Obverse: Demetrios I, facing right, wearing an elephant scalp.
Reverse: Herakles crowning himself, holding a club and a lion skin. Inscr: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΕΜΕΤΡΙΟΥ, Monogram: ΡΚ

Demetrios I Aniketos, ‘the unconquered’, was one of history’s most successful generals. As his monicker indicates, he was never defeated on the field of battle. Indeed, it was at war that his reign began. Antiochos III, the Seleukid King, had invaded Bactria, and came perilously close to defeating Demetrius’ father Euthydemos, even besieging the fortified city of Baktra (modern Balkh, Afghanistan), the Bactrian capital. At this moment of acute danger, it was the ‘young prince’ (neaniskos) Demetrios who was sent out to negotiate on his father’s behalf. Antiochos was so impressed with Demetrios that he acceded to favourable surrender conditions for the Bactrians (Polybius 11.34). It was perhaps this experience that led Demetrios to resolve never to repeat the military mistakes of his father. When Demetrios succeeded Euthydemos, his attention turned to regaining territory and expanding the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom beyond its historic borders. Perhaps his most significant campaign came after the collapse of the Mauryan Empire in India, around 186 BC. Demetrios had been an ally of the Mauryans, who had considered themselves suzerains over the Greek-speaking peoples of the Indus Valley region and what later became Gandhara. In fact, the last Mauryan Emperor, Brihadratha, may have married Berenike, one of Demetrios’ daughters. The Roman historian Strabo (15.698) reports that Demetrios’ campaign may have penetrated as far as the Ganges and the former Mauryan capital at Pataliputra (modern Patna). Like his great hero, Alexander the Great, however, Demetrios’ conquests were not to last; Demetrios died perhaps in 180 BC, aged around 42.

Demetrios minted perhaps five types of tetradrachm during his reign. This coin is of a well-established type. The King is shown on the obverse wearing the scalp of an elephant, in a reference to the previous coins depicting Alexander the Great in the same attire (e.g. British Museum 1987,0649.508, minted under Ptolemy I Soter in Egypt). The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) was the ultimate symbol of the subcontinent; by wearing its scalp, Alexander and his successors demonstrated their dominance over India in the same way that Herakles – Alexander’s ultimate model – demonstrated his dominance over the Nemean Lion by wearing its skin. It is likely, then, that this coin comes from the last six years of Demetrios’ reign, after he embarked on his Indian campaign. Additionally, Demetrios assimilated himself to Alexander by this attire. It was a concern of all Alexander’s immediate successors (the diadochoi) to present themselves as the legitimate heirs to the great conqueror. The memory of Alexander remained strong despite the century between Alexander’s death and Demetrios’ birth. The portrait of Demetrios is something of a masterpiece, demonstrating the extent to which the art of minting had developed in Bactria from some shaky, early issues.

The reverse of the coin depicts Herakles, the archetypal Greek hero, crowning himself with a victor’s laurel. He stands nude, a common Hellenic depiction of divinity, and despite the small scale of the portrait, his sinewy musculature is clear. Herakles holds two of his most common attributes, the club and a lion skin. Both apparently refer to the legendary slaying Nemean Lion, the first and most important of his famous Labours. According to Theokritos, (25.153-281), a late source, Herakles knew that the skin of the lion was impervious to cutting weapons, so instead brought with him a club with which to subdue it before then strangling the beast. Since the skin was as effective as armour, he wore it thereafter. The heraldic device of a standing Herakles appears both on Demetrios’ coins and those of his relative Agathokles, who may have been Demetrios’ son or contemporary (even co-ruler). On either side of the figure of Herakles are inscriptions, reading basileōs Demetriou, ‘of King Demetrios’, and by the hero’s feet is a monogram merging the letters rho and kappa. Monograms appear on all Bactrian coins, from the first Bactrian King Diodotos I. These marks have been variously described as mint marks, control marks, or signatures of minters. Assuming that they are mint marks has resulted in the identification of over 150 mints, far too many for a Kingdom like Bactria. Instead, a control mark or signature seems more likely; while certain monograms (rho-kappa and omega-phi-iota) are very common, they only last for a period of around 40 years maximum, which could easily represent the career of an individual assayist or minter.

References: Type IIIa Demetrios I tetradrachms, of this design and bearing the rho-kappa mark, can be found in London (British Museum 1888,1208.91, IOC.11, IOC.8, IOC.6, 1888,1208.82), Oxford (Ashmolean Museum HCR6537), New York (American Numismatic Society 1997.9.67, 1944.100.74389, 1995.51.23, 1995.51.251).