stated. We way
conclude, then, that this Azes was most probably the son of Spalirises
and the nephew of Vonones, and we may identify him with Azes II
who afterwards became suzerain of N. W. India and ended his reign in 19
A. D. Vonones was at least a generation earlier ; that is to say, he appears
to have been contemporary with Azilises and possibly with Azes I. Until
more definite evidence can be discovered, he may be supposed to have
begun his reign c. 30 B.
according to Sir John Marshall's observations, the evidence of the dis-
coveries at Takshçilā shows that he was rather later than Gondopharnes,
1 Rapson, Indian Coins, p. 16.
i
2 J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 194, note 1.
3 Rapson, J. R. A. S. , 1897, p. 319.
.
1
## p. 507 (#545) ############################################
XXII
HERM AEUS
507
who is known to have reigned during the period from 19 A. D. to 45 A. D. '
It would appear then that, while Hermaeus may have been reigning
for some time before and after c. 40 B. C. , as would seem to be indicated
by the square in his later Greek coin-legends”, a coinage bearing his
name and his types was issued by his conquerors until a much later date,
in the same way and for the same reasons that the East India Company
continued for many years to strike rupees bearing the name of the Mughal
Emperor, Shāh ‘Alam'. That these conquerors were not Kushāņas may,
from chronological considerations, be regarded as certain. That they were
the Pahlavas of Kandahār is made probable by the evidence of the coins
which were struck by Spalirises with the characteristic type of the Yavana
kings of Kābul, “Zeus enthroned' (PI. VII, 38). It was probably not un-
til at least seventy years after the death of its last Yavana king that the
Kābul valley passed from the Pahlavas to the Kushāņas, the next suzerain
power in Afghānistān and N. W. India.
1 The four stages in the currency which bears the name of Hermaeus are shown
in the B. M. Cat. : (1) pp. 62-3 nos, 1. 4, PI. XV, 1,2 ; (2) p. 63, nos. 20-1, Pl. XV, 4 ;
(3) pp. 64-5, no:. 25-40, PI, XV, 6; (4) p. 65, nos. 45-50.
2 Chapter XXIII, pp. 515-16.
3 Chapter XXIII, 518.
.
P,
## p. 508 (#546) ############################################
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
The Scythians (Çaka) and Parthian (Pahlava) invaders of India are
often mentioned in Sanskrit literature, and nearly always in association
with each other and with the Yavanas. But, as this literature is not
historical, we must turn to other sources – to Greek and Chinese historians,
to the inscriptions of Persia and India, and to coins - for information as
to their origin and their rule in India.
The Yavanas had come from Bactria over the Hindu Kush into the
upper Kābul valley, and thence along the Kābul river into India by a
route which has since been abandoned for that which now leads through
the Khyber defile. It was formerly assumed that the Çakas came directly
into India from the same region and by the same way. But this view is
attended with difficulties which cannot be explained. In the first place,
if the Çakas came through the Kābul valley, all traces of their invasion
must be supposed to have disappeared from that region : for, among the
many thousands of coins which were collected on its ancient sites at the
time when the country was still open to archaeological investigations, the
coins of the earliest Çaka kings are conspicuous by their absence ; and
secondly, it is certain that the Kābul valley remained in the possession of
the Yavana princes of the house of Eucratides after the Yavana domi-
nions in N. W. India on the eastern side of the Khyber Pass, that is to say,
in Peshāwar and Rāwalpindi, had been conquered by the Çakas. Ingress
from Bactria was therefore barred at this period.
The alternative suggestion that the Çakas may have come into India
from their northern home in the country of the Jaxartes through Kashmir
involves a physical impossibility. The geographical difficulties of this
region are such that an invasion from this direction of tribal hordes or
armies sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the Yavana kingdoms and to
conquer the whole of the N. W. Frontier Province and the Punjab is
inconceivable!
1 See the authorities quoted by Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1913, p. 635. notes 1 and 2.
508
## p. 509 (#547) ############################################
xxu)
SCYTHIAN SETTLEMENTS
509
Any direct invasion from the north seems, in fact, to be out of the
question. It is therefore far more probable, nay almost certain, that the
Çakas reached India indirectly, and that, like the Pahlavas, they came
through Ariāna (W. and S. Afghānistān and Baluchistān) by the great
highway, associated in modern times with the Bolān Pass, which led from
the Parthian provinces of Drangiāna (Seistān) and Arachosia (Kandahār)
over the Brāhūi mountains into the country of the lower Indus (Sind).
This route was well known and comparatively easy. By it Craterus had
returned with that division of Alexander's army which included the
elephants
The Scythian (Çaka) settlements, which can only have been the
result of invasions along this route, gave to the region of the Indus delta
the name 'Scythia' or 'Indo-Scythia' by which it was known to the Greek
geographers, and the name 'Çaka-dvipa' or 'the river country of the Çakas’
as it appears in Indian literature. This region still continued to be gover-
ned by the Pahlavas, who are inseparably connected with the Çakas, at
the end of the first century A. D. There can be little doubt that Indo-
Scythia was the base from which the Çaka and Pahlava armies moved up
the valleys of the Indus and its tributaries to attack the Yavana kingdoms
of the successors of Euthydemus and Eucratides.
In all ages the name "Scythian' has been applied generally to the
nomads inhabiting the northern regions of Europe and Asia ; and accord.
ing to Herodotus (vii, 64), the term “Saka. ' as used by the Persians, was
equally vague. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius it denotes no less
than three different and widely separated sett lements of Scythians. These,
enumerated from east to west, have been identified as follows :
(1) The Sakā Tigrakhaudā, wearers of pointed helmets. They are
so described by Herodotus (VII, 64), who states that they were included
together with their neighbours, the Bactrians, in the army of Xerxes. They
were therefore the Çakas whose home was in the country of the river
Jaxartes (the Syr Daria).
(2) The Sakā Haumavarkā, the 'Auveriol of Herodotus (loc. cit. )
who have been identified with the Çaka settlers in the Persian pro-
vince of Drangiāna, the country of the river Helmand, which was after.
wards known as Çakasthāna, “the abode of the Çakas,' the later Persian
Sijistān and the modern Seistān.
(3) The Sakā Taradarayā, or 'the Çakas over the sea'; that is to
say, the Scythians of Europe who inhabited the steppes of Russia to the
north of the Black Sea.
1 Chapter xv, p. 340.
2 Ptolemy, VII, 1, 55 ; Periplus maris Erythraei, 38.
3 Thomas J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 186.
## p. 510 (#548) ############################################
510
[сн.
SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
These three settlements are no doubt merely specimens of the larger
deposits left by the waves of Scythian migration which may be traced back
in history to about the middle of the eighth century B. C. The flood
had now for some three and a half centuries been held in check by
the barrier maintained in Bactria, first by the Achaemenid kings of Persia
and afterwards by the successors of Alexander. But the strength of Bactria
had been sapped by foreign and domestic strife, and it was no longer cap-
able of resisting the pressure of barbarian hordes on the frontier.
The initial impulse of the tribal movements, which were destined
to overwhelm Greek civilisation in the Osus country, and to determine
the history of N. India for many centuries to come, may be traced to an
incident in the turbulent history of the Huns, against whose inroads
the Chinese emperors had protected themselves by building the Great Wall.
In the neck of country between the Great Wall and the mountains
which forms part of the province of Kan-su, lived a people known
to Chinese historians as the Yueh-chi. Being attacked and defeated by
the Huns, c. 165 B. C. , the Yueh-chi were driven from their country, and
began a westward migration which necessarily brought them into conflict
with other nomads, and produced a general condition of unrest among the
tribes inhabiting the northern fringe of the deserts of Chinese Turkestān.
The pressure caused by the steady onward movement of Yueh-chi tribes,
numbering probably from half a million to a million souls', forced before
it other nomads, and set up a flood of migration which after sweeping
away the Yavana power in Bactria, was only stayed in its westward course
by Parthia.
Certain incidents in this migration, which must have extended over
some thirty or forty years, are recorded by Chinese authors. In the
country of the Ili river, now called Kulja, the Yueh-chi came upon a tribe
called the Wu-sun. The Wu-sun were routed, and their king was slain ;
and the Yueh-chi continued their journey westwards towards the Issyk-kul
Lake in the country which was until recently Russian Turkestān. Here
they appear to have divided themselves into two bands—the one, afterwards
known as the Little Yueh-chi, going southwards and settling on the borders
of Tibet, and the other, the Great Yueh-chi, continuing their movement
to the west until they came into contact with a people whom the Chinese
called Sse (Saï) or Sek, and who are probably to be identified with the
Çakas of the Jaxartes. The Yueh-chi took possession of the country of
the Çakas ; and the Çakas being driven to the south-west occupied the
country of the Ta-hia or Bactria.
The immediate cause of the downfall of Greek rule in Bactria would
therefore seem to have been an overwhelming invasion of Çaka hordes who
had been driven from their own lands. The native inhabitants of Bactria,
1 Smith, Early Hist. of Ind. (3rd ed. ), p. 248.
## p. 511 (#549) ############################################
XXI
THE CAKA INVASION
511
a
the Ta-hia or Dahae, are represented as an unwarlike people living
in towns and villages which were governed by their own magistrates.
The state of society described is such as prevailed also in India : it
is a society made up of local groups self-governed and self-contained.
In the case of such communities the military conquest of a country merely
determines the landlord to whom the customary dues must be paid.
It is probable that for a brief period Çaka warrior chiefs took the place of
Eucratides and Heliocles as rulers of the Ta-hia. Such would appear to
have been the state of affairs when the Chinese envoy in 126 s. c. visited
the Yueh-chi and found them still in the territories to the north of
the Oxus from which they had expelled the Çakas. The political conditions
then existing were in a transient stage of unstable equilibrium. They
were the outcome of a disturbance of peoples which began in far distant
China nearly forty years before. But the movement had not yet coin-
pleted its course : it was resumed in consequence of an attack on the
Yueh-chi.
The infant son of the Wu-sun king, who was slain by the Yueh-chi
in their earlier conflict, had been adopted by the Huns; and when the
boy grew up to manhood and beceme king of the Wu-sun, he with the aid
of his protectors led an expedition against the Yueh-chi and drove them
into the country south of the Oxus. The result must necessarily have been
a further dispersal of the Cakas. A concise summary of events is given in
the Chinese encyclopaedia of Ma-twan-lin :
In ancient times the Hiung. nu having defeated the Yue}-chi, the latter went
to the west to dwell among the Ta-hia, and the king of the Sai (Çakas) went south-
wards to live in Ki-pin. The tribes of the Sai divided and dispressed, so as to form
here and there different kingdoms. (Translated from Remusat, Nouveux Melanges Asia-
tiques, 1, p. 205.
This account is supplemented in the Annals of the Han Dynasty
which state that the Çaka king became the lord of Ki-pin? .
The summary records the complete annihilation of Çaka rule in
Bactria. The king himself becomes king in Ki-pin-a geographical term
which is used in various senses by Chinese writers, but which, in this case,
would most naturally mean Kāpiça (Kāfiristān) ; and the tribes formerly
under his command are dispersed. There is no indication that any con-
siderable body of Çakas accompanied their king to Ki-pin. The main
movement, impeded by the Yavana power in Käbul, would naturally be
westwards in the direction of Herāt and thence southwards to Seistān. The
tide of Scythian invasion had no doubt been flowing in these directions since
the time when the Çakas were first expelled from their territory beyond the
Jaxartes by the Yueh-chi ; for there is good evidence to show that the
earlier Scythian settlements in Irān were reinforced about the time when
the Çakas first occupied Bactria. The kings of Parthia who now held eastern
1 0. Franke, Beiträge aus chinesischen Queilen, pp. 46, 54,
## p. 512 (#550) ############################################
512
[Ch.
