Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 124 23 Jun 2021
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Hermaeuss, circa 90 –70.
Drachm, Pushkalavati circa 90-70, AR 1.82 g. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣΩTHPOΣ HPMAIOY Hermaios, diademed, on prancing horse r. Rev. Maharajasa tratarasa Hermayasa in Kharosthi characters Zeus, draped and radiate, enthroned facing slightly l., holding sceptre in r. hand and resting l. on seat of throne; in inner r. field, monogram. Senior, Hermaios H2aD var. (monogram on obverse). Bopearachchi cf. 8 (monogram unlisted). Mitchiner Type 411a.
Extremely rare. Dark tone and good very fine
Ex Triton sale XIV, 2011, 437 (obverse misdescribed).
Like most of the Indo-Greek kings, we have little historical information regarding the reign of Hermaeus. Coin finds and hoard chronology suggest that he ruled in the Paropamisadae in the early first century BC as a successor of Philoxenos or Diomedes. Indeed, coin evidence shows that for part of his reign, he ruled alongside his wife, Kalliope, who has been suspected of being a daughter of Philoxenos. Hermaeus appears to have enjoyed a long reign, but it ended with the fall of the kingdom to the nomadic Yuezhi or Sakas who had been responsible for overthrowing the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom north of the Hindu Kush decades earlier. His coinage was popular with the invaders, spawning a variety of anonymous local imitations as well as issues featuring his types, but naming Kujula Kadphises, the first ruler of the Kushan Empire.
The present drachm, issued during the lifetime of Hermaeus, displays the remarkable eclecticism that is a regular feature of Indo-Greek coinage. Most obvious is the simultaneous use of both Greek and Kharoshthi legends, but even the central types speak to the melting pot of cultures and religions in the kingdom ruled by Hermaeus. While the types are executed in a late Hellenistic Greek artistic style, the radiate deity depicted on the reverse conflates Greek Zeus with Iranian Mithra or Ahura Mazda while the obverse horseman type-serving in the place of the more traditional Greek portrait type-prefigured and perhaps influenced subsequent issues of the Indo-Scythians on which the obverse regularly depicts the mounted ruler. It should be noted that the obverse horseman on this issue of Hermaeus is not the much more common representation of the king in full Hellenistic Greek panoply, but rather that of a steppe horse-archer of the type destined to end the Indo-Greek kingdom in the Paropamisadae at the end of Hermaeus' reign.
Drachm, Pushkalavati circa 90-70, AR 1.82 g. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣΩTHPOΣ HPMAIOY Hermaios, diademed, on prancing horse r. Rev. Maharajasa tratarasa Hermayasa in Kharosthi characters Zeus, draped and radiate, enthroned facing slightly l., holding sceptre in r. hand and resting l. on seat of throne; in inner r. field, monogram. Senior, Hermaios H2aD var. (monogram on obverse). Bopearachchi cf. 8 (monogram unlisted). Mitchiner Type 411a.
Extremely rare. Dark tone and good very fine
Ex Triton sale XIV, 2011, 437 (obverse misdescribed).
Like most of the Indo-Greek kings, we have little historical information regarding the reign of Hermaeus. Coin finds and hoard chronology suggest that he ruled in the Paropamisadae in the early first century BC as a successor of Philoxenos or Diomedes. Indeed, coin evidence shows that for part of his reign, he ruled alongside his wife, Kalliope, who has been suspected of being a daughter of Philoxenos. Hermaeus appears to have enjoyed a long reign, but it ended with the fall of the kingdom to the nomadic Yuezhi or Sakas who had been responsible for overthrowing the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom north of the Hindu Kush decades earlier. His coinage was popular with the invaders, spawning a variety of anonymous local imitations as well as issues featuring his types, but naming Kujula Kadphises, the first ruler of the Kushan Empire.
The present drachm, issued during the lifetime of Hermaeus, displays the remarkable eclecticism that is a regular feature of Indo-Greek coinage. Most obvious is the simultaneous use of both Greek and Kharoshthi legends, but even the central types speak to the melting pot of cultures and religions in the kingdom ruled by Hermaeus. While the types are executed in a late Hellenistic Greek artistic style, the radiate deity depicted on the reverse conflates Greek Zeus with Iranian Mithra or Ahura Mazda while the obverse horseman type-serving in the place of the more traditional Greek portrait type-prefigured and perhaps influenced subsequent issues of the Indo-Scythians on which the obverse regularly depicts the mounted ruler. It should be noted that the obverse horseman on this issue of Hermaeus is not the much more common representation of the king in full Hellenistic Greek panoply, but rather that of a steppe horse-archer of the type destined to end the Indo-Greek kingdom in the Paropamisadae at the end of Hermaeus' reign.