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Art. XV.—Indo-Parthian Coins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Some months ago M. Wold. Tiesenhausen, Secrétaire de la Commission Archéologique de St. Pétersbourg, consulted me as to the attribution of a class of coins, representatives of which had newly been brought to light by the discovery, in the Government of Perm, of a small bronze vase containing four pieces of the type in question. M. Tiesenhausen forwarded at the same time impressions in tin-foil and rubbings on paper taken directly from the originals; but as these species of facsimile necessarily suffer from transmission by post, they furnished very unsatisfactory means of tracing the course of the singular and imperfectly-outlined marginal legends, which, in effect, constituted the real enigma to be solved. I therefore applied to my correspondent for more complete copies in less perishable materials, in the form of sealing-wax impressions or electrotypes. To my surprise, in reply I received the three accompanying excellent woodcuts, executed in the Russian Capital, together with engravings of two additional medals of cognate stamp, which, with considerable Numismatic acumen, had been traced in other accessible collections.
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page 503 note 1 As M. Tiesenhausen's letter refers to other finds, and criticises their associations, I reproduce the document entire:
“Veuillez bien m' excuser que je prends la liberté de vous incommoder en soumettant à votre jugement une petite question en fait de numismatique. Voici de quoi il s'agit.
“Il y a quelques semaines qu'en Russie (au gouvernement de Perm) a été découvert un petit vase en bronze renfermant quatre monnaies en argent, dont j'ai l'honneur de vous envoyer les empreintes ci-jointes.
“A juger d'après le type de ces monnaies je serais tenté de les attribuer à quelque roi indo-scythe, mais cette supposition me semble être revoquée en doute par une autre trouvaille (faite en 1851 dans la même contrée) qui outre une monnaie du même genre contenait quelques monnaies sassanides (du VIe siècle) et des monnaies byzantines d'Héraclius et de son fils Constantin. Puis les lettres qu'on voit sur ces monnaies different de celles qui se trouvent sur les monnaies indo-scythes.
“Plus versé que moi dans cette sorte d'éudes je ne mets pas en doute que vous ne réuissiez à resoudre la question.
“Agréez, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus distingués avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être”
page 504 note 1 Since these illustrative engravings have reached me, a coin similar in general character to Nos. 2, 3, 4 has been discovered in the choice collection of Gen. Abbott, formed in the Hazára country of the Punjáb, and which has lately been added to the Numismatic Treasures of the India Office. The piece in question, though it contributes nothing to our knowledge in the matter of types or legends, gives us very significant hints in the direction of identities of metal, which, in the greasy alloy, seems to fall in with the ideas of Arachotian and other Nickel-using sites. See Apollonius of Tyana, , quoted in J. R. A. S., xvii. pp. 72, 77Google Scholar; Strabo, xv. c. i. § 34?; Pliny, N. H. 34, 2, and 37, 42; and in these days. GenCunningham, A., Num. Chron., N. S., viii. p. 279, etc.Google Scholar; with Dr. W. Flight, ibid., p. 305.
page 505 note 1 The letters on the Parthian coina are what we should call nail-headed (not arrow-headed), i. e. the characters, instead of being cut out and sunk on the die in continuous lines, are produced by a series of holes drilled in consecutive order upon the main outline of the letter. On the coin itself these stand up like the brass nail heads on a well-made chair. A similar system of dotting the leading outlines of the characters was in favour among the Indo-Scythians in Bactria. An authoritative ink-tracing could be followed mechanically by this means with great exactness, where a free engraving might, under the circumstances, have simply proved impracticable.
page 505 note 2 Journal des Savants, 1836, pl. ii. 5Google Scholar; Ariana Antiqua, pl. ii. 17; Prinsep's Essays, ii. p. 187, pl. xv. fig 1.
page 505 note 3 It may possibly be the foal following the mare.
page 506 note 1 Longpérier, pl. ix. 8, 9; x. 5, 6, 7; Lindsay, pl. iii. 55, 56, 57.