SCYTHIN AND PARTHIAN IANVADERS
Irān were engaged during two reigns (Phraates II, 138-128 B. C. , and
Artabanus 1, 128-123) in unsuccessful struggles with their Scythian sub.
jects ; and the contest was only decided in favour of Parthia in the reign
of the next monarch, Mithradates II the Great (123-88). Parthia had now
taken the place of Bactria as the barrier which impeded the westward
course of migrations from upper Asia. But the stream of invasion was
only diverted into another channel : checked in Ariāna, it forced its way
along the line of least resistance into the country of the lower Indus (Indo-
Scythia). The Çaka invasion of India, like the invasion of the Huns
(Hūņas) between five and six centuries later, was but an episode in one of
those great movements of peoples which have so profoundly influenced the
history not only of India, but also of Western Asia and Europe.
On a few of their coins, generally imitated from those of their
Yavana predecessors (e. g. B. M. Cat. , Pil. XVI, I ; XVII, 7 ; XIX, 12) the
Caka and Pahlava kings repeat the Greek royal title 'King' or 'Great King;
but their normal style is 'Great King of Kings,' a title which is distinctive-
ly Persian. It has a long history from the Kshāyathiyānām Kshāyathiya
of the inscriptions of Darius down to the Shāhān Shān of the present day.
Like the Indian Chakravartin, 'the wielder of the discus,' the Persian 'King
of Kings' was the supreme monarch to whom other kings paid homage.
In the Parthian empire the title was probably first assumed by Mithradates
II the Great (123-88 B. c. ) in imitation of his predecessors, the Achaemenids.
It was in his reign that the struggle between the kings of Parthia and their
Scythian subjects in eastern Irān was brought to a close and the suzerain-
ty of Parthia over the ruling powers of Seistān and Kandahār confirmed.
In these subordinate governments Parthians (Pahlavas) and Scythians
(Çakas) were so closely associated that it is not always possible to distin.
guish between them : the same family includes both Parthian and Scythian
names. It is therefore little more than a convenient nomenclature which
labels the princes of the family of Maues, who invaded the lower Indus
valley, as Çakas, and those of the family of Vonones who ruled over
Drangiāna (Seistān) and Arachosia (Kandahār), as Pahlavas. The relation
between Maues and Vonones is uncertain ; but it is clear that their families
were associated in a later generation.
It has been supposed that the introduction into India of the Persian and
Parthian title, 'Great King of Kings,' was the result of an actual conquest
of N. W. India by Mithradates I ; and a statement of the historian Orosius
that this monarch conquered all the peoples between the Hydas pes and the
Indus has been interpreted to mean that he extended the power of Parthia
beyond the Indus as far as the Indian Hydaspes (the Jhelum)? . But to an
1 Some numismatists attribute the Parthian coins on which the title first
occurs to Mithradates I (171-138). See Wroth, B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. note.
2 Smith Early Hist, of Ind, (3rd ed. ), p, 228,
## p. 513 (#551) ############################################
xxt]
THE ÇAKA KING OF KINGS
513
author who is writing from the standpoint of Parthia, the expression
between the Hydaspes and the Indus' must surely connote an extension
from west to east - from a Persian river to the great Indus which has so
often in history been the boundary between Irān and India. Hydaspes is
a Persian name, and the river mentioned in this passage is no doubt the
Medus Hydas pes of Virgil (Georgics, IV, 211)'. The theory of a conquest
of N. W. India by Mitbradates I would therefore seem to be founded on a
misunderstanding of the historian's statement. The invasion of India must
be ascribed not to the Parthian emperors, but to their former feudato-
ries in eastern Irān ; not to the reign of Mithradates I, put to a period
after the reign of Mithradates II, when the power of Parthia had declined
and kingdoms once subordinate had become independent. The association
to which the coins bear witness is not one between Parthia and eastern
Irān, but between Irān and N. W. India.
In fact, all through the period of
Çaka and Pahlava rule the countries to the west and east of the Indus
were governed by members of the same royal house. There were normally
three contemporary rulers of royal rank-a King of Kings associated with
some junior member of his family in Irān, and a King of Kings in India, and
the subordinate ruler in Irān usually became in due course King of Kings
in India.
