The Hellenistic dynasties in Bactria & India.

Chronology & theoretical lineages

Chart I. Achaid Diodotids, Euthydemids of Magnesia, Apollodotids (of Kos?)

Diodotos Achaiou (OGIS 19)

(b.c.310)
|
_____|_____
| |
hetair Seleukos II Antiochos Diodotos I
| (c.266-225) (270s-c.214) (280s-c.230) Apollodotos (of Kos?)
| Th.Zeus Th.Zeus Parthia-Hyrkania official
____| (Nikatr) (Str) 260s (Gorgan Inscription)
| | | (b.c.290s)
| | | |
| c.225 | c.230 | |
Lysias I Euthydmos I = Theophil femina = Diodotos II [Eumens]
c.250-224 (c.250s-190s) | Pergamene b.240s | (c.250-222) (b.c.250s)
| Herak.seated | b.c.240 | Th.Zeus |
| (Megas; Theos)| | (Theos) |
| | | |
| _________|______________________ | ___________ _______|__________________________
| c.202 | | c.200 | | c.199 | | |
femina = Dmtrios I Pantaleon = [Laodik?] femina = Antimachos I Apollodotos I Eukratids I
b.220s | (c.224-178) (c.221-175)| b.220s b.c.210s| (c.220-168) (c.225-160) (c.210-144)
| Herak.facing Zeus enthr.| | Poseidon Indic ikons Dioscuri
| (Aniktos) (Str) | |
| | | (year 1 = (creator of Indic |
| |_________ | era of Yonas realm, first to |
____|________________________________ | | 175-74 B.C.) self-deify, c.177) |
| 160s | | c.178 | | |
Dmtrios IA = ignota Euthydmos II femina = Agathokls |____________________ |
(190s-145) | b.180s (c.200-176) b.c.192 |(c.199-170) | | | |
Th.Zeus fac. | Herak.facing | Zeus facing | Eumens Apollodotos IA |
| no epiklesis | | (c.198-168) (190s-144) |
(2)= sister of| (minted unsigned |____ | |
| Menandros| deification Ts) | |c.157 | c.165 |
| | | | femina = (2) Antimachos II (1) = [Stratonik] |
| | | | b.c.173| (c.196-145) | (185/80-c.160) ____|______
| | | | | Het.rider | Attalid | |
| | | | | NIK | Platn Eukratids II
| | | ________|_______ | ___ |_________ (180s-142) (c.180s-140)
| | | c.147 | | | c.139-36 | | Helios Apollo
| Lysias femina = Zilos I | Hliokls I = (2) femina Menandros E Str
| (160s-120) b.c.176|(c.177-128) |(c.175-120s) | b.c.162 (c.164-130) | |
| Herak.facing | Herak.facing | Zeus facing | Th.Athena | |
| Aniktos | Dikaios | Dikaios | Str [stemma II] |
| ___________|_____ | | | |
Philoxenos | | c.120 | | | |
(c.146-90s) Theophilos II Agathokleia (1) = Antialkidas | | |
Het.rider (c.140s-100s) (c.135-90s) | (c.155-108) | | c.130 |
Aniktos Herakles | Zeus enthr. | ______|____ Kushan = Kalliop
| Dikaios | Nikphoros | c.115 | | xihou | b.c.140s
| | Jayadhara Hliokls IA = femina Thrasn | (queen
| | (c.138-100s) | b.c.130s (c.143-120) | mother)
| | Zeus enthr. | | |
| c.105 Epandros Dikaios | | |
femina = Maus I (c.115-70s) | [stemma II] |
b.c.120 |(120s-80s?) Th.Athena | |
| Nikphoros | |
| Jayadhara | |
___|______ ______________________ | ___________________________| _______________|
| | c.90 | | | | | 90s | |
Artemidros femina = Hliokls II Peukolaos | Archebios femina = Hermaios Diomds
(c.100-50s) b.c.104|(c.118-70s) (110s-70s) | (c.110-60s) b.c.110s (c.129-90s) (c.125-90s)
Het.rider | Th.Zeus fac. Zeus benedict | Th.Zeus facing Zeus enthr. Dioscuri
Nike, Artemis | Dikaios Dikaios Str | Dikaios Nikphoros Str Str
Aniktos | | (overthrown by Amyntas)
| Amyntas
Menandros II (c.95-60s)
(c.90-60s) Nikatr
Zeus enthr., Nike Jayadhara
Het.rider; Dikaios
(ruler of Chukhsa 60s?)
 Chart II. Apollodotids of Kos & their Pergamene relatives (Attalids and Theophiloi)

Apollodotos
(b.c.290s) (Gorgan)
Attalos I Str |
(269-197) ___________ |
| | | c.225 |
| Theophilos Theophil = Euthydmos I [Eumens]
| (b.c.240s) Pergamena | of Magnesia (b.c.250s)
| | (b.c.240) | (c.250s-190s) |
| | | |
| | | _____________|_______________________________
188 | | | c.199 | | |
Stratonik of = Eumens II Theophilos ignota = Antimachos I Apollodotos I Eukratids I
Cappadocia | (c.225-159) syntrophos b.c.210s | (c.220-168) (c.225-160) (c.210-144)
| Str of Attalos II | Poseidon
| (b.c.220) | | |
| | (no surviving children; adopted nephew |
| | in Babylonian exile, Antimachos II) |
|_______________ ____________|________________________________ |
| c.165 | c.157 | | |
[Stratonik] = Antimachos II (2) = daughter of Eumens Apollodotos IA Platn
(185/80-c.160)| (c.196-145) | Agathokls (c.198-168) (190s-144) (180s-142)
| Hetair.rider | (b.c.173) no coins Athena seated Helios
| | (Asangorna no epiklesis E
| [stemma I] prescript) (vassal king at |
| Ai Khanum 144) |
| | |
| ________________________________|_________ |
|__________________ | _______________ | | |
160s c.147 | c.135 | | c.144 | | |
ignota = (1) Dmtrios IA (2) = (1) femina (3) = (2) Dmtrios II Menandros I = Theophil Theophilos I |
| (c.195-145) | (b.c.162) | (c.165-120s) (c.164-127) | (b.c.160) (c.162-120s) |
| Th.Zeus facing | | Athena facing Th.Athena | Ath.enthron. |
| | | (no epiklesis) Str | |
| | | | |
Lysias | | |_________________ |
(160s-c.120) | | | | c.127 |
Herak.fac. Philoxenos | Thrasn femina = Stratn
Aniktos (c.146-90s) | c.108 (c.143-120) b.c.141|(c.140s-80s)
| Het.rider Nikias = (2) Agathokleia Megas | Epiphans
? Aniktos (c.134-100)| (c.135-90s) (mostly posthumous | Str bas.80s
| Ath.facing| Menandros coinage) |
| Het.rider | | |
| Str | | _________|
c.105 | | | c.102 |
Maus I = femina | femina = Polyxenos
(c.120s-80s)| b.c.120 | b.c.120 | (c.122-80s)
| Stratn | Epiphans Str
| (c.106-70s) | bas.80s
| Athena facing |
| Str Dikaios _|________________
70s | | 70s | |
Machn = Artemidros | Vononic femina = Apollodotos II Stratn III
Theotropia | (c.100-57) | (Asianic rulers| (c.100-50s) (c.90s-20s)
b.c.90s | Het.rider, Artemis, Nike | of Tochari) | Megas Str |
| Aniktos | | Philopator |
| ruled Chukhsa (Hazara) | | (Wu-t'ou-lao) |
| | _________|_______ |
| | | | |
| Zilos II Hippostratos Dionysios |
Maus II (70s-30s) (c.70s-40s) (70s-30s) |
(c.70-30s) Str Megas Str Str |
Great Moga-Vikrama era | Stratn IV
& Yin-mo-fu king of Jibin | (60s-10s)
Apollophans Philopator
(50s-20s)
Str
Commentary & annotation

I. Introduction

Few ancient research topics require co-ordinated input from a more diverse array of specialties than
that renowned Bactrian dominion of a thousand cities, wallowing in wealth (Justin. XLI, 1.8)

These include ;

Indologists, especially (though not only) their more recent progress deciphering Prakrit script
documents in the Kharoh language of Gandhara ;

Sinologists familiar with the accounts of the Western Regions and their peoples in the court
histories of the Han and later dynasties (Shiji, Hanshu, Hou Hanshu and Weilue), and the later
summaries (of works both extant and lost) in the encyclopaedic Zizhi tongjian ;

