A Graeco-Sogdian mint of Euthydemus - article ; n°151 ; vol.6, pg 77-94

Jeffrey D.Lerner

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Revue numismatique - Année 1996 - Volume 6 - Numéro 151 - Pages 77-94
Summary. - Our task is to ascertain whether there is sufficient evidence to include the ancient country of Sogdiana within the sphere of the Hellenistic world. This will involve an examination of a series of early Sogdian issues: silver coins with a bridled « horned » horse reverse type and their counterparts in bronze. I shall propose that these coins were minted under a certain Euthydemus (before с 221 - after 196/1 (?) ВСЕ) when he governed Sogdiana prior to his usurpation of the Bactrian throne. It will also be seen that this former Seleucid type was chosen to curry the favor of the Sogdians themselves, as it associated Euthydemus with Antiochus I for reasons of propaganda. Therefore, I shall attempt to prove that these coins support the argument that a Graeco- Sogdian kingdom existed and flourished under Euthydemus.
18 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: REVUE_NUMISMATIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1996
• Nombre de lectures: 184
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Jeffrey D. Lerner
A Graeco-Sogdian mint of Euthydemus
In: Revue numismatique, 6e série - Tome 151, année 1996 pp. 77-94.
Abstract
Summary. - Our task is to ascertain whether there is sufficient evidence to include the ancient country of Sogdiana within the
sphere of the Hellenistic world. This will involve an examination of a series of early Sogdian issues: silver coins with a bridled «
horned » horse reverse type and their counterparts in bronze. I shall propose that these coins were minted under a certain
Euthydemus (before с 221 - after 196/1 (?) ВСЕ) when he governed Sogdiana prior to his usurpation of the Bactrian throne. It will
also be seen that this former Seleucid type was chosen to curry the favor of the Sogdians themselves, as it associated
Euthydemus with Antiochus I for reasons of propaganda. Therefore, I shall attempt to prove that these coins support the
argument that a Graeco- Sogdian kingdom existed and flourished under Euthydemus.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Lerner Jeffrey D. A Graeco-Sogdian mint of Euthydemus. In: Revue numismatique, 6e série - Tome 151, année 1996 pp. 77-94.
doi : 10.3406/numi.1996.2085
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/numi_0484-8942_1996_num_6_151_2085D. LERNER* Jeffrey
A GRAECO-SOGDIAN MINT OF
EUTHYDEMUS1
(PL XIV)
Summary. an ancient examination country - Our of task a Sogdiana series is to of ascertain within early Sogdian the whether sphere issues: there of the silver is Hellenistic sufficient coins with evidence world. a bridled This to will include « horned involve the »
horse reverse type and their counterparts in bronze. I shall propose that these coins
were minted under a certain Euthydemus (before с 221 - after 196/1 (?) ВСЕ) when
he governed Sogdiana prior to his usurpation of the Bactrian throne. It will also be
seen that this former Seleucid type was chosen to curry the favor of the Sogdians
themselves, as it associated with Antiochus I for reasons of propaganda.
Therefore, I shall attempt to prove that these coins support the argument that a Graeco-
Sogdian kingdom existed and flourished under Euthydemus.
Résumé. - Notre tâche est de découvrir s'il y a assez de preuves pour compter le pays
de Sogdiane parmi ceux du monde hellénistique. Ce travail comprendra une étude de
toute une série d'émissions de monnaies sogdiennes anciennes : des pièces en argent
et en bronze, des types surfrappés d'un cheval bridé et cornu sur le revers. Je suggère
que ces pièces ont été battues sous le règne d'un certain Euthydème (avant с 221 et
après 196/1 ( ?) avant J.-C), quand il gouvernait la Sogdiane avant d'usurper le trône
bactrien. On verra aussi que ce type séleucide de pièce a été choisi pour gagner la faveur
du peuple sogdien, un but qui se révèle à travers l'association, des raisons de
propagande, d'Euthydème et Antiochos I. J'essaierai donc de prouver que l'existence
de ces monnaies soutient l'argument qu'un royaume greco-sogdien a bien existé, et
même prospéré, sous Euthydème.
Our discussion begins with a relatively large and mixed group of silver
drachmas, hemidrachmas and obols. Their obverse portrays the bust of
* Department of History Wake Forest University, PO Box 7806 Winston-Salem NC
27109 USA.
1. I want to thank Professors F.M. Clover and K.S. Sacks of the University of Wis
consin-Madison, and R.W. Ulery of Wake Forest University for their constructive com
ments. Naturally, any error I have committed in this article is my sole responsibility.
Revue numismatique, 1996, p. 77-94 JEFFREY D. LERNER 78
a beardless male figure usually facing right (Pi. XIV, 1). Their reverse
depicts the spirited head and neck of a bridled horse facing right and
adorned with horns, or whose fore-lock is shaped to look like horns, rising
up from the forehead and curved backwards. Occasionally the reverse is
accompanied by a mint mark (monogram ?) and legend (PL XIV, 2).