The assumption of the imperial title, 'King of Kings,' by these Çaka
and Pahlava suzerains is most significant as testifying, in a manner which
cannot be mistaken, to the diminished power of Parthia at this period. In
Parthia itself the title remained in abeyance during the interval from 88 to
57 B. C. which separates the reigns of Mithradates II and III ; and in the
meantime it was assumed not only by the Çaka king Maues in the East, but
also, in the years 77-73, by Tigranes, king of Armenia, the great rival of
Parthia in the West? .
In eastern Irān the ‘King of Kings' and the prince of his family who
was associated with him in the government issued coins bearing the names
of both – the former in Greek on the obverse, and the latter in Kharoshthi
on the reverse. Greek was the ordinary language of coins throughout the
Parthian empire : it was not characteristic of any particular province.
Kharoshtbi, on the other hand, was, in eastern Irān, restricted to Aracho-
sia (Kandahār). We may reasonably infer therefore from his Kharoshthi
coin-legends that the viceroy governed this province in the upper valley of
the Helmand and its tributaries. The other province, Drangiāna (Seistān),
was most probably under the direct rule of the suzerain.
In India the ‘King of Kings' ruled with the aid of satraps and
1 Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, s. v. Hydaspes (2) The remark in Rapson,
Anc. Ind. , p. 171, should be corrected.
2 Wroth, B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. XXV, note ; Head, Historia Numorum (2nd ed. ),
p. 732 ; von Gutschmid, Gesch. Irans, p. 81.
## p. 514 (#552) ############################################
51+
CH.
SCYTHI AV AND PARTHIAV INVADERS
a
military governors. The first three Caka suzerains who succeeded to the
diminions of the Yavanas in the N. W. Frontier Province and the Punjab
were Maues, Azez I, and Azilises. Their numerous coinages are, almost
without exception, copied from those of their Yavana predecessors : and it
is therefore probable that the coins represent only those districts of the
Çaka realm which were formerly held by the Yavanas'. The great variety
of the types thus imitated indicates the wide extent of these territories ;
- and the astonishing difference of style shown by coins struck in the same
reign proves that the art of different regions varied enormously at the same
period. The best coins belong no doubt to Gandhāra (Puskalāvati and
Takshaçilā). Inferior workmanship is a sign of remoteness from this
region rather than of a late date, as the numismatists have commonly
assumed. It was in Gandhāra that the Graeco-Buddhist school of art, the
outcome of a fusion of Greek and Indian ideais and methods, grew up and
flourished, but it was not until the end of the first century A. D. that this
school reached its highest state as seen in the religious sculptures of the
Kushāņas. Its beginnings are no doubt to be traced in the coins of an
earlier date, and such beginnings were naturally progressive. The finest
coins of Maues, for instance, are excelled by those of Azilises two reigns
later. The early date, viz. c. 120 B. C. , which is usually assigned to Maues
?
entirely on grounds of style and on the gratuitous assumption that art was
retrogressive from the time of the Yaranas onwards, cannot therefore be
maintained. It is far more probable that he invaded India after the end of
the reign of Mithradates II (123-58 B. C. ) when Parthia ceased to exercise
any real control over Seistān and Kandahār.
The precise date of Maues cannot at present be determined. He is
undoubtedly to be identified with the Great King Moga, who is mentioned
in the Takshaçilā copper-plate inscription of the satrap Pātika. The
inscription is dated in the reign of Maues and in the year 78 of some
unspecified era. None of the known Indian eras seems to be possible in
this case ; and it may not unreasonably be suggested that the Çakas, like
other foreign invaders at all periods, may have brought with them into
India their own system of reckoning, and that this may be the era used
in Seistān. The month of the inscription is Parthian ; and from this fact
it may be in ferred that the era itself is probably of Parthian origin. It may
possibly mark the establishment of the new kingdom in Seistān after its
incorporation into the Parthian empire by Mithradates I, c. 150 B. c. If so,
the date of the inscription would be c. 72 B. C. , a year which may well have
fallen in the reign of Maues.