Iranologists expert in the Partho-Aramaic texts from Old Nisa, and the Greek script Arian (so-called
Bactrian) language of nomadic Bactria, later extended throughout their dominion by the
Kushanas ;

Classicists and epigraphers familiar with relevant Greek and Latin texts ;

Historians of ancient trade and the Silk Road, Central Asia and India, the Arsakid kingdoms and
the Hellenistic oikoumene in general ;

Assyriologists working on the late cuneiform records from Babylonia (Hellenistic & Parthian
periods) ;

Chronology and calendric experts ;

Archaeologists, art and artefact specialists ;

Numismatists

The present author's main interest is Roman and Hellenistic history, 4th 1st centuries BC, so
it will be evident how much in this study is owed to the efforts of others.
 4

Percy Gardner's classic catalogue of the Hellenic-culture Bactrian and Indian coinage (BMC
Bactria & India 1886) includes the following notable claims (p. xxxv) :
Any attempt finally to arrange the kings in dynastic lists by means of the types and legends which
they use is destined to failure. The kings did not inherit these things, but adopted them according
to fancy or convenience. One or two instances will be sufficient to establish this. That Heliocles
was son and successor of Eucratides is perhaps the most certain fact in Bactrian history. Yet he
does not resemble Eucratides in his title ( for ), he does not wear the same helmet,
nor use the same types.

The real evidence for such a relationship and (direct) succession is pretty much zero. Gardner was
laying down important principles not on any factual basis, but from faith in old and ingrained
theory. Such traditions from the 19th century (and earlier) persist as foundation material in some of
the most advanced recent publications, defying basic tenents for the solution of historical problems.
If the coinages of Euthydemos I and Demetrios I were substituted in Gardner's paradigmatic
example, different results would emerge : neither king used an epiklesis in his royal titulature, their
portraits are sometimes in similar style, sometimes dramatically different most notably the rare
elephant-scalp headdress of Demetrios in his youngest looking portraits, which may reasonably
be understood to commemorate his attested role in the Euthydemid conquest of Indian lands. Their
reverse types are very different in design but share Herakles as a common deity. This example
indicates both dynastic continuity in coinage design and room for innovations. The justification for
this substitution is that Euthydemos and Demetrios are one of only three cases among the numerous
kings of the Hellenistic far east whose relationship is directly attested. Demetrios appears as son of
Euthydemos in Polybius (11, 34.8-9) and Strabo (Geogr. 11, 11.1, a passage citing Apollodoros of
Artemita, twice), and this impressive testimony has been affirmed by the recent publication of a
contemporary inscription, the Heliodotos dedication from Kuliab in Tadjikistan (Rougemont 2005,
p. 133, lines 4-5 : H BAE TOY TE I INIKON
EKPEH MHPION). Here, then, we have our most certain fact of dynastic genealogy and
succession and should hesitate to put Gardner's translatitious suppositions on a similar level.
Perhaps the most important genuine information about Heliokles I is that his name is nowhere
on record before it appears on his coinage. This petty but solid fait is only really accessible today
thanks to the search capabilities of modern epigraphic databases. Every other name of the Greek
named kings in Bactria and India returns matches in inscribed texts. Some were rare (notably the
Doric Antialkidas), some extremely common (as with Demetrios and Dionysios), but only Heliokles
is entirely absent from the epigraphic record documenting many thousands of Greek personal
names. A plausible inference from this extreme anomaly is that the name Heliokles was first
 5

invented in the far eastern context around the mid 2nd century BC. This in turn should mean that
the customary interpretation of the famously irregular Eukratides basileus megas / jugate
Heliokles-Laodike silver series (e.g. ANS-SNG 9, coins 526-529) as documenting the parentage of
Eukratides I is mistaken. That is another very old guess, logical enough in its day, that solidified
through repetition, and as such provided the main basis for Gardner's dubious most certain fact.
It remains entrenched in the recent detailed works by Franois Widemann (Les successeurs 2009,
pp. 160-61, 478) and Omar Coloru (Battriana 2009, ch. VI), no less than in Gardner's catalogue of
1886.

The present study introduces the theory of an Apollodotid dynasty, likely of Koan origins and
with a special interest in the heliac cults prominent on Kos and Rhodes, that emerged the dominant
political force in the Hellenistic far east following the rebellions in the Indic conquest lands of the
Euthydemids around 180 BC. This novelty is nowhere directly attested but arises from interlocking
evidences which have the appearance of reinforcing one another. Whether they really do so may be
left to the reader to decide. Nevertheless where such a theoretical political and religious context is
invoked or provisionally accepted, it permits a different interpretation of the name Heliokles : no
longer merely conventional patrilinear inheritance (an eldest son receiving the name of his paternal
grandfather), but an onomastic innovation bestowed upon any one of his sons by Agathokles (the
first ) to honour both himself and the cult preferences of his senior ally (perhaps
suzerain) Apollodotos Soter. Theoretically, then, Heliokles I may be divorced from his traditional,
and undocumented, Eukratidean paternity and assigned to the house of an earlier king with a similar
name, same royal epiklesis (), and silver coinage emphasis on the same deity (Zeus),
apparently inherited from the Diodotids.
Thus may shifts of perspective on one or two matters influence the interpretation of old
evidence, as well as how the newer is assessed and integrated. It is the fairly substantial body, and
importance, of the newer which justifies a thorough revision of the political and dynastic outline of
Hellenistic far eastern history. In the annotation and commentaries below, which describe the
evidence and reasoning underlying the two genealogic charts, every attempt has been made to
distinguish between fact and interpretation, allowing readers to make up their own minds about the
value of novel theories offered and older ones debunked, and hopefully to assist them develop new
and better ones of their own.
 6
II. Chronologic outline & eras

246-45 BC
Rebellion of northern Upper Asia from Seleukid rule, led by the satraps Andragoras in Parthia and
Diodotos in Bactria and Sogd, in co-ordination with the progress of the Laodikean War, when
Ptolemy III invaded the Seleukid dominion in Anatolia and Syria, advancing as far as Babylon
(winter 246-5) before being repulsed.

238 or 237 BC
Battle of Ankyra (Galatian north Phrygia), royal army of Seleukos II destroyed by Antiochos
Hierax and Galatian allies

237/235 BC
Andragoras overthrown in Parthia by the Parni, a nomadic people of the E. Iranian speaking Dahae,
led by Arsakes I

235/30 Arsakes I conquers Hyrkania (Justin. XLI, 4.8)

late 230s
Nomad armies from the basin of the Syr Darya, Asiani and Sacaraucae, overrun Bactria and Sogd,
apparently killing Diodotos (Trogus Prol. 41). His son and successor Diodotos II established a
formal peace and alliance with Arsakes I (Justin. XLI, 4.9).
For damage to the walls of Ai Khanum in the early stages of the city's development (second half of
3rd century BC, and so attributable to the nomad invasion in the reign of Diodotos I attested by
Pompeius Trogus), see Holt TZ 1999, 43 n. 48 : There was a major attack on the city's defenses ca.
225 B.C., and specialist archaeological works cited there.

c.228-7
Anabasis of Seleukos II to take back the rebel dominions in Upper Asia ; defeated by Arsakes I in
Parthia (probably with help from his ally Diodotos II controlling Margiana and Areia), a victory
apparently inscribed on the local Parthian calendar and observed as a form of independence day
(Justin. XLI, 4.9-10 : nec multo post cum Seleuco rege ad defectores persequendos veniente
congressus victor fuit ; quem diem Parthi exinde sollemnem velut initium libertatis observant).

c.225-214
Third Diodotid king Antiochos (probably uncle and perhaps father-in-law of Diodotos II), liberates
parts of western and southern Sogd from continuing nomadic occupation (later given cult epiklesis
Nikator, attested by Commemoration or Deification tetradrachm coinage of the 170s BC).
Presumably with help from Arsakes I.

216-213 War between Antiochos III and anti-king Achaios in Anatolia and Lydia

215 Approximate date of the death of Arsakes I, succeeded by Arsakes II

 7
214/13
Antiochos of Bactria (Achaid lineage) overthrown by Euthydemos of Magnesia, who deleted the
Diodotid line (Polyb. 11, 34.2 ; sc. the male line), taking advantage of the Seleukid assault on the
anti-king Achaios and the death of Arsakes I (cf. Polyb. 9, 11a, an isolated fragment convincingly
redated to 214/13 BC by Meadows 1998, pp. 128-134 ; it mentions current wars in all the main
divisions of the Greek oikoumene, excepting only Egypt :
, '
).

