attempt their arrangement, and if my plan be found correct, the classification I should hope will materially assist the study of these coins, and their application to historical elucidation. In this memoir I shall only treat of the two first classes, as I have not leisure to include the three other classes-the study of which, however useful and necessary, is more obscure, and cannot be conducted without the assistance of historical reference, which of course I cannot command here. Of the Guebre coins, which are found in considerable numbers, it may be generally observed, that the conquests of Arsaces Mithridates will explain their appearance in these countries; but I incline to think we may recognize a distinct Parthian dynasty, which may possibly have been founded by some enterprising viceroy under his successors. I sometimes indulge the hope of identifying a Parthian metropolis in the neighbourhood of Kabul. As Sassanian coins are also discovered, it would seem probable that these countries were also at some period dependent on the princes of the house of SASSAN. The Brahminical coins, that is, such as are clearly so from their Nagree inscriptions, I calculate may chronologically be placed in succession to the Sassanian ones; and that they formed the circulating specie of these countries at the period of the Muhammedan invasion, is proved by coins with Nagree legends on the one side, and Cufic on the other.

General Observations.-Class, Grecian-Series No. 1.

Coins of the Recorded Kings of Bactria.

The Greek coins found in these countries are naturally the most interesting. Of the recorded kings of Bactria, we find at Beghram the coins of three only, viz. MENANDER, APOLLODOTUS, and EUCRATIDES the 1st or Great. It may sometimes happen that a medal of EUTHYDEMUS is to be met with at Kabul, but it must always be considered an importation from Balkh. The coins of the two first Bactrian princes, THEODOTUS I. and THEODOTUS II. we ought not to expect here, as it is certain that their rule did not extend south of the Caucasus, the present Hindoo Kush. EUTHYDEMUS, the third prince, we may conjecture profited by the diverted attention of ANTIOCHUS the Great from his eastern provinces to the Roman invasion, and passed this mountain range; but the absence of his coins leads us to infer that he may have died before he had effected a settlement of the countries invaded by his arms. Of the celebrated MENANDER, we have numerous coins; the features on most of them, those of youth; on none of them, those of age. The legend of no one coin describes him as king of Bactria and India, nor is the epithet NIKATOP to be found, as applied to him by SCHLEGEL, but that of ΣΩΤΗΡ. His recorded conquest of a great part of India must therefore have been subsequent to his ascending the throne in Bactria,

Colonel ToD observes, that, he could not fix the period of the conquest of Bactria by MENANDER; leading us to infer that he was a prince of the Greek dynasty on the Hyphasis; it would appear certain however that MENANDER was a king of Bactria, who extended his conquests very far into India, according to the direct testimony of PLINY-which is corroborated by PLUTARCH, who, in his valuable and honorable mention of him, styles him MENANDER, a king of the Bactrians.

Of APOLLODOTUS we have several coins, and their discovery in these countries proves the fact of his having reigned in them, which has been doubted by some, who have alike referred him to the dynasty on the Hyphasis.

It must be confessed, that our views are not at present quite clear relative to the reigns and successions of the Bactrian princes: if the chronological data of SCHLEGEL be correct, we have from the ascension of APOLLODOTUS to sovereignty 195 B. C. to that of EUCRATIDES 181 B. C., but an interval of 14 years, which may have been very naturally filled by the reign of the former, while we have the names of three princes, MENANDER, HELIOCLES, and DEMETRIUS, who have claims more or less to be considered kings of Bactria. Fortunately, we have other kingdoms to which to assign them, should their pretensions to that of Bactria be found inadmissible. These points, and some others will shortly receive much elucidation, when we become acquainted with the nature of the coins found north of the Hindoo Kúsh.

The coins of EUCRATIDES I. or Great, are very numerous, and of very spirited execution. I believe they are not to be found east of Kabul, which, if ascertained to be a fact, yields grounds for the hypothesis, that in his time, an independent Greek kingdom existed west of the Indus, whose capital was the ancient Nysa, or near the modern Jelalabad. That such a kingdom existed at the later period, we have the satisfaction of being able to demonstrate to a certainty.

