death.[1] On the basis of numismatic evidence Rapson has suggested that Gondopharnes may have captured some territory from the Parthians. His coins, whether struck alone or with his nephew or his commanders in chief, usually bear the symbol .png){kind=small}
; this mark is found counterstruck on the coins of Orodes II (57–37/36 b.c.) and Artabanus III (a.d. 12–38).[2]
Gondopharnes was succeeded by Pacores, who bears a good Parthian name. Numismatic evidence suggests that he was suzerain in southeastern Iran and that he controlled at least a part of India. His coins, bearing a figure of Victory similar to those of Orthagnes, have been discovered at Taxila; they have also the Gondopharnes symbol and the legend of a well known commander in chief. One more ruler of Seistan is known, Sanabares, conjecturally assigned to that territory because of the Greek legends on his coins.[3]
The Saca power in India began to dwindle away rapidly under the successors of Gondopharnes. Here the Chinese sources again bring some light. A hundred years or more after the settlement of the Yüeh-
- ↑ Rapson in CHI, I, 574–80; J. F. Fleet, "St. Thomas and Gondophernes," JRAS, 1905, pp. 223–36.
- ↑ Rapson in CHI, I, 578; Rapson, "Note on Ancient Coins," JRAS, 1904, p. 677; A. Cunningham, "Coins of the Sakas," Num. Chron., 1890, p. 119. To this period belongs the "Phraotes" of India whom Apollonius of Tyana visited according to Philostratus Vita Apoll. ii. 26 ff. See also Werner Schur, "Die Orientpolitik des Kaisers Nero," Klio, Beiheft XV (1923), pp. 69–80.
- ↑ Rapson in CHI, I, 580; cf. A. von Sallet, Die Nachfolger Alex. des Grossen (Berlin, 1879), pp. 52 f.