211-205
Anabasis of Antiochos III, concluding with suzerainty over Arsakid Parthia, alliance with
Euthydemid Bactria.
On the two-year siege of Baktra (208-206 BC) and the fame of this Euthydemid resistance see
Polyb. 10, 49 ; 11, 34 ; and 29, 12.8, with Holt TZ 1999, 125-131 (where Polyb. 11, 34 is mis-
numbered 11, 39 after the much-repeated mistake in Paton's Loeb text ; but this is corrected in the
appendix D translation of the text itself at pp. 181-2).
Contemporary with the close of the first emperor's reign in China, overthrow of his dynasty, and the
rise of the house of Liu (the Han dynasty).

c.204-200
Euthydemos builds Wall of the Gates of Iron of Derbent along the Hissar Ranges, closing the
main road between Sogd and Bactria (cf. Koktepe 2001).
Turmoil in late Mauryan NW India, expulsion of the Vijaya king from Taxila to Khotan (see
Christopoulos, Hellenes 2012, pp. 23-24 and especially n. 44)

190s
Euthydemid conquests in NW India : Kapisene, Gandhara and the Punjab, apparently mainly led by
the royal heir Demetrios, the prince Pantaleon and the general Apollodotos. Initial establishment of
the Dominion of a thousand cities organization. Greco-Bactrian admin. centres in India established
at Kapisa (sub Caucasian Alexandreia), Taxila Sirkap and Sagala (renamed Euthydemia after the
reigning monarch).
Rise of the Sunga dynasty in northern India.

190 Battle of Magnesia (November)

approximate year for the death of Euthydemos I (reigned c.214-190) and succession of Demetrios I

187 Antiochos III slain while plundering temples in Elam, succession of Seleukos IV
(Justin. XXXII, 2.1-2 : Interea in Syria rex Antiochus cum gravi tributo pacis a Romanis victus
oneratus esset, seu inopia pecuniae conpulsus seu avaritia sollicitatus, qui sperabat se sub specie
tributariae necessitatis excusatius sacrilegia commissurum, adhibito exercitu nocte templum
Elymaei Iovis adgreditur. Qua re prodita concursu incolarum cum omni militia interficitur).
As this is also the approximate year for the death of Arsakes III Friyapat (Seleukid vassal ruler
for fifteen years, c.202-187 BC, who minted no coinage), Friyapat perhaps accompanied Antiochos
on his plundering campaign into Elam and perished there with the Seleukid royal army. He was
succeeded by Arsakes IV (Artaban I, of Trogus Prol. 41) son of Arsakes II.
 8
186-180
Artaban I (reigned c.187-172) re-established Parthian independence and resumed Arsakid coinage
(Sellwood 1980, types 8-9).
Likely integration of Sindh and Patalene into the Euthydemid empire by Demetrios I (cf. his big
bronzes with rev. trident, ANS-SNG 9, coins 213-215), perhaps effected by the strategos Antimachos
(the later Antimachos I basileus theos, whose silver coinage emphasized Poseidon ; formerly
primarily the earth-shaker, but by this time symbolic of the sea cf. Cic. de Or. III, 167).

177
Approximate date for the death of Demetrios I, accession of his youthful eldest son Euthydemos II
(born c.200). It is uncertain, and indeed quite unknown, whether Demetrios I died from natural
causes or from war or assassination at the hands of the rebels in the Indian provinces.
Co-ordinated rebellion against Euthydemos II in the Indic occupied territories by Pantaleon at
Taxila and Kapisa, Apollodotos at Sagala/Euthydemia and his brother Antimachos in Sindh and the
Indus delta (Patalene). Pantaleon takes the royal title, Apollodotos takes the lead with royal titles
(basileus and maharaja) and the deification epiklesis Soter.

176
Pantaleon seizes Arachotia and Demetrias.
Euthydemos II responds to Apollodotos' divinity kingship by establishing cults of the previous
kings of Bactria (reflected by the unsigned tetradrachm series commemorating deceased kings with
cult epikleseis), but rejects self-deification.

175
Pantaleon invaded Bactria, defeated and killed by Euthydemid armies.
Agathokles succeeds Pantaleon in Gandhara, Kapisene, Arachotia.

Assassination of Seleukos IV (10.VI.137 SEB = 2/3 Sep 175 BC Austin 1981, no. 138,
cuneiform tablet listing Makedonian kings of Babylonia), by his chief minister Heliodoros, acting
in concert with the second queen Laodike, whose infant son Antiochos (IVA) was elevated to titular
kingship in the same (sixth) Babylonian month (Austin 1981, no. 138).
This Laodike appears to have been a dynastic incest child born c.193 BC to Antiochos Neos and his
sister-queen Laodike. Later married to Eukratides I (c.160).

174
Re-invasion of Bactria co-ordinated by Apollodotos, assisting Agathokles via Kapisa and
Antimachos via Chaarene and Arachotia. Antimachos elevated to kingship.

Antimachean kingship year 1 = Dios 175 Hyperberetaios 174 BC (later the basis of the era of
Yonas in India).
Corresponds to year 1 of Antiochos (IV) Epiphanes (Seleukid Era year 138), who was initially
proclaimed king by the Attalids of Pergamon (OGIS 248) and seems to have remained their close
ally throughout his reign.
 9

This shift of the era of Yonas, later by a dozen years, is one of numerous consequences for Bactrian
and Indian chronology from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century CE resulting from the
Falk/Bennett, Azes Era 2009 paper. This is probably the most important chronologic study of
ancient Central Asia and NW India yet to appear, both in assembling old and new key evidence, and
its specific innovations and conclusions. It renders obsolete all earlier studies of the eras used in
India.

173
Euthydemos II overthrown, division of Bactria between Antimachos and Agathokles.

The two new kings in Bactria perhaps attempted to assert independence from Apollodotos. They
certainly introduced a new royal deification style with cult epiklesis attached to the royal title,
rather than to the personal name as on Apollodotos' coinage. Antimachos apparently took the lead
in this innovation, as all his silver coins bear the legend of basileus theos. Agathokles' silver
begins with of basileus, later of basileus dikaios.

The two kings in Bactria appropriated and re-organized Euthydemos II's pantheon of deceased
kings. Antimachos confined himself to commemorating the two dynastic founders Diodotos I and
Euthydemos I ; Agathokles extended the rulers cult to include every previous but now deceased
Hellenistic king in Bactria, excepting only the Seleukids and Euthydemos II, but including
Pantaleon (probably his own father) and Alexander son of Philip.
Both removed the megas title accorded Euthydemos I in the unsigned series (probably struck by his
grandson Euthydemos II) and replaced it with theos. Perhaps their last act of co-operation, this
change may indicate continued deference to Apollodotos Soter as de facto suzerain, and denial of
the Achaemenid Great King title to the Euthydemid founder.
However both omitted the living divinity Apollodotos from their commemorative pantheons.

Around 170 BC there may have been a pact or even formal alliance between Antimachos and the
Parthian king Arsakes V Frahates, who briefly styled himself basileus theos around this time
(Sellwood 1980, type 10.15), quite anomalously in the tradition of Arsakid titles, and most likely in
direct imitation of Antimachos I.

Asangorna tax receipt parchment, dated Oloios year 4 of Antimachos basileus theos (summer 171
BC). Besides giving Antimachos' title in the same style as his silver coinage, the dating prescript of
this document attests his association of three junior co-kings by that time (probably his adult sons,
and from the beginning of his reign) : Eumenes, Antimachos (II), [Apollodo]tos (IA)

c.170-167
Bactrian war between Apollodotos Soter, Antimachos and Agathokles. Apollodotos' youngest
brother and evidently chief strategos, Eukratides (aged about forty), overthrows Antimachos and
Agathokles.
This Bactrian war was contemporary with Antiochos Epiphanes' assault on Egypt (170-168 BC),
initially successful, ultimately abortive owing to Roman diplomatic intervention immediately after
the battle of Pydna.

Apollodotos Soter apparently now seized Agathokles' Indic lands (Gandhara, Kapisene, Arachotia)
and those of his brother Antimachos (Sindh and Patalene).
 10

Apollodotos appointed Eukratides as permanent vassal king in Bactria. Most of Eukratides I's silver
coinage celebrates his partnership with his suzerain elder brother (Dioskouroi lancers reverse on
nearly all the big and medium coins, caps of the Dioskouroi on the obols). The earliest Eukratides
issues with the simple of basileus legend (and no cult epiklesis) reflect an initial vassal kingship
during Apollodotos' final years (c.167-160 BC).

SEM Antimachean year Eukratides I

year (era of Yonas) regnal year
Dios 168 Hyperberetaios 167 BC 145 8 1
Dios 145 Hyperberetaios 144 BC 168 31 24

The heirs of Antimachos I and Agathokles seem to have been sent as captives to Apollodotos,
who perhaps adopted his eldest nephew Eumenes as his own heir before the latter's (evidently
premature) death. But Antimachos' younger sons and co-kings, Antimachos II and Apollodotos IA,
were apparently exiled to Seleukid Susa and Babylon, in an initial diplomatic contact between
Antiochos Epiphanes and Apollodotos Soter.
Seleukid-Apollodotid diplomacy is nowhere directly attested before the Bactrian military aid sent
to Demetrios II Nikator to fight his Second Parthian War in 140-138 BC (Justin. XXXVI, 1.4) but
deduced at this earlier period from the likely, if controversial, birth-place of Menandros on the
Persian Gulf island of Alexandria, and the garbled Hasmonaean court tradition (confused by and
conflated with events surrounding the initial Hasmonaean diplomatic contact with Rome in 161
BC) that the Romans granted the land of India to Eumenes II of Pergamon in the settlement
following the battle of Magnesia.

166-164
Antiochos Epiphanes' war against rebel kings and princes of Upper Asia, led by unspecified
Arsaces (Tacitus Hist. V, 8), who must be Frahates I or Mithradates I, both of whom revived the
old Persian title Great King (Sellwood 1980, types 10-13 : basileus megas).

Likely refoundation date of Alexandreia at the head of the Persian Gulf as Antiocheia, the later
Charax Spasinou (cf. Pliny NH VI, 136-141 ; for Hyspaosines as a Bactrian Greek name, SIG 588,
line 109, cited at Cary/Warmington Explorers 1929/1963, p. 189, and p. 282 n. 146).
For the royal coinage struck in this new city, see O. Mrkholm, ANS-MN ..
Mrkholm suggested that the purpose of this refoundation was to facilitate sea-borne commerce
with India (p. ). Perhaps more specifically an active alliance with Apollodotos Soter. Note the
unusual obverse design of the tetradrachms with the king's head radiate, in the manner of the heliac
deity cultivated especially at Kos and Rhodes.

165
Intensification or renewal of koinopragia between Antiochos Epiphanes and Attalid Eumenes II,
suspected of being anti-Roman (Polyb. 30, 30).
This covert diplomacy may have begun to lay the foundations for a grand alliance of Hellenistic
monarchies in Asia, designed to protect themselves against the growing threats from Rome and
Parthia, but was derailed by the deaths of the three principals within the quinquennium 164 159
BC (Antiochos IV Epiphanes, Apollodotos I Soter and Eumenes II Soter).
Its immediate impulse appears to have been the death of Apollodotos' heir(s) apparent, and his
appeal to Epiphanes to send Antimachos II to India, in the context of their co-operation fighting the
 11

rebel princes of Upper Asia. Its most concrete result seems to have been that Epiphanes negotiated
a far-west and far-eastern union of Eumenes II's daughter (probably a Stratonike, born mid/late
180s BC) to Antimachos II before sending him on his way to the Indus mouth in about spring 164.
Such a reconstruction pulls together several evidential threads, including the names of Menandros
and his later heir Thrason, apparently in tribute to the broker of the marriage (Epiphanes completed
his education in Athens and greatly admired the comedy so well developed in the works of the
Athenian playwright Menandros)

164
C. Sulpicius (Galus) and Mn. Sergius legation to Anatolia and Syria to continue investigating covert
Attalid and Seleukid koinopragia (Polyb. 31, 1.8 :
,
).
Probable year of Menandros' birth, on the island of Alexandreia (also called Arakia) off the
SW Persian coast near the mouth of the Gulf (Claudius Ptolemy 6, 4, co-ordinates 90 29, grouped
with the nearby islands Tabiana and Sophtha ; also mentioned as officially part of Persia by
Ammianus Marcellinus XXIII, 6.42 : Tabiana et Fara et Alexandria). Presumably during the
voyage made by his parents from Antioch/Charax to Patalene.

November death of Antiochos Epiphanes at Tabae in Persis (for the circumstances and place
Polyb. 31, 9 ; for the month and year dates Austin 1981, no. 138).

Sulpicius Galus' extraordinary hearings for ten days in the gymnasium at Sardeis, providing a
public forum for accusations against and abuse of King Eumenes (Polyb. 31, 6).

163-162 titular kingship of the child Antiochos V Eupator, under the regency of Lysias III

162
Lysias and Antiochos Eupator overthrown and executed by Demetrios I Soter, in about the autumn.

161
embassies to Rome by representatives of the Hasmonaean rebels in Judaea and in person by
Timarchos the Seleukid satrap in Media Magna (and probably Epiphanes' hyperstrategos over
Upper Asia provinces). Eager to weaken Demetrios Soter by remote control, the Senate recognized
Timarchos as king in Media and made formal alliance with the Hasmonaean party as though
representing a Judaean state.
This, and the likely Attalid-Apollodotid marriage c.165 BC, is the diplomatic context which
produced the confused notice in Hasmonaean court histories (composed under John Hyrkanos) that
in the settlement after the battle of Magnesia (i.e. in the Treaty of Apameia) the Romans had
rewarded Eumenes with Media and India ( ).

160
Antimachean year 15 = Eukratides year 9 (SEM 152 : Dios 161 Hyperberetaios 160 BC)
approximate date for the death of Apollodotos Soter, succeeded by Antimachos II, who continued
the regnal year count of his father Antimachos I and his father's innovation in royal titulature,
calling himself basileus nikphoros.
 12

Eukratides rejects suzerainty of his nephew Antimachos II and asserts his complete independence in
Bactria, claiming the old Achaemenid title basileus megas, and striking gold coinage in
commemoration (the first Bactrian gold issue since Euthydemos I).

Antimachos II reign (c.160 145 BC)

Persistent frontier warfare between Eukratides and Antimachos.
Contemporary with the Median kingship of Timarchos in rebellion against Demetrios Soter (161
c.157) and the long Seleukid-Arsakid struggle for control of Media Magna (c.157 148).

148
approximate year Antimachos II created marcher vassal kingdom of Kophn (Pinyin Gaofu) in
favour of his son-in-law Demetrios IA (younger brother of Euthydemos II, and the only king
Demetrios to issue coinage with biscript Greek and Prakrit legends). Based on Kapisa, Kabul, and
Ghazni, with territories on both sides of the length of the River Kophen, but especially to the south
in north-eastern Arachotia. This novel sub kingship was evidently intended to provide a well armed
buffer state between Eukratidean Bactria and Antimachean India, covering the main Hindu Kush
passes near Kapisa and Bamiyan. Geographically it corresponded closely to Alexander's initial
Indian satrapy between the Indus and Alexandreia at the Caucasus (Kapisa).
The date for this creation is estimated from the basis of a younger sister of Menandros (born c.162)
reaching nubile age c. 148/7 BC.

Mithradates I of Parthia completed the conquest of Media Magna after a struggle of nearly a decade
with the Seleukids and Alexander Balas' stratgos Kleomenes (the latter's reclining Herakles
monument at Behistun is dated Panemos SEM 164 = summer 148 BC in the Greek inscription
while the Aramaic text remained unfinished, indicative that the work was hastily abandoned, and
never resumed, during the completion stage CAH VII, Plates volume, 1984, p. 24).

146
Antimachean year 29 = Eukratides year 22 (Dios 147 Hyperberetaios 146)
Eukratides invaded the Kophene in about summer 146, but was defeated and besieged by
Demetrios IA rex Indorum, leading a mainly Antimachean army, in an unnamed city for five
months (Justin. XLI, 6.4), c.Sept 146 Feb 145 BC.

Alexander Balas defeated by Ptolemy Philometor in northern Syria. Ptolemy died of a head wound
received in the battle, Balas escaped but was arrested and beheaded by an Arab sheik.

