PREFACE v

Museum Catalogue, Mr. Vincent Smith calls both dynasties
Indo-Parthlan.

The Intrinsic interest of the coins described in this work
Is great, and they make a strong appeal to the favourable
notice of collectors, especially to those belonging to that
European nation which Is the first to have accomplished from
the sea what Greece did from the land, and so may be re-
garded as the legitimate successor of the Greeks in the Panjak
Mr. Stuart Poole remarked in his Preface to the British Museum
Catalogue of the Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of
Bactria and India, that few fields of numismatics offer richer
material, historical, archaeological, and even philological. To
a very large extent these contemporary documents In met&L
are the only testimonies to a period which would otherwise
have disappeared from history. The names of Menander and
Apollodotos are just mentioned by classical annalists, but
those of the numerous other Indo-Greek princes are merely
found on their coins, and till four years ago no other epi-
graphical evidence of their existence was known. But now we
have the inscription at Besnagar In the Gwallor State, which
relates that the stone pillar on which It is Inscribed was
erected by Heliodoros, son of DIon? a subject of the great
king Antalkidas of Taxila, the ruler whose name Is familiar
from his coins In the form Antialkidas. This Is one of the
several remarkable discoveries recently made by the Archaeo-
logical Department of India.

The historical importance of these coins Is not confined
to the issues of the Greek princes. Our knowledge of the
Indo-Scythians, IndoJ?arthians3 and Kushans is again almost
entirely derived from the study of their coins; and the interest
is strengthened by the fact that the coins of the Indo-Parthians
give us the name of Gondophares, known to Christian tradi-
tion as the Indian ruler under whom the Apostle St. Thomas
was martyred. Then on the coins of the Kushans we have
the name of Kanlshka, known to fame as the convener of the