Two of these coins were initially attributed to a certain « Hyrcodes »
who also issued with similar - though not identical - types2. Fuye3
and Newell4 put to rest any association between the « Hyrcodes » coins
and those with the « horned » horse reverse type. They preferred to see
the latter as primitive alterations of Seleucid coins with a horse's head
on the reverse. Although Fuye saw in the portraits of these coins effigies
of the early Seleucids (Seleucus I - Antiochus III), Newell saw in them
only imitations « of the earlier issues of I of Bactria » 5. Each
argued that these were not official issues, but copies which formed part
of the general circulation of far eastern provinces, or in the districts bor-
2. J. Prinsep, Essays on Indian antiquities, ed. E.Thomas, London, 1858, p. 400,
PI. 32, 17-18 (cf. PL 32, 16), and H.H. Wilson, Ariana antiqua, 1841, Pi. ix, 6-7.
The identity of « Hyrcodes » has been a tropic of sporadic discussion with more spe
culation than scholarship attached to it : P.Gardner, The coins of the Greek and Scythic
kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum, London, 1886, p. xlviii, 117-119,
PL xxiv, 12-13 ; A. Cunningham, Coins of the Indo-Scythian king Miaus or Heraus, NC
1888, p. 47-58 ; R.B. Whitehead, Catalogue of coins in the Panjab Museum, Lahore i :
Indo-Greek coins, Oxford, 1914, p. 164, Pis. xvi. 119, 125 ; W.W. Tarn, The Greeks in
Bactria and India (2nd éd.), Cambridge, 1951, p. 505-507 ; V.M. Masson, Denejznoe
khoziaistvo drevnei sredneiazii po numizmaticheskim dann'm, Vestnik Drevnei Istorii
lii.ii (1995), p. 42-43 ; J.M. Rosenfield, The dynastic arts of the Kushanas, Berkeley,
1967, p. 17. Typical of the confusion wrought by these coins is, for example, a recent
discussion by E.V. Zeimal, The political history of Transoxiana, chapter 6 in The Camb
ridge History of Iran iii.i : Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods, ed. E. Yarsha-
ter, Cambridge, 1983, p. 252 (cf. his Politicheskaya istoriya drevnei Transoksiany po
numizmaticheskim dannym', Kul'tura Vostoka. Drevnosť i rannee srednevekov'e. Sbor-
nik statei, Leningrad, 1978, p. 209) in which he characterizes the legend of these coins
as « bearing the name of Hyrcodes », while elsewhere he states that « the coins of Hyr
codes are essentially an anonymous minting that shows neither the ruler's name nor
his title ». (Cf. also G.A. Pugachenkova, /z khudozhestvennoi sokrovishchnini Srednego
Vostoka, Tashent, 1987, p. 59). A satisfactory interpretation of these legends has yet to
be plausibly demonstrated : M.F. Allotte de La Fuye, Monnaies incertaines de la Sog-
diane et des contrées voisines, RN 1925, p. 143-152 ; R. Ghirshman, Bégram : Recherches
archéologiques et historiques sur les Kouchans. Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique
française en Afghanistan, xii, Cairo, 1946, p. 109-1 15. Later when the Greek legend was
replaced by a Sodgian one, a whole new set of problems emerge : see W.B. Henning,
Mitteliranisch, in Handbuch der Orientalistik i, Bd. iv, Linguistik i, Leiden, 1958, p. 26.
3. M.F. Allotte de La Fuye, Monnaies incertaines de la Sogdiane et des contrées
voisines, RN 1925, p. 43-44, PL vi, 21-24B ; cf. his Monnaies incertaines de la Sogdiane
et des contrées voisines, RN 1910, PL x, 21-25.
4. E.T. Newell, ESM, p. 269, Pi. lvi, 10-12. Newell was apparently unclear whether
a sixth coin (PL lvi, 6 and p. 269) - presumably at the American Numismatic Society -
should be attributed to this group. For his part, E.V. Zeimal, Drevnie monety Tadjzikis-
tana, Dushanbe, 1983, p. 89, n°018, accepted its membership into this group, but re
jected without comment Newell's assignment of a gold coin (p. 269).
5. E.T. Newell, op. cit., n. 4, p. 269 and n° 10.
RN 1996, p. 77-94 A GRAECO-SOGDIAN MINT OF EUTHYDEMUS 79
dering in the north by people who did not recognize Greek suzerainty,
but who adopted these ancient Seleucid types.
We can elaborate on Fuye's and Newell's classifications of these coins
as Seleucid imitations and not as part of the « Hyrcodes » coinage by
noting two important differences. First, the « » coins contain
the portrait of a bearded king on the obverse, while those of the « hor
ned » horse variety portray the king clean-shaven. Second, the
« Hyrcodes » coins bear the head and forequarters of a bridled horse on
the reverse, while those of the former depict only the head and neck of a
bridled horse with a horn, or horn-like lock6. In the case of the
« Hyrcodes » coinage analogies can be found in at least two specimens -
a bronze double and a bronze unit - attributed to Seleucus I and issued
from an uncertain east Iranian or Bactrian mint7. The « horned » horse
reverse type, however, is known to have been issued by a royal Seleucid
mint in Bactria (at Bactra ?) under Antiochus I (c. 280-268). According to
Newell8, three series composed variously of staters, tetradrachmas,
drachmas and hemidrachmas were minted there. The obverse portrays
the head of Antiochus,