page 506 note 2 This seemingly top-heavy head piece owes all its misrepresentation to the profile treatment—conventional with the Parthians and Sassanians. When brought to the test of modern helmets, but little exception need be taken to its form or balance; it follows in its construction the far more ancient pattern of the Assyrian kings; and the curious in these matters can examine both the prototype and the modified adaptation in extant specimens in the British Museum. The earlier casque is close and compact, sitting well on the skull, while the Parthian pattern, though raised enough in its side-glint as to suffice to awe the Romans, was really a better protection against a direct blow than the previous model, and far more effectíve under the military aspect. The specimen in the British Museum is little more than a well-made steel morion, without the flaps, fully realizing the definition of the surface of polished Margian steel (Plutarch), rivetted with copper hands and bosses, gilt in effective contrast to the grey iron.
page 507 note 1 Longpérier, pls. v. 7, 8, 9.; vii. 4, 8.
page 507 note 2 Bayer, Historia Osrhoena. Abgar's tiara, p. 130.
page 507 note 3 Longpérier, pl. xii. 4; my Sassanian Inscriptions, p. 121; Prinsep's Essays, ii. p. 215, note.
page 507 note 4 Visconti Icon. Greque, pl. 50, No. 2; Longpérier, pl. xii. 9.
page 507 note 5 Prinsep's Essays, i. 337; ii. 203, pl. xiii. 11, 12; Ariana Antiqua, pl. ix. 1–5; Numismatic Chronicle, vol. iv. N.S. p. 210.
page 507 note 6 Prinsep's Essays, ii. 94; J.R.A.S. 1850, vol. xii. pls. i. ii. p. 72Google Scholar.
page 507 note 7 J.A.S. Bengal, and Prinsep's Essays, ii. pi. xxxvii. 16, 17, etc.
page 508 note 1 J.R.A.S. xii. pl. ii. figs. 39, 49; Ariana Antiqua, xv. 17, 18; Prinsep's Essays pl. xxvii.
page 508 note 2 Longpérier, xv. 6.
page 508 note 3 Ibid. xvi. 11.
page 508 note 4 Longpérier, xvi. 11; xvii. 7; Trésor de Numismatique, pl. xxi. figs. 13, 14, 17; Lindsay, vi.?8.
page 508 note 5 Longpérier, xviii. 6; Lindsay, vi. 31.
page 508 note 6 Longpérier, xviii. 11; Sassanian Inscriptions, p. 127. It will be seen from these repeated references how largely I am indebted to de Longpérier's, M. A. “Mémoires sur la chronologie et l'iconographie des Rois Parthes Arsacides” (Paris, 1857)Google Scholar, which so deservedly won the national grand prix de numismatique of its day. The essay in question being avowedly fragmentary and incomplete, has, I regret to say, been temporarily withdrawn from circulation, so that I may be accused of parading references to a comparatively inaccessible work. This objection has, however, been in a measure removed by the reproduction of the author's leading classifications in MM. Rollin et Feuardent's Sale Catalogue of 1864, where the various coins are described in consecutive order, and the more prominent modifications in the historical arrangements introduced by M. de Longpérier, are clearly given under his sanction. Apart from the leading triumphs of M. de Longpérier's latest rectification of the recognized French Specialité in Parthian Numismatics, I may add that no series of Oriental coin illustrations of equal merit has been produced in Europe since Marsden's time; and if the author should still feel any hesitation or reserve in publishing the necessarily elaborate details of such an obscure and complicated section of the world's history, he has already so successfully encountered in part, let us hope that he will, at all events, permit this present generation to benefit by the admirably arranged pictorial classification of the existing plates that illustrate his prize essay.
page 509 note 1 Ariana Antiqua, pl. x. 5; xi. 16; xiv. 1; and pi. xxii. No, 155, et seq.
page 509 note 2 See also xvii. 21.
page 510 note 1 J.R.A.S. xiii. 425, et seq.; Mordtmann Zeitschrift, 1864, Nos. 63, 101, 124, 140; Lajard Culte de Mithra, pl. x., numerous examples, but especially No. 13. Also plates xlv. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 15, and liv. c. 6, 7, 8, 9—16, 19, 20, 21.
