Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria

Simon Glenn

Pages: xv + 386 p.
Size:216 x 280 mm
Illustrations:106 b/w, 75 tables b/w.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2020

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ISBN: 978-0-89722-361-4
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BIO

Simon Glenn is Digital Curator of Early Modern European in the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford. He was previously a research fellow of the same institution where he has worked on both Greek and Roman numismatics. He has been a member of the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire, Roman Provincial Coinage, Ancient Coins as Related Cultural Heritage, and the Oxford-Paris Alexander projects. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and completed his PhD at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College), the research of which provides the basis for this book. He is a fellow and council member of the Royal Numismatic Society, and is a member of the American Numismatic Society.

Summary

The coins produced by the kings of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom of the third and second centuries BC are the best and, in some cases only, primary source of evidence for the history of the period. The lack of context has, however, often led to highly speculative uses of the numismatic evidence in previous historical reconstructions. Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria returns the focus to the coins themselves and presents the results of a full die study of the issues of Euthydemus I, Demetrius I, Euthydemus II, Pantaleon, Agathocles, and Antimachus I. In doing so it proposes a new, soundly based history of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom under these kings based on a thorough understanding and suggested reconstruction of these enigmatic coins.

Winner of the 2021 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Book on Ancient Coins (pre-1500).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Methodology
Chapter 2. Types, Denominations, and Iconography
Chapter 3. Find Evidence
Chapter 4. Euthydemus I
Chapter 5. Demetrius I
Chapter 6. Euthydemus II
Chapter 7. Pantaleon and Agathocles
Chapter 8. Antimachus I
Chapter 9. Monograms
Chapter 10. History from Coins?

Appendix A. Catalogue
Appendix B. Forgeries
Bibliography
Plates