I Am Your Father! Dynasties and Dynastic Legitimacy on Pre-Islamic Coinage between Iran and Northwest India

Summary

Abstract: The present paper intends to explore the way in which the new kingdoms born from the dissolution of the Greco-Macedonian powers east of the Tigris employed coinage in order to promote kingship ideology based on kinship and family relationships. At the same time, it will try to show the interplay as well as the differences between Greco-Macedonian and local cultures in using family as a tool of propaganda.

Key words: kingship ideology, Seleucids, Bactria, India, Arsacids, Persis, Elymais, Characene, Sakas, Indo-Scythians, Kushans, Sasanians.

Coins and communication

Aside from being a financial instrument, coinage has always been an important means of spreading messages related to ideology from a central power towards subjects. This practice became all the more widespread from the Hellenistic period onwards, when the dynasties emerging from the disintegration of Alexander's empire had to claim their legitimacy to rule in the face of their opponents. Thus, coins were a suitable way of communicating basic concepts of kingship, legitimacy and even ethnic identity. This kind of communication operated at several levels: the most immediate was the use of a particular iconography, which included the portrait of the ruling king, images recalling the myths of foundation of the dynasty, military victories, gods or personification of virtues protecting the king and his family. At a regional level, iconography would refer to indigenous features and traditions such as local shrines and deities. A second level was represented by written communication, which was intended for all those people capable of reading the messages carved on one or both the faces of the coin. Apart from giving more technical details such as the location of the mint, the weight of the coin and the name of the magistrate charged with the task of supervising the mintage, coin legends provided information about the identity of the ruler, the royal titles he bore and, accordingly, the ideology of his kingship. Those who were able to understand both the non-written and the written messages of a coin could then access a small but effective compendium of the public image a sovereign wanted to show to his subjects (as well as to those living outside his kingdom).