page 510 note 2 See coins of Kadphises (105 B.C.); Ariana Antiqua, pl. x. figs. 5, 12, etc.; and of Kanerki, pl. xii. fig. 4; Ooerki, pl. xiv. fig. 14.
page 510 note 3 Among others, Berytis, Carystus, Corcyra, Leucas, Lipara, Massana, Raucos, Tenos, etc.
page 510 note 4 A coin lately published by Gen. Cunningham in the Numismatic Chronicle, vol. ix. N.S. pl. iv. fig. 7. Obverse, Shield of Minerva. Reverse, Trident, Legend, BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOγ. Monogram, 
See also N. C. viii. p. 202.
Other types of Neptune are to be found in the Bactrian series, on the coins of Antimachus Theos (Prinsep's Essays, ii. 183; Mionnet Supt. viii. 466); Azas (ii. 207, pl. xvii. 14), and Ariana Antiqua, vii. 5.
Menander's Dolphin (Prinsep, ii. 194) may have a similar bearing, and the fish tails of the figure on the coins of Telephus (ii. 198) may suggest a like idea.
page 512 note 1 Revue-Numismatique, Paris and Blois, 1866, p. 303Google Scholar. See also Mr. Vaux's paper in the Numismatic Chronicle, O. S. xviii. 137.
page 512 note 2 M. Waddington's list extends from Hyspaosines, B.C. 124, to Attambelus V., who dates subsequent to 122 A.D.
page 513 note 1 Longpérier, pl. iii. 8; Lindsay, i. 18–20.
page 513 note 2 Vaillant, i. 40. Phraates I. must already have had some conflicts with the Bactrian Greeks, to judge from his appropriation of Eueratides' Dioscuri Reverse and the Indian Elephant, without claiming more directly the Indian bearing of the head of Bucephalus.—Longpérier, ii. 9, 10, 11, 12.
page 513 note 3 Longpérier, v. 7, 8, 9.
page 513 note 4 Trésor de Numismatique, Rois Grecs, pl. lxvii. No. 16, p. 141.
page 513 note 5 Journal des Sav. 1834, 06Google Scholar; 1835, Sept. p. 515; Ariana Antiqua, pp. 224–5.
page 514 note 1 Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 1833, pl. xii. fig. 9; Burnes' Bokhara, vol.ii. pi. iii. fig. 9; Prinsep's Essays, i. p. 34.
page 514 note 2 This portion of the portrait is like the heads in the fourth and fifth groups at Persepolis, who bring offerings of dromedaries and wild asses for the Great King (Ker Porter, vol. i. p. 616, plates 42, 43). There is this difference, however, in the general detail, that the men in the sculptures are all bearded.
page 515 note 1 DrScott, , Numismatic Chronicle, xviii. p. 28Google Scholar, pi. i. figs. 7, 8. I rather question Dr. Scott's Ibilná, because his l in the name is a totally different letter from his assured l in Malka. The name may be Ibiganá 
or Abidana.
I have partially deciphered one of the varieties of his coin No. 10, of the same plate; the opening 
is clear, and affords a new illustration of the value of the M = 
of the present series. The legend runs on—
and the complete transcript of the legend on the Obverse, or Arab portrait surface, may be given with needful reserve as—
To the left, at the back of the head, reading from the inside (variant 
) 
.
To the right, in front of the profile, reading from the outside—
. The peculiar massing of the hair is important, as indirectly connecting the portrait with the fashion in use by Attambilus II.
On the Reverse, or the face bearing the Parthian bust, there are three detached words; at the back of the head are the letters 
; and in two parallel lines, in front of the profile, are to be seen the words 
with a Greek monogram, containing the letters MANZ, similar to the monograms on the coins of Attambilus II. of Charax, A.D. 51–60 (Waddington, pl. xii. 13), with a separate Syriac monogram, comprising the independent letters 
AM (Ambár). The whole of which legends may be loosely modernised into
Malchijah Toparch (Toπáρζησ) of Monzar, Tributary 
of the Roman of Rome.?
