Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Interview episode, Coins and Numismatics in Greek Central Asia with Dr. Frank Lee Holt.

Hello everyone. Today I have with me Dr. Frank Lee Holt, a professor of the Department of History at the University of Houston. Dr. Holt is an expert of Hellenistic Central Asia,

whose work emphasizes the importance of numismatics with regards

to the study of the Greco-Bactrine and Indo-Greek kingdoms. He has written several landmark

books on the subject, including Thundering Zeus, the making of Hellenistic Bactria, Lost

World of the Golden King in search of ancient Afghanistan, and into the land of bones, Alexander

the Great in Afghanistan.

And for this episode, he has joined us on the show to discuss his work on Greco-Bactry numismatics.

First off, I would like to just say thank you so much for taking the time to speak on the show.

It's my pleasure, Derek. I appreciate the work that you're doing for Hellenistic history.

Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you ended up focusing your studies on the Hellenistic world and numismatics in general?

Certainly. I first became interested in Hellenistic age as a student in college. I can remember

taking a course on Greek history. And toward the end, the professor who really had no specialty

in Greek history at all, he was the the professor who really had no specialty in Greek history

at all, he was the English history professor, but occasionally taught a course on the ancient

Greeks. And he started talking about the Hellenistic age, and I can remember thinking,

anything that begins with hell can't be good. What's this going to be about? And so I finally

began to understand where the term Hellenistic came from, that it had

nothing to do with the Greek Hades at all. And he began to spend these marvelous stories about

Greek ships being rowed up and down the Indus River with Greeks who had been left and lost in

Central and South Asia.

And I came to understand that he hadn't read many books about the ancient Greeks,

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