The Bactrian Silver Crisis and the Fall of the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom

Long before the Silk Road flourished, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom in modern Afghanistan and Central Asia minted some of the most beautiful coins of the ancient world. By the mid-2nd century BCE, a severe silver shortage crippled their economy, leading to debased coinage, lost trade routes, and ultimately the kingdom's collapse before nomadic invaders. This episode traces the financial crisis through the reigns of Eucratides I and Demetrius I, linking silver depletion in the Oxus Valley to the rise of the Yuezhi and the Kushan Empire. We explore the tetradrachm and drachma, the war with the Parthians under Mithridates I, and the archaeological evidence from Ai Khanoum. Join Lucas and Luna as they unravel how a currency crisis helped topple a Hellenistic outpost 2,000 years ago. #GraecoBactrian #EucratidesI #DemetriusI #AiKhanoum #OxusValley #Yuezhi #Kushan #tetradrachm #Parthia #MithridatesI #Hellenistic #SilverCrisis #Coinage #Bactra #Taxila #History #FexingoHistory #AncientEconomy Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo