The period between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD saw the establishment of two supra-regional states in the Iranian world, first the Arsacid and then the Kushan Empire. The patterns of imperial imagery elaborated by the Arsacids became the reference and were adopted by many of the successive dynasties, starting with the Kushan themselves. Chorasmia was exposed to such influences, and the coin series of its first kings show the interplay between local features and elements coming from both Arsacid Parthia and the Kushan Empire.
This article deals with the development of Kushan royal imagery as known from coins in the period between the 1st and the 3rd centuries ad, i.e. from the so-called Heraios series to the coins of Vasudeva. The aim is to challenge the traditional interpretative models which ascribed a crucial role to a Roman contribution, and to highlight instead first the role of the local numismatic tradition, which stretched back to the Graeco-Bactrians, and then the influx of patterns of royal imagery of western Iranian—namely Arsacid Parthian—origin, around the time when Vima Kadphises inaugurated a new imperial coinage.
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