Did Strato I strike barbarous Coins?

Summary

This numismatic note revisits the question of whether the Indo‑Greek king Strato I was responsible for issuing crude, so‑called ‘barbarous’ drachms. The debate originated with Cunningham, who discovered a series of very crude drachms depicting a diademed bust and the goddess Pallas hurling a thunderbolt and noted that the name ‘Straton’ appears twice in the Greek legends. From this and from the new title ‘Priyapita’ (Kharosthi: priyapita) on the reverse, Cunningham proposed the existence of a second Strato. Gardner accepted two Stratos, while Rapson later restored both the Greek and Kharosthi legends and re‑examined the evidence. The present article analyses three distinct series of coins. Series I consists of well‑executed drachms with a realistic bust of a youthful king and Greek legends reading ‘Basileos Soteros Stratonos’; these coins are rare and carry only Greek monograms. Series II comprises drachms of barbarous style showing a crudely depicted old man and the figure of Pallas with Greek legends similar to series I and Kharosthi legends reading ‘Maharajasa tratarasa Stratasa’. Series III includes coins with corrupt Greek legends restored by Rapson as ‘Basileos Soteros Stratonos Kai Philopatoros’ and Kharosthi legends with the epithet ‘Priyapita’; these coins are stylistically identical to series II. The article argues that series II and III were struck in the same region by the same authority, as indicated by the identical bust, figure of Pallas, monograms and execution. These crude coins have misled scholars into believing that Strato’s reign was very long, for the portraits depict him as a man of more than seventy years with toothless jaws and sunken cheeks. However, Strato I is otherwise known to have issued well‑made tetradrachms and drachms depicting him from youth to middle age. The article therefore doubts that Strato I himself struck these barbarous coins. Instead, they were probably local imitations or later issues produced by unskilled artists; Rapson’s title ‘Priyapita’ may have been a later honorific rather than evidence for a second king. Strato I adopted at least three epithets—Soter (saviour), Dikaios (just) and Epiphanes (manifest)—during his career. The article concludes that caution is needed in using barbarous coins to reconstruct the chronology of Indo‑Greek rulers.