Or, Malchijah of the tribe of Mondar, Toparch of Ambár. ?
The characters of these legends follow many of the peculiarities of the alphabet now known as “Mandaite,” but the exceptions to any fixed uniformity of derivation are numerous and conflicting inter se. The L is admittedly exceptional in form, but we have authority enough for its true value in parallel writings. The p is also a doubtful letter, and liable to be confounded with the u, neither, of which are quite positive. The h follows the outline of the assured 
in the 
of the coins of Vál. (N. C. xviii. pl. i. fig. 1), but the consistency of outline is not maintained in the extant examples; indeed, some of the letters which 1 propose to read as h may as well be taken for little used . My greatest difficulty, however, was to satisfy myself of the import of the opening letters in the parallel lines on the reverse, which are, perhaps, the most important as well as the most strange characters of the whole series; they would match with no single example of the extant alphabets. At first sight I suspected them to be strangely perverted 
g's; they had something in common with a Nestorian 
H; some subordinate likeness to a Palmyrene 
TH; but at last it struck me that they must be considerably modified forms of the Samaritan 
R, which is enlarged at the point and dotted in several of the later alphabets.
The most singular part of the whole set of anomalies, here encountered, consists in the use of the Izáfat, or short I, as the connecting genitive, prefixed to the words 
; some such system of definition, however, was probably already in use in these localities, as we find on the earliest Pehlví coins of Ziád-i-Abú Sofián and his successors a similar method of conjunction (J.R.A.S. xii. p. 290). It must be admitted that these results are anything but conclusive; still, a beginning has to be made somewhere, and new materials and frank discussion may equally advance the present inquiry. Though looking to the confessed imperfection of Sabæan alphabetical systems in general, and the very damaging examples of defective spelling, immediately contributed by the Characene prototypes, under their Greek aspect, the rehabilitation of which has ever left incertitude in M. Renan's mind, there need be no reserve in acknowledging the difficulty of fixing the values of the letters, or determining the meaning of the legends contributed by the imperfectly settled communities, who were not bound to follow any one system, either in language or orthography, but who lived in the happy facility of borrowing terms, and their means of expression, at will, from any of the more advanced nations encircling their own quasi-desert life. The Numismatic links in the chain of evidence are, on the other hand, singularly complete ; and, if it depended solely on their indications, there would be little hesitation in pronouncing that the coins themselves must belong to some local governor, on the part of the Romans, over the dominions of the Mondar Arabs of Irák, and probably represent Trajan's conquest of lower Babylonia in 116 A.D., associated with the submission of Attambilus of Mesene (Dio Cass, lxviii. 28; Sale's Korán, preface, p. 13). The Greek monograms accord with such an inference, and the Syriac monographic letters am occur in like manner upon the direct imitations of the Characene coins bearing the name of Ibigana, already adverted to.
page 516 note 1 These coins are not uncommon in Northern India, but, as far as my own experience extends, they are usually met with as isolated specimens, as if theirpoint of issue had been elsewhere; on the other hand, to judge of the localities whence the other examples of the class have been obtained, there is no reason to refer their origin to any specially Mesopotamian site.
page 517 note 1 Seleucus Nicator introduced this device, which is supposed by some Numismatists to refer to Bucephalia on the Jhelum. (Leeke, Num. Hellen, i. 21; Num. Chron. xviii. 138; Trésor de Numismatique, Rois Grecs, p. 84.) Mithridates I. of Parthia and Phraates I. make use of this type. (Mionnet, v. 649; Trésor de N. pl. lxvii. 7; Longpérier, pl. v. 12.)
page 517 note 2 Much licence has to be claimed in arriving at this result. The leading alphabet is Chaldao-Pehlvi, and the first, third, fourth, and seventh letters follow that system consistently, but the second letter is a bad Greek N, and the penultimate is rather Bactrian in its aspect; and, moreover, it must be noted that the Pehlvi 
A'S consist of a mere cross, which might otherwise authorise their being read as 
m's.
page 517 note 3 Ariana Antiqua, pl. xii.; Prinsep's Essays, i. p, 124, etc.
page 518 note 1 
Spiritus sanctus, 
Jerusalem.
page 518 note 2 Zend, Areta, ereta. 
