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NOVEMBER, 1903.)
THE NIMBUS ON INDO-SKYTHIAN COINS.
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the sun-god on those of Plato, of Philoxenes, &c. All the Baktrian kings of course knew only Hellenie divinities; they are the same as those of the coins of the Seleukides, except the type of Apollo on the Omphalos, which is, as we know, the figure adopted by all the Arsakides, and which is entirely wanting on the Indo-Baktrian coinage. In the first century A. D., Roman money penetrated into India, the bust of Kadapbês is proof of this, but the type of head with the aureole was already fixed on the Indo-Skythian coinage.
The conclusion from the preceding is that the nimbus and the aureole, which surround the Greek and Iranian divinities on the coins of Kanishka, are of Hellenic origin : that the same applies to the prabhd nandala of Buddha, siace there exists no figured representation of this saint before Kanishka.
There remains to be ascertained whether the title sons of the gods," and the laminous emblems, that is to say, the apotheosis and the assimilation of the king to the divinity, have the same origin.
[164] With the exception of the anonymous king known under the appellation of Sótér megas, who belongs to the end of the Graeco-Baktrian empire, and who is, perhaps, contemporaneous with the first Indo-Skythians, we do not find in the whole Baktrian series a single head with nimbus or rays. In the vast series of coins of the Seleukides, Antiokhos IV. Epiphanês (195-164 B. C.) is the only one who has the head surrounded with rays and the divine epithet of esos; but this royal image was evidently unknown in the north of India, and notably by Hvima Kadpisa ; the last could not have borrowed the idea of the flaming aureole, which he was the first to figure on his coins; this, then, is a point which seems well proven.
There remains the expression "sons of the gods," peculiar to the Indo-Skythian kings.
In Greek numismatics the idea of divinity applied to kings is found among the first Lagides, successors to the Pharaohs, who, from very ancient times, were sons of god (ra mes), and gods themselves (nuruter) during their lifetime as after their death. On the coins struck by Ptolemy II. Philadelphos (284-247 B. C.), with the legend ERN AAEAPON (nuterti sonti, in the decree of Canopus), the Ptolemys are already deified. In the later Egyptian documents, for example in the decree of Rosetta, Ptolemy V. is born of the gods Philopator (mer atef iu), priest of Alexander, born of the gods Soter, of the gods Adelphes, &c." It is possible that this pretension to divinity has been borrowed from Egypt by the Seleukides. Seleukos I. Nikator (312-981 B. C.) indeed took the title of Theos in bis formularies, but this epithet appears only under Antiok hos IV. Epiphanes (175-164) among the coins of his successors. Arsakes, the founder of the Parthian dynasty, on & coin of consecration, [165] struck by his son Tiridatos I. (264-211 B. C.) is already spoken of an esos in imitation of Seleukos, but this was a posthumous homage and a tort of divinisation. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, besides, that Arsakês, first of all monarchs obtained the honours of apotheosis and was placed in the rank of the stars by a consecration in accordance with the rites of the country, astris ritus sui consecratione per mistus est omnium primus. On the coins of Baktriana, the earliest mention of this divine epithet is found ou two consecration coins, the one strack by Agathoklės, the other by Antiinakhos, in the name of Eutbydemos esor, and on the coins of Antimakhos himself, on which he takes the divine title.
It is necessary to come down nearly two centuries to find again the same expression on the coins of Goudophares and of Arsakês Theos (about the year 50 A. D.). It could not then serve as
type any more than that of EOTPOTTOS which we find in the formulary of Agathokles with the signification of dévaputra, “sons of the gods," which forms the basis of the Indo-Skythian titles.
• See my article Une drachme arscidae inédito, in the Garette Numamatique, Bruxelles, 1E99. M. W. Wroth thinks that this coin in the name of Arsakes Odds, could not have been struck till later, between 191 and 171 B. C. (Num. Chron., 1900, p. 192). The Latin expronson omnium primus seems to indicate, that, before Arakts, so prinoo had the honouns of apotheosis; this is an error of the Latin historian.