We have discovered no coins of DEMETRIUS, supposed to have been a son of EUTHYDEMUS; it is fair to infer then that he never ruled in these countries. Colonel ToD assigns him to the dynasty on the Hyphasis, of which he has some claims to be considered the founder, and which we may credit until farther researches may confirm or controvert the opinion.

We are alike without any evidence of HELIOCLES, whose claim to be reputed a sovereign of Bactria appears to have been advanced by MIONNET, on the authority of a single medal.

We find no coins of the last of these kings, EUCRATIDES II. although his reign was not a short one, (twenty-two years, according to SCHLEGEL.) As he ascended the throne by the murder of his father,

it is not unlikely that the parricidal act was followed by anarchy and the dismemberment of many of his provinces ;-the absence of his coins at Beghram would seem to countenance such an opinion, and the distracted state of his affairs was probably favorable to the inroads of the Getæ, who destroyed his empire.

The coins of the kings of the regular Bactrian dynasty are of excellent workmanship, and have monograms or eras, from which an accurate estimation of their reigns may, it is hoped, be adduced. The inscriptions or legends of the reverses are invariably Pehlevi, which proves it to have been the current language of these countries at the period of the Macedonian conquests. The Greeks, as conquerors, inserted on the obverses, their own characters, and by them we recognize their princes, after a lapse of twenty centuries. Under the auspices of the present viceroy of India, the English language seems likely to become generally known throughout the eastern empire; and should this splendid purpose be effected, at some remote period, when the natural revolutions of political authority may have placed the natives of India under their own government, or that of other conquerors, they may still retain a fond and grateful remembrance of their former rulers, while they cherish their language and literature.

Class, Grecian-Series No. 2. Coins of ANTIAAKIAOE and ATZIOZ These coins I have classed as a distinct series, and introduced them here, because independently of the beards, which are not borne by the Bactrian kings, or by the early monarchs of the Nysæan dynasty, it is impossible to allow that the sovereigns were Grecian, both from their names and epithets-while the fine execution of the coins, and the pure Greek characters of the legends, seem to place them at a period synchronous or nearly so with the Bactrian monarchs. The conical emblems on the coins of ANTIAAKIAOZ we fortunately detect by a single specimen to have been also adopted by EUCRATIDES; and this circumstance establishes a connection, if merely that of descent or succession. My opinion of these coins is, that they belong to princes of an inferior dynasty, who ruled in the mountainous districts of Caucasus, consequent to the destruction of the Bactrian empire, and until their subjugation by the Nysæan rulers. Their metropolis may have been Alexandria ad Caucasum. In the districts where that city is naturally to be looked after, viz. in the Kohistan of Kábul, we find every indication that a capital has existed, which has varied its position and name, in much the same manner as Babylon. These coins have fortunately monograms, which may contribute to their better explanation.

Class, Grecian-Series No. 3. Coins of AгA@OKAHƐ, HANTAAEON, &c. This singular description of coins fortunately presents us with the name of the princes, although we are denied the satisfaction of beholding

their features; and no data are furnished on which we may fix the dynasty to which they may have belonged. Setting aside the curious form of these coins, their designs are well executed, and the obverse legends expressed in pure Greek characters. This circumstance induces me to insert the series here, and I should consider the dynasty a distinct one, perhaps under nearly the same circumstances as the preceding. The consideration of the coins with the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΑΝΤΑΛΕΟΝΤΟΣ made me at first hesitate whether to regard AгA@OKAEOTE as a name, or, an epithet; as both descriptions of coins, from the coincidence of obverse and reverse, seem to refer to the same prince. A series of uncouth formed coins I have included under this series, from the agreement of the obverses: the reverses exhibit elephants. These Leonine coins have no legends, but figures, which may be their monograms.

Class, Grecian-Series No. 4. Coins of the Nysæan Dynasty.