145
Antimachean year 30 = Eukratides year 23 (Dios 146 Hyperberetaios 145)
year of the Amphipolis parchment dated year 30 of King Antimachos

Apparently Antimachos II died in winter 146-5 BC, inducing Demetrios IA to assert his
independence and begin striking his own (very short-lived) biscript royal coinage in bronze and
silver. The silver designs were the same on tetradrachms and drachms, merging elements of both
the Bactrian and Indic royal coinages to date : this was the first biscript Indic-standard coinage to
bear a royal portrait (King Demetrios head right, wearing diadem and kausia, on obverse).
 13

Accession of Menandros in the main Indic kingdom, aged about eighteen, where his much more
experienced uncle Apollodotos IA seems to have taken de facto control of affairs in the nephew's
interests. He probably recalled the Antimachean elements (the great bulk) of Demetrios' army,
leaving the latter significantly weakened and unable to bring the siege of Eukratides to a successful
conclusion.
Initial Menandros silver coinage (Athena head / owl type ANS-SNG 9, coins 683-685), without
royal image in the tradition of his father Antimachos II and great-uncle Apollodotos Soter.

In spring 145 Eukratides broke the siege lines, defeated and destroyed Demetrios IA

Mithradates I sought to exploit Eukratides' war in Indian frontier lands by attacking the son and co-
king, Eukratides II, in Areia and Bactria.

Pact between Eukratides and Menandros establishes Eukratides as suzerain of the dominion of the
thousand cities, with his nephew Menandros as his heir.
Beginning of Menandros spear-thruster portrait coinage (ANS-SNG 9, coins 686-763) in imitation of
innovating Eukratides I tetradrachm type (cf. ANS-SNG 9, coins 484-485)

144
Antimachean year 31 = Eukratides year 24 (Dios 145 Hyp 144)
year 24 inventory text from the Ai-Khanum treasury (iEOG 329 ; assumed to be year 24 of
Eukratides I)

Upon learning the terms of his father's negotiated overlordship in India, Eukratides II perhaps
negotiated alliance with Mithradates of Parthia, ceding Areia, Margiana and the two westernmost
Bactria provinces Aspionus and Turiva.
Return of Eukratides I to Bactria, assassinated en route by the son Eukratides II (about early months
of 144).

Menandros claim to suzerainty over the Thousand Cities Dominion refuted by Eukratides II, who
either asserted his own rights or acknowledged Mithradates of Parthia as suzerain.

Apollodotos IA weds his daughter Theophil to Menandros, then leads an expedition into Bactria
to attack Eukratides II, establishes himself at Ai-Khanum (Eukratideia) ; supports Platon kingship
in the Hindu Kush (at Bamiyan?) in rebellion against Eukratides II.

Apollodotos IA defeated and destroyed by Eukratides II, Ai Khanum sacked and depopulated.

143
Antimachean era now becoming solidified as Hellenistic (Yonas) era in NW India
year 32 (Dios 144 Hyp 143)
Mithradates I invasion of Arachotia and Kophene, probably via Drangiana, and advance to the
Indus (cf. Diod. ; Justin. ...., Orosius .), forcing Menandros to negotiate a peace apparently
recognizing Mithradates as suzerain (cf. Diod. ...)

Approximate date of Mithradates' eastern mint silver coinage (Sellwood 1980, type 11) : this king's
only silver type minted in a broad range of denominations tetradrachms, drachms, diobols and
obols, with legend of the Great King (of basileus megas).
 14

141
Mithradates I conquers Seleukid Babylonia

year 51 Dios 125 Hyp 124

119 BC
seismic shift year in Asian power politics ;

heavy defeat of the Xiongnu by Han armies, giving China the upper hand in the century-long
struggle ;
heavy defeat of the Tocharian royal army by Mithradates II of Parthia (probably in alliance with
the Sacaraucae and Asiani Sakas), reversing the previous Tocharian ascendancy in Iran, now
returning to the Arsakids.

year 101 Dios 75 Hyp 74

71
Wusun king Weng Guimi inflicted a notable defeat on the Xiongnu, enslaving 40,000 prisoners and
capturing 700,000 horses, goats, donkeys and camels, as well as members of the royal family (Zizhi
tongjian-Yap, pp. 309-10)

year 118 Dios 58 Hyp 57 (= year 1 of Yavana kingdom/Great Moga Era; later Kr.ta, Vikrama)

probably marks the accession of Apollodotos II, or perhaps an alliance he struck with the Saka
followers of the Moga dynasty, but in any case the era initially used by some of the Kshaharatas

year 129 Dios 47 Hyp 46 (= year 1 Azes Era)

40s
The western Shanyu of the Xiongnu, Zhizhi, had based himself in Kangju (Sogd and the basin of
the Syr Darya), wed the paramount king's daughter and became the de facto ruler of the Asianic
Sakas.

36 BC
Shanyu Zhizhi murdered his Kangju (Asianic) royal wife, and sent envoys to the neighbouring
kingdoms of Yancai and Dayuan ( ; Ferghana) demanding the payment of tributes. Both
submissively complied.
(Zizhi tongjian-Yap, pp. 374-75)
year 171 Dios 5 Hyp 4 B.C. (= Azes year 43)

year 175 Dios 1 B.C. Hyp A.D. 1 (= Azes year 47)

year 176 Dios A.D. 1 Hyp A.D. 2 (= Azes year 48)
year 177 Dios 2 Hyp 3 (= Azes year 49)
year 178 Dios 3 Hyp 4 (= Azes year 50)

year 181 Dios 6 Hyp 7 (= Azes year 53 = AD 7)

year 201 Dios 26 Hyp 27 (= Azes year 73 = AD 27)

stpa foundation text of the Apraca Queen Rukhana day 8, month (Skt. rvaa)
year 27 in the reign of the Apracaraja Lord Vijayamitra
year 73 called Aya's
year 201 of Yonas
(Salomon 2005, p. 363)

First contemporary document from reign of the nameless Maharaja Kushana (Kalawan copper
plate JRSP 16.4 (1979), pp. 9-10)
year 262 Dios 87 Hyp 88 (= Azes Era 134 = AD 88)
Copper plate inscription of the Kalawan stupa monastery (anc. Prakrit Chadasila) at Taxila, dated
by the reign of (unnamed) Maharaja Gushana in year 134 of Aja, day 23 month Sravana (Skt.
rvaa).

Second contemporary document from reign of the nameless Maharaja Kushana (Taxila silver scroll
JRSP 16.4 (1979), pp. 8-9)
year 264 Dios 89 Hyp 90 (= Azes year 136 = AD 90)
Taxila Silver Scroll text of the Bactrian Orasaka son of Indafir(?) (instrumental : Urasakena
Imtavhriaputrana); buddha relics enshrined at the Dharmarajika stupa in Taxila for the health of the
Maharaja Rajatiraja Devaputra Khushana in year 136 of Aya, day 15 month Ashada (Skt. Asarrh).
This provides a terminus post quem for the death of the nameless Kushan King (probably
Sadashkana) and the resumed, adult, kingship of Vema Taktu.

year 301 Dios 126 Hyp 127

III. Discussion of evidence & individual reigns

(sample on Apollodotos IA)

Apollodotos IA, Athena coinage king without epiklesis, at Ai Khanum c.144 BC

This king is attested by Bactrian-Attic standard tetradrachms with monoscript Greek legends ;
Obv. (extremely realistic) royal bust r., wearing diadem and kausia
Rev. Athena seated l. (design style of Lysimachos and Pergamene silver coinage)

Although this king has regularly been identified with Apollodotos I Soter from the first publication
of these (extremely rare) coins, that identification is essentially assumptive on the basis of their
common name and general epoch in the 2nd century BC. Comparison of their coinages establishes
that a lot more significant evidence separates them than unites, rendering the identification not
merely dubious but well nigh impossible. They are accordingly distinguished in the present
reconstruction, where Apollodotos of the Bactrian standard Athena tetradrachms is identified as
third or later son of Antimachos I, a nephew of Apollodotos I Soter, and paternal uncle of
Menandros. He is designated Apollodotos IA to avoid confusion with the Apollodotoi I and II
and to maintain the traditional numeration of the latter two (separated by over a century) in
modern scholarship.

