now available, new evidence may bring radical changes at any time.
Normally there were three contemporary rulers of royal rank in eastern Iran and northwestern India: a "king of kings" in Iran, some junior member of his family associated with him, and another "king of kings" in India. The junior member in Iran usually became in due course the supreme ruler in India.[1] The belief that the title "king of kings" was not used in Parthia from 88 to 57 b.c.[2] led logically to the correct conclusion that the rulers of Iran and India were independent of Parthia; but at least one case of its use in Parthia in 64 b.c. is known.[3]
In eastern Iran the ruler issued coins together with that member of the family associated with him in the government. The legend of the king is in Greek, and that of the prince, on the reverse, in Kharosthi; since the use of Kharosthi in this period is known from Arachosia only, we may infer that the prince governed that territory.
The evidence of the coins[4] and the Taxila plate
- ↑ An interesting, though earlier, parallel to this custom is found in Elam; see Cameron, Hist. of Early Iran, pp. 20 and 71 f.
- ↑ Rapson in CHI, I, 569.
- ↑ Kugler, Sternkunde, II, 447, No. 31.
- ↑ For coins of the Indo-Scythian period see Percy Gardner, The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum (London, 1886); E. Drouin, "Chronologie et numismatique des rois indo-
pp. 62–85. Under Herzfeld's arrangement there would reign only two kings before Gondopharnes, i.e., Maues and Azes; but cf. pp. 64 f.