We now come to a series of coins, which it is gratifying to identify as belonging to Greek princes, whose seat of empire was at the ancient city of Nysa, or Dionysiopolis, founded agreeably to Sanscrit and Greek records by Bacchus or Dionysius. Hercules, the tutelary Bactrian deity, is represented on some of these coins, and a horseman, alike a Bactrian emblem, on others. These coins, with respect to their type and execution, exhibit many incongruities: on many, while the bust is well executed, and the features well delineated, the Greek characters of the legends are very corrupt. Happily, the Pehlevi legends are generally fair and distinct. The princes of this dynasty would seem to have been numerous, probably of more than one family; it is to be hoped, we shall be enabled ultimately to identify all of them : at present we have three if not four princes of the same name EPMAION; a ΣATHPHETAC; and an ΥΝΑΔΦΕΡΡΟΣ". We have the coins of others, the legends illegible.

Class, Grecian-unarranged Coins.

These coins I have not referred to distinct series, as it is probable that legible specimens will enable us to refer them to some of the preceding ones. The coins of EPMAIOX have a similarity in nomenclature with those of the Nysæan dynasty, but it will be noticed, that the quadrangular form is not adopted with the latter-another of the coins has the figure of Hercules, and another, the epithet METAAOY, the former a Bactrian and Nysæan emblem, the latter only observed on the coins of EUCRATIDES I.

Among the supplementary coins which were not found at Beghram, and are not in my possession, the coins with the horseman on the obverse are certainly Nysæan; on the reverses is the figure of Ceres ; these coins are remarkable for their fair circular form, the pure Greek

* We follow the Ms.: but the second of these names is evidently THP METAZ, see further on.-ED.

characters of the legend, and for being generally plated over with silver. They are found generally, I believe exclusively, in the neighbourhood of Jelalabad.

Class, Indo-Scythic-Series No. 1. Coins of KANHPKO, &c.

The coins of KANHPKOZ exhibit two varieties as to the reverse. The one representing a figure standing to the right, with the legend in Greek characters NANAIA, the other a figure standing to the left, with the legend HAIOC. This species of coin has been supposed by the Editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society in Bengal, to belong to KANISHKA, a Tartar conqueror of Bactria. It is gratifying to be able to conjecture somewhat plausibly, that the capital of the prince whose coins are now the subject of our discussions, was at Kábul, a fact which may confirm or destroy the opinion of his having been KANISHKA. M. CSOMA DE KOROS, from Tibetan authorities, informs us, that a prince KANISHKA reigned at Kapila, supposed to have been near Hurdwar and Mr. WILSON endeavors to fix the birth-place of SAKYA at Kápila, which he places in Oude. If the locality of Kapila rest on supposition only, and we be allowed the latitude of reading Kabila, and we find from Mr. WILSON's notice that the name is actually so written in one dialect and Kimboul in another, we have a great approximation to Kábul or Kabool-the question will be nearly set at rest, and KANISHKA may have been the prince here designated KANHPKOZ. But if Kapila cannot be allowed to represent Kabul, then we may doubt whether these coins refer to KANISHKA. But certain will it be that they belong to a prince whose metropolis was Kábul. As I find very plausible reasons are advanced for bringing the epoch of KANISHKA to agree with that of the overthrow of the Bactrian monarchy, and consequently for inferring, that, that event was effected by him, the remark forces itself from me that Bactria was conquered from the north by the Getæ, and not from the east or north-east by the Sacæ. That the Getæ and Sacæ were distinct Scythian nations, was too well known to the ancients, to allow their historians and geographers to confound them: we find even the Latin poet Horace aware of the distinction. I doubt whether the Getæ at the period of their inroad upon Bactria made any settlement, assuredly not a permanent one, in the countries now called Afghanistan; nor do I feel certain, that, the Greeks did not rally and recover their authority in Bactria. A better acquaintance with the country will enable us to judge more decisively on these points. The barbarians appear to have proceeded southerly, and to have settled themselves, in Kuchee, Sind, and the Punjab, where they probably absorbed the Greek kingdom on the Hyphasis. In the countries named, their descendants still form the great mass of the population, and pre