The salient features of the Apollodotos IA tetradrachms are as follows ;

1) extreme rarity ; unknown before the 1970s French excavations at Ai Khanum (they are absent
from the 1950s works of Tarn and Narain, and from the large Qunduz hoard published in 1965), and
still only known from a handful of published specimens, all of which may safely be assumed to
come from the Ai Khanum site and immediate environs ;

2) standard weight, style and fabric of 2nd century BC Greek monoscript tetradrachms minted in
Bactria ; unknown in any other denomination or other metal, and with nothing corresponding in the
contemporary corpus of Indic standard biscript coinage.
These two points taken together strongly indicate a very brief kingship based on Ai Khanum, and
rather likely he was the final king there, involved in the city's ruin ;

3) absence of any epiklesis ; in stark contrast to Apollodotos I, who is Soter on all of his extensive
biscript Indic coinage, in all denominations and metals ;

4) only one attested monogram (Bopearachchi no. .), which may be resolved as .. This
monogram is very common in the mid 2nd century BC and does not appear in any earlier or later
periods. It is not found on any Apollodotos Soter coins, first appears on Bactrian tetradrachms of
Antimachos I and subsquently on tetradrachms of Eukratides I and Indic biscript drachms of
Antimachos II and Menandros. Thus the mark of one minting official (or perhaps coining business)
in the 170s 130s period.

5) obverse reel-and-bead border.

This feature was introduced on Bactrian standard Greek-monoscript tetradrachms of Eukratides I
(reigned c.168-144 BC). In the early part of Eukratides' reign (defined by absence of epiklesis) this
new border is narrow and fine, sometimes barely distnguishable from the traditional border of dots.
But in the later reign (defined by basileus megas title) it is cut wider and with much clearer
definition, as also with the reel-and-bead obverse borders of the Sellwood 1980 type 11
tetradrachms of the Arsakid king Mithradates I, which may well have been minted in western
Bactria (as suggested by Tom Mallon-McCorgray).
The Apollodotos Athena tetradrachms exhibit the later, wider and clearer version of this border and
are thus most suitably attributed to the later half of the reign of Eukratides I, or a little later ;

6) large and tilted omikrones in the legends. A super-rare feature otherwise only found on later
reign tetradrachms of Eukratides I (e.g. ANS SNG 9, coin 465, where the obverse border is
particularly broad and well defined), as pointed out by Tom Mallon-McCorgray.

All six points converge to indicate a brief reign at Ai Khanum very soon after the assassination of
Eukratides I. In the present reconstruction Apollodotos IA is identified as the uncle and father-in-
law of Menandros, and almost his regent in the initial years of his reign. It is estimated from the
(extreme realism and high artistic quality) portraiture of his rare coins that he was about fifty at the
time of his main political activity in the mid 140s BC when he perhaps contributed to Eukratides'
overthrow of Demetrios IA and then negotiated the suzerainty of Eukratides (his uncle) over all
three kingdoms, in return for the succession of Menandros (his nephew and son-in-law). It would
appear that following the assassination of Eukratides by his son and co-king in the north, Eukratides
II (who rejected the negotiated succession to the suzerain kingship), Apollodotos IA led an Indo-
Greek army into Bactria (c.144 BC) to bring down Eukratides II in Menandros' name, taking the
royal title without epiklesis at Ai Khanum, signifying the formal vassal status of his Bactrian
kingship to the suzerain in India.
It appears that Apollodotos IA was defeated and destroyed by Eukratides II in the vicinity of Ai
Khanum after a reign of a few months and issue of a very limited big silver coinage which remained
confined to the environs of that city (probably the Eukratideia of Strabo 11, 11.2).
Modern works consulted

Nb. the J-ONS (Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society) is a continuation of the ONS-N series
(Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter, with supplements)

I. Conference publications, festschriften and other collaborative works

India & AW 1987

Gilbert Pollet (ed.), India and the Ancient World. History, Trade and Culture before A.D. 650
(Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 25, Prof. P. H. L. Eggermont Jubilee Volume, Presented on the
occasion of his seventieth birthday, Leuven, 1987)

Asangorna 1994
J. R. Rea, R. C. Senior & A. S. Hollis A Tax Receipt from Hellenistic Bactria, ZPE 104 (1994),
261-280

Ath.Ad.Ar. 1995
Marie-Franoise Boussac & Jean-Franois Salles (eds.), Athens, Aden, Arikamedu. Essays on the
interrelations between India, Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean (1995 ; reprint Manohar
Centre de sciences humaines, New Delhi, 2005)

originally published in the journal Topoi, 3.2 (1993, Lyon), pp. 387-623

Gryphons 1995
A. Invernizzi (ed.), In the Land of the Gryphons: Papers on Central Asian archaeology in antiquity
(Le Lettere, Firenze, 1995)
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?
an=A+Invernizzi&sts=t&tn=Land+of+the+Gryphons

Papers Hirayama 1997

K. Tanabe, J. Cribb & H. Wang (eds.), Studies in Silk Road Coins and Culture. Papers in honour of
Professor Ikuo Hirayama on his 65th birthday (The Institute of Silk Road Studies, Kamakura,
1997)

Senior/MacDonald, Decline 1998

Robert C. Senior & David MacDonald, The decline of the Indo-Greeks. A re-appraisal of the
chronology from the time of Menander to that of Azes (Monographs of the Hellenic Numismatic
Society 2, Athens, 1998), English and Greek text, with 3 plates.
For an updated version of the same basic work, see below (under Numismatic Works) Senior, King
Sequences 2004.

Koktepe 2001
Claude Rapin, Mukhammadjon Isamiddinov & Mutallib Khasanov, La Tombe d'une princesse
nomade Koktepe prs de Samarkand, CRAI 2001, 33-92
(CRAI. Comptes rendus des sances de l'Acadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres)
Lattes 2005
Osmund Bopearachchi & Marie-Franoise Boussac (eds.), Afghanistan. Ancien Carrefour Entre
l'Est et l'Ouest (Actes du Colloque International organis par Christian Landes & Osmund
Bopearachchi au Muse archologique Henri-Prades-Lattes du 5 au 7 mai 2003 ; Brepols,
Tournehout, 2005)

After Alexander 2007

Joe Cribb & Georgina Herrmann (eds.), After Alexander, Central Asia before Islam (Oxford UP,
2007) P514

Falk/Bennett, Azes 2009

Harry Falk & C. J. Bennett, Macedonian Intercalary Months and the Era of Azes, AO 70 (2009),
197-215
(AO. Acta Orientalia)

Iossip/Lorber, Helios 2009

P. Iossip & C. Lorber, The cult of Helios in the Seleucid east, Topoi 16 (2009), 19-42
https://www.academia.edu/2181386/P._Iossif_and_C._Lorber_The_cult_of_Helios_in_the_Seleuci
d_east_Topoi_16_2009_pp._19-42
(but no copy available online write to Cathy asking for a PDF)

Festschrift Sims-Williams 2009

Werner Sundermann, Almut Hintze & Franois de Blois (eds.), Exegisti monumenta. Festschrift in
Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2009)

Festschrift Bernard 2010

Kazim Abdullaev (ed.), The Traditions of East and West in the Antique Cultures of Central Asia.
Papers in Honor of Paul Bernard (Tashkent, 2010)

Festschrift Cribb 2011

Shailendra Bhandare & Sanjay Garg (eds.), Felicitas : Essays in Numismatics, Epigraphy and
History in Honour of Joe Cribb (Reesha, Mumbai, 2011)

Festschrift Livschits 2013

Sergei Tokhtasev & Pavel Lurje (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro f. Aaron Livschits
nonagenario donum natalicium (Nestor-Historia, St. Petersburg, 2013)

II. Chinese historical evidence & literature

Gardner, CTH
C. S. Gardner, Chinese Traditional Historiography (1938 ; revised edition, Harvard Historical
Monographs 11, 1961)
Grenet 2006
Frantz Grenet, Nouvelles Donnes sur la Localisation des Cinq Yabghus des Yuezhi : LArrire
Plan Politique de LItinraire des Marchands de Mas Titianos, JA 294 (2006), 325-341
- includes (at p. 239) inscribed 1st cent. BC Chinese diplomatic slips from Dunhuang mentioning
Yuezhi kings and xihous and dated by the names of Han emperors.

Hanshu-Hulsew
A. F. P. Hulsew, China in Central Asia : the Early Stage, 125 B.C. - A.D. 23. An annotated
translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty (with introduction by
M. A. N. Loewe, Leiden, 1979)

Hill, Jade Gate 2009

John E. Hill, Through the Jade Gate to Rome : A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han
Dynasty 1st to 2nd Centuries CE (Annotated Translation of the Chronicle on the `Western Regions'
in the Hou Hanshu, Booksurge Publications, 2009)

Hou Hanshu-Thierry
Francois Thierry, Yuezhi et Kouchans. Piges et dangers des sources chinoises, pp. 421-529 in
Lattes 2005

Shiji-Watson Qin
Records of the Grand Historian : Qin Dynasty
by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson (Columbia UP, 1993)

Shiji-Watson Han I
Records of the Grand Historian : Han Dynasty I
by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson (revised edition, Columbia UP, 1993)

Shiji-Watson Han II
Records of the Grand Historian : Han Dynasty II
by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson (revised edition, Columbia UP, 1993)

Zizhi tongjian-Yap
Joseph P. Yap, Wars with the Xiongnu. A translation from Zizhi tongjian (Authorhouse, 2009)
Selections from the years 403 BC 23 CE
403 249 BC in 19 pages ; the great bulk (pp. 23-601) covers the period 247 BC 23 CE

IIA. From the Sino-Platonic Papers series,

http://www.sino-platonic.org/
general editor Victor H. Mair (University of Pennsylvania)

Brooks, Motifs 1999

E. Bruce Brooks, Alexandrian Motifs in Chinese Texts (SPP 96, June 1999 ; a 14-page article,
digital re-issue Jan 2011)
Christopoulos, Hellenes 2012
Lucas Christopoulos, Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC - 1398 AD) (SPP 230, Dec
2012)

Ford, BD 2011
Randolph Ford, Barbaricum Depictum: Images of the Germani and Xiongnu in the Works of Tacitus
and Sima Qian (SPP 207, Jan 2011)

Jger, Mummies 1998

Ulf Jger, The New Old Mummies from Eastern Central Asia: Ancestors of the Tocharian Knights
Depicted on the Buddhist Wallpaintings of Kucha and Turfan? Some Circumstantial Evidence
(SPP 84, Oct 1998 ; digital re-issue Jan 2011)

Taishan Yu's corpus on nomadic peoples in the SPP

(his name is organized with family name first : Yu Taishan, )

Yu, Saka History 1992/1998

A Study of Saka History (SPP 80, July 1998 ; original Chinese text 1992)

Yu, Sai Tribes 2000

A Hypothesis about the Sources of the Sai Tribes (SPP 106, 2000 ; original Chinese text same year)

Yu SPP 2004
Yu SPP 2006
A History of the Relationships between the Western & Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern & Southern
Dynasties and the Western Regions (original Chinese text 1995 ; published in two parts in the SPP,
no. 131, 2004 ; no. 173, 2006)

Yu, Tocharians 2010

The Earliest Tocharians in China (SPP 204, June 2010 ; no preceding Chinese version)

Yu, Kushans 2011

The Origin of the Kushans (SPP 212, July 2011 ; article of 22 pages)
http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp212_kushan_guishuang.pdf

III. Historical, linguistic & epigraphic works

iEOG
Filippo Canali De Rossi (ed.), Inscrizioni dello Estremo Oriente Greco (Inschriften griechischer
Stdte aus Kleinasien 65, Bonn, 2004)
nos. 322-357 : the economic texts from the Ai Khanum treasury complex (no. 329 is the year 24
treasury accounting text generally attributed to the reign of Eukratides I, dated 171-147 BC by De
Rossi)
no. 409 : texts of the garuda pillar at Besnagar (dated year 14 of the 9th Sunga king Bhagabhadra)
no. 459 :
G. R. F. Assar
Assar, Moses 2006
Moses of Chorene and the Early Parthian Chronology, pp. 61-86 in
Electrum 11 : Greek and Hellenistic Studies (ed. Edward Dbrowa, Jagiellonian UP, 2006)

Assar, Parth.Chron. 2006

A Revised Parthian Chronology of the Period 165 91 BC, pp. 87-158 in
Electrum 11 : Greek and Hellenistic Studies (ed. Edward Dbrowa, Jagiellonian UP, 2006)

Austin 1981
M. M. Austin, The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman conquest : A selection of the
ancient sources in translation (Cambridge UP, 1981)

Austin 2006
M. M. Austin, The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman conquest : A selection of the
ancient sources in translation (Cambridge UP, second edition, 2006)

Beckwith, Empires 2009

Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road. A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze
Age to the Present (Princeton UP, 2009)
Especially good (detailed!) on the question of the Yuezhi = Tochari (affirmative and convincing)

Benjamin, Yuezhi 2007

Craig G. R. Benjamin, The Yuezhi. Origin, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria (Silk
Road Studies XIV, Brepols, 2007)

Bennett, A&M 2011

C. J. Bennett, Alexandria and the Moon. An Investigation into the Lunar Macedonian Calendar of
Ptolemaic Egypt (Studia Hellenistica 52, Peeters, 2011)

Burstein 1985
S. M. Burstein, The Hellenistic Age from the battle of Ipsos to the death of Kleopatra VII (R. K.
Sherk, ed., Translated Documents of Greece & Rome, vol. 3, Cambridge UP, 1985)

Coloru, Battriana 2009

Omar Coloru, Da Alessandro a Menandro : il regno greco di Battriana (Studi ellenistici 21, ed.
Fabrizio Serra, 2009)
(Italian student of the French school of archaeologists)

Dani 1987
A. H. Dani, Kharoshh Inscriptions from the Sacred Rock of Hunza, pp. 33-46 (with Pls. V-VII)
in India & AW 1987
Harry Falk

Kharoh

Falk 2005
The Introduction of stpa-worship in Bajaur, pp. 347-358 in Lattes 2005
(important critique of the Shinkot casket inscription, exposing the parts on Menandros as modern
forgeries)

Falk 2006
Three Inscribed Buddhist Monastic Utensils from Gandhra, ZDMG 156 (2006), 393-412
(ZDMG. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft)
The Vasa-Abdagases inscription plate, dated year 9 of the Maharaja Great Azes ; earliest evidence
of Parthian princes from Seistan at the court of King Ajha ?

Falk 2009
The Name of Vema Takhtu, pp. 105-116 in Festschrift Sims-Williams 2009

Falk, Mathura Lion 2011

Ten thoughts on the Mathura Lion Capital Reliquary, ch. 7 (pp. 121-141) in Festschrift Cribb
2011

Falk, Indian eras 2012

Ancient Indian Eras : An Overview, BAI n.s. 21, 2007 (published 2012), 131-146
(BAI. Bulletin of the Asia Institute, published with assistance of the Neil Kreitman foundation, UK)

Fussman, Mnandre 1993

Grard Fussman, L'Indo-grec Mnandre ou Paul Demiville revisit , JA 281 (1993), 61-137
(Journal Asiatique)
Classic study of the Menandros kingship and evidence for it ; now a little out-dated by new
discoveries but still important, especially on the Chinese and Sri Lankan textual traditions for
Milindapanha

Golden 2011
Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History (Oxford UP, 2011)

Erich S. Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, 2 vols.

Frank L. Holt

Holt, Bactria 1989

Alexander the Great and Bactria : The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia (Mnemosyne
Supplement 104, Brill, 1989)

Holt, TZ 1999
Thudering Zeus : The Making of Hellenistic Bactria (Hellenistic Culture and Society 32, U.
California Press, 1999)
Holt 2012
When did the Greeks abandon A Khanoum?, Anabasis 3 (2012), 161-172
(response to Lerner 2010 and Lerner 2011)

Jettmar 1987
Karl Jettmar, The `Suspended Crossing' Where and why?, pp. 95-102 in India & AW 1987

Kraay 1981
Colin M. Kraay, Demetrius in Bactria and India, Numismatica e Antichita Classiche. Quaderni
Ticinesi, 10 (1981), 219-233
(cited by David MacDowall, Lattes p. 197 n. 5, for dating the Demetrios biscript coinage after
Menander's reform of the Indo-Greek currency. So the idea is earlier than Senior and
Bopearachchi)

Jeffrey D. Lerner

Lerner, Decline 1999

The Impact of Seleucid Decline on the Eastern Iranian Plateau. The Foundations of Arsacid
Parthia and Graeco-Bactria (Historia Einzelschriften 123, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1999)

Lerner 2010
Revising the Chronologies of the Hellenistic Colonies of Samarkand-Marakanda (Afrasiab II-III)
and A Khanoum (Northeastern Afghanistan), Anabasis 1 (2010), 58-79

Lerner 2011
A Reappraisal of the Economic Inscriptions and Coin Finds from A Khanoum, Anabasis 2
(2011), 103-147