1 The province of Indo-Scythia (Sind) appears to be very inadequately repre-
sented hy coins. It may, perhaps, have been held by the viceroy together with
Arachosia.
2 Whitehead Lahore Mus. Cat. , Indo. Greek Coins, p. 93.
## p. 515 (#553) ############################################
XXIII)
THE DATE OF AZES I
515
The coins of Maues are copied from those struck by princes of both
the Yavana houses (PII. VI, 2, 9, 12 ; VIII, 48, and Summary, pp. 529 ff. )
The numismatic evidence combined with that of the Takshaçilā copper-
plate indicates that he conquered Gandhāra -- Pushkalāvati to the west of
the Indus (Pl. VI, 12, and Summary, p. 530) as well as Takshaçilā to the
east- and it is possible that he may have invaded the Yavana dominions in
the eastern Punjab. But it is clear that in the direction last mentioned the
Çaka conquests failed to reach their limit during his reign. For a time the
remnants of the two Yavana houses in the upper Kābul valley and in the
eastern Punjab seem to have been separated by the Çaka dominions which
lay between them in the valley of the Indus.
The evidence for this is supplied by the coins of Azes I and Azilises,
who not only continue the issues of Maues (Summary, pp. 530-2), but also
strike a number of additional types which are manifestly borrowed from
those of the Yavana princes whose kingdoms they conquered! . The most
noteworthy of these is the rev. type 'Athene Promachos' which is charac-
teristic of the families of Apollodotus and Menander in the eastern Punjab.
It appears on coins of Azes I, but not on those of Maues (Summary, p.
532). Such additional types bear witness to a considerable extension of the
Çaka dominions, and seem to indicate that after the reign of Manes the
house of Euthydemus was extinguished and Yavana rule in the Punjab
brought to an end. The house of Eucratides, now probably represented by
its last king, Hermaeus, still continued for a while to hold the upper
Kābul valley - the base from which the Yavana power had first extended
to Arachosia and to India.
To Azes I has been attributed the foundation of the Vikrama era
beginning in 58 B. C. , and, according to Sir John Marshall, an inscription
discovered by him at Takshaçilā is actually dated 'in the year 136 of Azes. '
This interpretation may well be correct (v. inf. p. 524), in spite of the
tradition that this era was founded by King Vikramāditya of Ujjain to
commemorate the defeat of the Çakas ; and, whatever may have been the
origin of this era, the assignment of the reign of Azes I to this period is
justified by other considerations. It is consistent with the date ascribed
independently to his predecessor, Maues (o. 75 B. C. ), and with the date of
his third successor on the throne, Gondopharnes, who almost certainly
began to rule in 19 A. D. (p. 520); and it is supported by evidence drawn
from the epigraphy of the Greek coin-legends.
On the earlier coins of the Yavanas and on those of the first Çaka
king, Maues, the round form of the Greek omicron only is found. On some
of the later Yavana coins, e. g. those of Hippostratus, and on the coins of
Azes I the square form, (), makes its appearance side by side with the
mplete list of types is given in the Lahore Mus. Cat. , vol. I.
1 The
aost
## p. 516 (#554) ############################################
516
[Ch.
SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
round form. The same change took place in Parthia during the reign of
Orodes I (57-38 B. c. )". That at this period there was constant communica-
tion between Parthia and India there can be no doubt. It is reasonable,
therefore, to suppose that this epigraphical change is due to a fashion
which spread from one country to the other, and that the occurrence of the
square omicron on a Parthian or Indian coin is an indication that its date
is not earlier than c. 40 B. c. ?
Judged by this test, the Yavana king, Hippostratus, must have con-
tinued to reign after the death of Maues ; and he must have been con-
temporary with the successor of Maues, Azes I, who restruck his coins and
continued to use some of his most distinctive monograms, no doubt after
the conquest of his kingdom. 3
There is no reason to question the almost unanimous opinion of
numismatists that Azes I was succeeded by Azilises; but there was certainly
a period in which these two kings were associated in the government. On
some coins which they issue conjointly both bear the imperial style, 'Great
King of Kings' ; but Azes I, as the elder, occupies the place of honour on
the obverse with its Greek legend (B. M. Cat. , p. 173, Pl. XXXII, 9).