àpra.
page 518 note 3 Zend Avesta, i p. 87; Burnouf, Yaçna, p. 377.
page 518 note 4 To show what treacherous ground we are upon in the interpretation of these mixed and debased alphabets, I may mention that I was sometime since completely misled in reading the local version of the name of Kodes as Kuát (Kobád) The mistake I made was caused by my accepting the more artistically finished coins as affording the most correct form of the legend, whereas, as haa been seen in the case of the imitations from the Euthydemus type, the inferior Greek copyists could neither do justice to the one alphabet or the other, and it required a complete surrender of the die execution to home-bred artists before any consistency in the definition of the native legend could be secured. My main error was in the admission of the third letter of the name as a Pehlvi 
A 
whereas the true form is shown ia the third character in the 
Malka of the present series (Nos. 2, 3, 4). The final 
in the better coins was also deceptive, as the proper 
had an additional limb attached, like the ordinary Pehlvi 
(Num. Chron. N.S. iv. 210; J.R.A.S. iii. K.S. p. 250).
page 519 note 1 Isidore of Charax in his Σтαθol Παριmol gives the following account of the chief places in Seistán in his day: 'Eντ∈θ∈ν Zαραγγιανη, σoῖνoι kα’ 'Eνθα πóλιs Πáριν Kal Koρòκ πóλιs (Variant, Oὐκoρòκ.) Hudson, ii. 8. Paris edit. 1855, i. p. 253. Masaudi speaks of the highly venerated Fire-temple originally erected by Bahman at in Seistén. Paris edition, vol. iv. pp. 73, 462. Yakuti in voce in “La Perse of M. B. de Maynard.” See also J. H. Mœller, Facsimile of an original MS. of, Istakhri (Gothæ, 1829), p. 104, and map, p. 105; Ouseley, Oriental Geography, p. 209; Ibn Khordadbah, Jonrn. Asiatique, 1865, p. 56; Juynboll, Marásid al Ittilá', 491; Kasvíni (Wüstenfeld, Gott. 1848, ii. p. 163; Hyde, 151; Edw. Conolly, Map of Seistán, J.A.S. Bengal, ix. p. 724; “Goorgooree” (No. 48) Col. Anderson, J.A.S. Bengal, 1849, p. 587; Kinneir, “Kookhozerd, a fortified town, built on a high island in the centre of the Hámoon,” p. 190; Dr. Sprenger, maps iv. and xii.; Rawlinson. E. Geog. Society's Journal, x. 88, “Kárián.”
page 520 note 1 Gesenius, Scripture Lingnaque Phœniciæ La Langue Phénicienne, A. C.Judas, Paris, 1847Google Scholar; the Due de Luynes, in Prinsep's Essays, pi. xia; Madden's Jewish Coinage, pl. i.; Dr. Levy, Phöniziche Studien. But the latest and most complete digest of these alphafiets is to be found in Vogue's, M. deMelanges d'Archeologie Orientale, Paris, 1868. Dr. Wright's admirable article on ” Writing,” in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, treats more at large the whole question of the spread of Semitic alphabetsGoogle Scholar.
page 520 note 2 Sassanian Inscriptions, J.E.A.S. iii. N.S. p. 251Google Scholar.
page 520 note 3 Dr. Scott, Num. Chron. rviii. p. 1, and local coins of subsequent date in the British Museum.
page 521 note 1 These names may have survived in some of the later forms of Reinaud, l'lnde, pp. 126, 147, 176. Talari, 
. Masaudi, i. p. 372 (title of Kings of Sind) 
Chach? Ain-i-Akbari, ii. 146. ”Sehris.” Elliot's Historians, i. pp. 138, 140, 405, 408, etc. J.B.A.S. xii. 341.