Meadows 1998
A. R. Meadows, The Mars / eagle and thunderbolt gold and Ptolemaic involvement in the Second
Punic War, pp. 125-134 (+ Pl. 12), in A. Burnett, U. Wartenberg & R. Witschonke (eds.), Coins of
Macedonia and Rome: Essays in Honour of Charles Hersh (Spink, London, 1998)

Awadh K. Narain

Narain, IG 1957
The Indo-Greeks (Oxford UP, 1957)

Narain, IG 2003
The Indo-Greeks, Revisited and Supplemented (Delhi, 2003)

Narain, Ai-Khanum 1987

On the Foundation and Chronology of Ai-Khanum : A Bactrian Greek City, pp. 115-130 in India
& AW 1987
Claude Rapin

Rapin 2010
L're Yavana d'aprs les parchemins grco-bactriens d'Asangorna et d'Amphipolis, pp. 234-252
in Festschrift Bernard 2010
(follows the Clarysse/Thompson interpretation of the Antimachos year 30 Amphipolis text ;
apparently Rapin's own interpretation originally since they cite him, and he alone, as their
consultant on Bactrian chronology)

Rougemont 2005
Georges Rougemont, Nouvelles inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Centrale, pp. 127-136 in Lattes
2005

Rtveladze 1995
E. V. Rtveladze, Parthia and Bactria, pp. 181-190 in Gryphons 1995

Richard Salomon

Nicholas J. Sims-Williams

NSW 2002
Ancient Afghanistan and its invaders : Linguistic evidence from the Bactrian documents and
inscriptions, PBA 116 (2002), 225-242
(PBA. Proceedings of the British Academy)

NSW, Rabatak new 2008

The Bactrian inscription of Rabatak : a new reading, BAI n.s.18, 2004 (published 2008), 53-68

NSW 2012
Bactrian Historical Inscriptions of the Kushan Period, The Silk Road 10 (2012), 76-80

William W. Tarn

Tarn, GBI 1951

The Greeks in Bactria & India (ed. 2, Cambridge UP, 1951)

Tarn/Holt, GBI 1984

The Greeks in Bactria & India (ed. 3, with a new preface and updated bibliography by Frank Lee
Holt ; Ares Publishers, Chicago, 1984)
tienne de la Vaissire

Vaissire, Kultobe 2013

Iranian in Wusun? A tentative reinterpretaion of the Kultobe inscriptions, pp. 320-325 in
Festschrift Livschits 2013

he ignores the Wu- character used in Wu-yi-shan-li for Alexandria in Arachotia and what this means
for Greek version of Wusun / *Ashiyan
attempts w'n = Wusun via w'n (!)
more likely it really just means (Saka) Tent folk from more settled perspective ; just like (Arab)
Tent folk were called Skenitai in Greek

As for Issedones (Aristeas' poetic form from one visit) = *Ashiyan (i.e. -don = -yan)
note de la V's own comment (p. 323 with n. 5) that tent is wd'n in Manichaean Parthian, w'n in
Kultobe text, wy'n in later Sogdian texts. This shows that ancient Iranian speakers (let alone
Greeks) could interchange 'n and y'n, or changed the one to the other according to time or dialect.

Franois Widemann

Widemann, Scarcity 2000

Scarcity of Precious Metals and Relative Chronology of Indo-Greek and Related Coinages (1st
Century B.C. - 1st Century A.D.), E&W 50 (2000), 227-258
(E&W. East and West)
- on the sources of silver and gold bullion, the Altai gold supply, the relationship between the
Hissar Ranges Wall/Gates of Iron of Derbent pass and the hiatus between Diodotid and
Euthydemos I gold and the final Greco-Bactrian AV issues of Eukratides (synchronous with his royal
title elaboration to include Megas).

Widemann, Les successeurs 2009

Les successeurs d'Alexandre en Asie centrale et leur hritage culturel. Essai (revised edition,
Riveneuve, 2009) P527

- fabulous compendium of evidence and erudition, flawed only by his adherence to most of the
mistakes of the French school (chiefly the mangling of Trogus' Prologi, and theory of the two wave
nomadic conquest of Bactria, Sakas in 140s destroying Ai Khanum, Yuezhi in 130s identified as
anyone but who they actually were - the Tochari), and being too early to take account of the
Falk/Bennett 2009 innovations to the chronology and interpretation of Indic eras.

IV. Numismatic works

IV, 1 Catalogues

BMC Bactria & India 1886

Percy Gardner, The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British
Museum (ed. R. S. Poole, London, 1886 ; reprint by Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1971)
IGCH 1973
M. Thompson, O. Mrkholm, C. M. Kraay (eds.) An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards (The
American Numismatic Society, New York, 1973)

Mitchiner 1975
Michael Mitchiner, Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian Coinage (9 vols., London, 1975-76)

ANS-SNG 9
O. Bopearachchi, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum. The Collection of the American Numismatic
Society, Part 9 : Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Coins (The American Numismatic Society, New
York, 1998)

ISCH 2001
R. C. Senior, Indo-Scythian Coins and History (3 vols., CNG, Lancaster PA, 2001)

ISCH-IV 2006
R. C. Senior, Indo-Scythian Coins and History (vol. IV, 2001)

IV, 2 Specialist studies & papers

Agrawala 1996
Ratna Chandra Agrawala, A Note on an Interesting Greek Coin in the Sardar Museum, Jodhpur,
9-10 in Devendra Handa (ed.) Oriental Numismatic Studies, vol. 1 (New Delhi, 1996)

Bopearachchi, Natn 1997

O. Bopearachchi, Natn, a hitherto unknown Iranian ruler in India, pp. 67-74
in Papers Hirayama 1997

Cribb, Greek Bactria 2005

Joe Cribb, The Greek kingdom of Bactria, its coinage and its collapse, pp. 207-226 in Lattes 2005

Dobbins, Hermaios 1970

K. Walton Dobbins The Question of the Imitation Hermaios Coinage, E&W 20 (1970), 307-326

Glenn 2014
Simon Glenn, Heliocles and Laodice of Bactria : a Reconsideration, NC 174 (2014), 45-59

Jens Jakobsson
http://www.alexandersarvtagare.se/

Jakobsson An. Nicator 2010

Antiochus Nicator, the third King of Bactria?, NC 170 (2010), pp. ??
numismatic evidence for the new sequence of Bactrian kings (Diodotos II, Antiochos and then
Euthydemos I)

Antiochos Nikator or Antiochos Theos in pillar edicts of Mauryan Ashoka ?

Although the edicts of a king Antiochos mentioned in the rock edicts of the Mauryan emperor
Ashoka are generally thought to refer to a Seleukid king who was perhaps a relative, they may
instead refer to the last Diodotid king, just as the latter's coinage was traditionally attributed to
Diodotos I in the name of Antiochos II Theos.
Cf. Christopoulos, Hellenes 2012, p. 20 n. 37 : As it is possible that Ashokas grandmother
descended from the Seleucid house, some researchers claim that Ashoka was in fact Diodotes.
Curiously, he refers on his pillars to edicts of King Antiochos but not to Diodotes himself, who was
supposed to be his closest Greek neighbor and an ally at that time. No coins of Ashoka have been
found, although coins of Diodotes were found in Taxila.
The reign dates of Ashoka (given as 274 232 BC by Christopoulos) are in fact only
approximations ; his last decade or so may have overlapped with the early years of the Diodotid
Antiochos, whose reign of c.225 214 BC presented here is likewise only an approximation. Jens J.
prefers c.240-220 for Antiochos Nikator (check his NC 2010 article for this).

L. M. Wilson

Wilson, Hoards 2004

Demetrios II of Bactria and Hoards from Ai Khanoum, ONS-N 180 (2004), 12-13

Wilson, Demetrios 2009

From Demetrios I to Demetrios III, the `King of the Indians' , J-ONS 201 (2009), 5-9
focused on the weights of the so-called Demetrios III bronzes (the only Demetrios biscript bronze
issue)

Robert C. Senior

Senior, Vonones 1996

Vonones, Maues and the Early Indo-Scythic Succession, pp. 11-44 in
Devendra Handa (ed.) Oriental Numismatic Studies, vol. 1 (New Delhi, 1996)

Senior, King Sequences 2004

The Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian King Sequences in the Second and First Centuries BC, ONS-
N 179 Supplement (2004)

M.K.P. 2007
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