On other coins, however, the same two names appear with the same
titles, but with a change of position-Azilises occupying the obverse with a
Greek legend, and Azes the reverse with a Kharoshthi legend (B. M. Cat. ,
p. 92, Pl. XX, 3); and, as degrees of dignity or seniority are undoubtedly
indicated by these positions in similar instances, it has been inferred that
Azilises was associated with two kings named Azes- possibly with his
father and predecessor at the beginning of his reign and with his son and
successor at its close. The existence of a second Azes might well be
questioned if it could be proved by no more cogent argument than this.
But the coins which bear the name show so great a diversity of style that,
from this fact alone, numismatists have suspected that they must have been
struck by more than one king; and, if our system of chronology be
correct, the Azes who succeeded Maues in 58 B. C. cannot possibly have
been the Azes who was succeeded by Gondopharnes in 19 A. D. (p. 520).
At some time during the period when the first three Çaka kings were
establishing their empire in India, Vonones was reigning as suzerain over
the kingdoms of eastern Irān with the same imperial title, "Great King of
King. It is inconceivable that such a dignity should have been usurped
in this region so long as it remained under the suzerainty of Parthia.
1 B. M. Cat. , Parthia, p. 73, no. 37, Pl. XV, 2, a tetradrachm of the later coinage
struck in 40-39 B. C.
? This chronological test must be applied with caution. Isolated instances occur
earlier ; and the squared forms of the Greek letters J, [, and are characteristic of
certain regions. In other regions they are not found. See Rapson, J. R. A. S. , 1903, p. 285.
3 Lahore Mus. Cat. , p. 122, note ; B. M. Cat. , pp. 59, 73.
2
## p. 517 (#555) ############################################
XXIII)
VONONES
517
Vonones, like Maues, must, therefore, be later than the reign of Mithradates
II the Great (123-88 B. C. ) - precisely how much later must for the present
remain uncertain.
The two classes of coins which bear his name are distinguished res.
pectively by the type of Demetrius, 'Heracles standing,' and the type
of Heliocles, 'Zeus standing' (Pl. VII, 27, 31). They were issued pre-
sumably in districts of Arachosia which were once under the sway of these
Yavana kings. Their Greek legends show the round form of omicron which,
in some other cases, indicates a date earlier than c. 40 B. C. ; but it appears
that this epigraphical test cannot be applied in this particular instance,
since the square form seems not to occur in connexion with these types
until much later (Summary, pp. 532-33). The most trustworthy evidence as
to the date of Vonones is supplied by the coins of Spalirises, 'the
king's brother. ' If 'the king,' who is not named, was Vonones himself,
as is usually assumed, the earlier coins of Spalirises i. e. those
struck by him before he became suzerain of eastern Irān in succession
to Vonones, may perhaps afford a valuable historical indication. There
are two classes of these, both of them issued in the district in which the type
of Heliocles, Zeus,' standing,' prevailed (Summary, p. 533). In the first,
Spalirises appears alone as 'the king's brother' without any distinctly royal
title. In the second, he as senior (Greek legend) is associated with Azes as
junior (Kharoshthi legend), both of them bearing the subordinate or
viceregal title 'Great King'. Vonones was evidently still reigning as
Great King of Kings at this time. The relationship of Azes to Spalirises
is not expressed in the Kharoshthi legend ; and in such cases it seems to be
assumed that the junior is the son of the senior : otherwise i. e. when the
junior is a brother or a nephew, the relationship is stated. We way
conclude, then, that this Azes was most probably the son of Spalirises
and the nephew of Vonones, and we may identify him with Azes II
who afterwards became suzerain of N. W. India and ended his reign in 19
A. D. Vonones was at least a generation earlier ; that is to say, he appears
to have been contemporary with Azilises and possibly with Azes I. Until
more definite evidence can be discovered, he may be supposed to have
begun his reign c. 30 B.
