2-726-164 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Coin of Eukratides I, 170-145 BC. After Alexander of Macedon conquered Egypt and Persia in 331 BC, his ambition to rule the known world led him further east across Bactria in Afghanistan, through the Hindu Kush mountain pass, and into India. There he defeated all the local kings of the region until his men, on the brink of mutiny, insisted that they return to Greece. Alexander left governors in charge of his territories, and after his death in 323 BC they became independent kings, establishing Hellenistic cities and a Greek cultural base in the region lasting almost 200 years. The Greek king who ruled over territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Eukratides depicted himself with the brimmed military helmet with the bull's ear and horn of Poseiden, worn by generals from Alexander’s northern Greek country of Macedon. After his death, Alexander's vast empire—stretching from Macedon across Egypt and Persia all the way to the Indus River—was divided among his military leaders. On the coin’s reverse are the twin sons of Zeux, Castor and Pollux, riding horseback with long spears. Since Alexander considered himself to be an offspring of Zeus, Eukratides emphasized his link to Alexander by including them on his coin.