unknown to history. In order to fix his date, we must recapitulate the few facts of Saka history which have come down to us. Herodotus 1 states that the name of Sakas was applied by the Persians to all Scythians, and that there were Sakas in Xerxes' army bearing Scythian weapons, and ranged with the Bactrians. Wilson states, on the authority of Remusat, that according to the Chinese writers, in the second century before our era, "the Yuchi, Yu-ti, or Getae (Massagetae) being driven to the west by the advance of the Hi-ung-nu, formed a union with the Ta-hi-a (Daae); and the combined tribes forced the Sakas before them to the south, in consequence of which their tribes again pressed into Bactria, and finally overturned the kingdom which the Greeks had founded there." It was about the middle of the second century when the Greeks of Bactria and the Parthians, who had exhausted themselves and each other with continued

wars, found themselves threatened by the common danger. The advancing Saka hordes at first carried all before them. Two kings of Parthia, Phrahates in B.C. 128, and Artabanus in B.C. 125, fell in battle against them, while the feebler Greek kings rapidly retired into India. But the Scythians experienced a momentary check when Mithradates II. of Parthia, and Menander of Bactria, both powerful and warlike monarchs, were reigning contemporaneously. About the year B.c. 90 they again pressed forward, and at the end of the reign of Hermaeus established themselves in the neighbourhood of Cabul, whence, towards the beginning of the Christian era, they spread towards the mouth of the Indus. Their progress

1 VII. 64.

"Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan," p. 141.

southwards is said to have been arrested in B.C. 56 by Vikramaditya, King of Avanti, or Ujayin. And subsequently they in turn were pressed, or even subjugated by bands of the Yu-chi, who followed by the same route, through Bactria proper into the Panjáb. It appears, however that, several centuries later, there were still Sakas on the northern borders of Bactria. Hence we

must suppose that the term Sakas was, as Herodotus asserts, generic, and included several cognate tribes, some of which passed southwards into India, while others either remained in the original seats of the nation or migrated westwards. And the opinion that the Sakas were a confederacy and not a tribe is still further confirmed by Strabo,3 who, in the same passage in which he declares the Sakas to have overthrown the Bactrian Empire, also states the conquerors to have consisted of the four tribes of Asii, Pasiani, Tokhari, and Sakarauli. These four tribes may, at the time this piece of money was struck, have been united under Heraüs, and acknowledged his supremacy.

That the coin was struck in Bactria rather than in India appears likely for many reasons. First, Greek only is used in the inscriptions, and not the Arian characters, as is usually the case with coins minted in India. We know that Hermaeus, the last Greek king who reigned south of the great mountain chain was succeeded, or rather superseded, by a Scythian called Kadaphes, or Kadphises, for the names of Hermaeus and of Kadphises are found together on the same pieces. But all the money of Kadphises bears Indian types and Arian inscriptions. Nor is it by any means

likely that his Scythian successors would return to a more Parthian or Hellenic type. Indeed, we know from their extant money that it became more and more Indian. But further, we have trustworthy contemporary evidence that the Saka kings did strike money such as this. The Chinese writers assert that at about this period the kings of Ki-pin struck money in gold and silver, bearing on one side the effigy of a man, on the other a horseman. It has indeed been disputed as to what district is meant by Ki-pin, but it is certain that it was a tract of country not far from Cabul, and that it was at this period ruled by Saka kings. We have even the names of some of these; Utolao, for example, is said to have reigned about B.C. 87, and Inmoffu about B.c. 30, soon after which date the Yu-chi invaded and conquered the country. Of this Saka coinage of Ki-pin I believe the present coin to be the first certain published example.

But if its district of mintage is settled, its date also is approximately fixed. For we know that the Sakas did not gain any sure foothold in Bactria until the year 128, when they defeated and slew Phrahates of Parthia. It is very unlikely that they would strike silver coins while yet in the wilds of Sogdiana, and before they had settled and civilised subjects. This, then, must be considered the earliest date possible. And the latest possible is the middle of the first century B.C.; for the Yuchi had already by the year 80 obtained a footing in Bactria, and in the year 30 pressed on even to the conquest of India. We may therefore with confidence assign this coin to the end of the second or the beginning of the first century before the Christian era.

4

Lassen, "Points in the History, &c.," trans. Roeer, p. 166.

When we approach the coin, we find everything about it unusual and remarkable. First as to the types. The head on the obverse represents a Tartar, of a most ferocious and brutal type, with the ferocity and brutality distinctly exaggerated by a die-sinker who evidently thought them noble qualities. The only other heads of the same kind yet published are found on some small silver pieces with semi-barbarous Greek inscriptions, and on the large copper coins ascribed by Wilson to the Sakas, and bearing on one side the head of a king, and on the other a blundered inscription and a horse. This attribution of Wilson is strongly confirmed by the discovery of our coin. The border of the obverse is copied from that of the widely-circulated coins of Eukratides. The reverse type is very peculiar, and seems to be original, for although it reminds us of the Parthian coinage, yet no Parthian king is represented on horseback until some time after the Christian era. We must rather seek the prototype of the horseman on this coin among the coins of Philoxenes and Hippostratus, while for the figure of Nike we may compare the almost contemporary coinage of Orodes I. But I find no contemporary instance of the combination of the horseman and Nike, except on gems which are found in Cabul, and probably are also Saka monuments.

Next as to the legends. The characters in which these are written are most remarkable, and unlike any hitherto known. The Greek P is in every case represented by, and O by . Each word claims a separate noticeTupavνouvτos is probably a copy of the well-known Barevorros on the remarkable tetradrachms of Agathokles, and the verb may have been changed in order to express, according to the barbarous notions of the

Bactrians, a more complete sovereignty. 'Hpáov. Thus the word appears, on a diligent consideration, to run. I was at first disposed to read it Máov, and to attribute the coin to Mayes; but the P in its debased form is quite clear, nor is there the slightest similarity between this coin and those of King Mayes. Not being skilled in the Turanian languages, I must leave to those who are the determination what Scythic name is hidden under this Greek form. Σάκα, In this word we have just the missing link of proof to show that the late and barbarous coinage of Bactria was really Saka. I have been informed that in the hands of Gen. Cunningham, and others, are silver coins somewhat similar to the present one, bearing various incomplete and unsatisfactory legends, one of them with the portrait of a queen. These had already been attributed, together with the coins in copper mentioned above, to Saka chiefs; but here we have an inscription, which may fairly set all doubt at rest. Another interesting fact established at the same time, is that the Scythian tribes themselves called their confederacy Saka; it might otherwise have been concluded from the language of Herodotus that the term was merely one applied by the Persians to all the tribes on their borders, and not recognised by the latter. Lastly, the Greek word kopávov, is a remarkable term to apply to a Tartar Khan. It never, I need scarcely say, occurs on true Greek coins. Familiar to the readers of Homer and the Tragedians, it is seldom or never met with in prose.

In thus using the terms Turanian and Scythic as synony mous, I by no means intend to ignore the theory of Humboldt, Rawlinson, and others, that the European Scythians were probably of Indo-European blood. Sir H. Rawlinson himself allows that in the Eastern Scythians, or Sacae, the Turanian element preponderated.