BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Demetrios I, circa 200-185 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 35 mm, 16.66 g, 12 h), Baktra. Diademed and draped bust of Demetrios I to right, wearing elephant skin headdress.
Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ΔHMHTPIOY Youthful Herakles, nude, standing facing, crowning himself with a wreath with his right hand and holding club and lion skin in his left; in field to inner left, monogram. Bopearachchi 1B. HGC 12, 63. MIG 103b. SNG ANS 186. Lightly toned and with an impressive portrait and a particularly detailed rendering of the elephant skin headdress. About extremely fine.
From the Basileiai Hellēnikai Collection of Exceptional Tetradrachms, ex Roma XXV, 22 September 2022, 548.
The silver coinage of Demetrios I is notable for depicting the king wearing an elephant headdress, symbolizing his Indian victories and his comparison to Alexander the Great. Sources suggest Demetrios led a campaign against the Mauryan Empire, besieging Pataliputra, and later expanded into Sindh and Patalena, regions Alexander never reached. His military successes were widely recognized, making him one of the few Greco-Baktrian rulers mentioned in both Greek and Indian literature. Polybios highlights Demetrios’ important role when his father sent him to negotiate peace with Seleucid King Antiochos III during the siege of Baktra, marking one of the few direct interactions between the Greco-Baktrian kings and the Seleukids referenced in historiography (see lot 337 above)
