Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 124 23 Jun 2021
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Philoxenus, circa 125-110 BC.
Tetradrachm, Pushkalavati circa 125-110, AR 9.79 g. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANIKHTΟΥ ΦIΛOΞENOY Draped, and cuirassed bust r., wearing crested Boeotian helmet adorned with bull's horn and ear. Rev. Maharajasa apadihatasa Philasinasa in Karosthi characters Philoxenos, in military attire, on prancing horse r.; beneath, monogram and Σ below horse's rear hooves. Bopearachchi 5B. Mitchiner Type 340c. Bopearachchi-Rahman 476. SNG ANS 1182.
Rare. Wonderful old cabinet tone and about extremely fineδδδδδδEx Triton sale XIV, 2011, 436.
Like most of the Indo-Greek kings, Philoxenus is a shadowy figure about whom little concrete is known. Based on coin finds, he is believed to have ruled a northern Indian kingdom extending from the Paropamisadae to the Punjab. Within this territory he struck drachms and tetradrachms like the present piece on an indigenous Indian weight standard and employed legends in Greek and Kharoshthi script, but he also produced coins on the Attic standard featuring only a Greek legend on the reverse. The existence of these Attic-weight issues has sometimes led to the suggestion that Philoxenus may also have held territory north of the Hindu Kush, in Bactria, but by the time of his reign Bactria had fallen already to the nomadic Yuezhi. Thus, the Attic issues were more probably struck to be paid to the Yuezhi as tribute to stave off their entry into northern India.
Whatever the case of Philoxenus' relationship with Bactria and the Yuezhi, the present tetradrachm was certainly struck for use in his kingdom south of the Hindu Kush. Although scholars have not linked Philoxenus to any of the Indo-Greek dynasties reconstructed from shared control marks and epithets, the types and title used on this coin establish some kind of relationship with both the Indo-Greek king Antimachus II (c. 174-165 BC) and the Greco-Bactrian kings Demetrius I (c. 200-185 BC) and Eucratides I (c. 170-145 BC). The charging horseman reverse type seems to be modeled on that found on tetradrachms previously struck by Antimachus II while the obverse portrait wearing a horned Boeotian helmet appears to copy an influential portrait type introduced by Eucratides I. Indeed, on other coins Philoxenus also employed a version of the famous helmeted heroic bust type first pioneered by Eucratides I. Philoxenus' epithet Aniketos ("the Unconquered") is the same as that employed by Demetrius I, the founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom.
Tetradrachm, Pushkalavati circa 125-110, AR 9.79 g. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANIKHTΟΥ ΦIΛOΞENOY Draped, and cuirassed bust r., wearing crested Boeotian helmet adorned with bull's horn and ear. Rev. Maharajasa apadihatasa Philasinasa in Karosthi characters Philoxenos, in military attire, on prancing horse r.; beneath, monogram and Σ below horse's rear hooves. Bopearachchi 5B. Mitchiner Type 340c. Bopearachchi-Rahman 476. SNG ANS 1182.
Rare. Wonderful old cabinet tone and about extremely fineδδδδδδEx Triton sale XIV, 2011, 436.
Like most of the Indo-Greek kings, Philoxenus is a shadowy figure about whom little concrete is known. Based on coin finds, he is believed to have ruled a northern Indian kingdom extending from the Paropamisadae to the Punjab. Within this territory he struck drachms and tetradrachms like the present piece on an indigenous Indian weight standard and employed legends in Greek and Kharoshthi script, but he also produced coins on the Attic standard featuring only a Greek legend on the reverse. The existence of these Attic-weight issues has sometimes led to the suggestion that Philoxenus may also have held territory north of the Hindu Kush, in Bactria, but by the time of his reign Bactria had fallen already to the nomadic Yuezhi. Thus, the Attic issues were more probably struck to be paid to the Yuezhi as tribute to stave off their entry into northern India.
Whatever the case of Philoxenus' relationship with Bactria and the Yuezhi, the present tetradrachm was certainly struck for use in his kingdom south of the Hindu Kush. Although scholars have not linked Philoxenus to any of the Indo-Greek dynasties reconstructed from shared control marks and epithets, the types and title used on this coin establish some kind of relationship with both the Indo-Greek king Antimachus II (c. 174-165 BC) and the Greco-Bactrian kings Demetrius I (c. 200-185 BC) and Eucratides I (c. 170-145 BC). The charging horseman reverse type seems to be modeled on that found on tetradrachms previously struck by Antimachus II while the obverse portrait wearing a horned Boeotian helmet appears to copy an influential portrait type introduced by Eucratides I. Indeed, on other coins Philoxenus also employed a version of the famous helmeted heroic bust type first pioneered by Eucratides I. Philoxenus' epithet Aniketos ("the Unconquered") is the same as that employed by Demetrius I, the founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom.