The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom emerged after Alexander the Great's death as the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I, established independence around 250 BC. The kingdom engaged in territorial expansion under the Diodotid and Euthydemid dynasties. However, the Parthian empire cut off contact with Greece and later defeated the Greco-Bactrians. Demetrius established the Indo-Greek Kingdom in northwest India around 180 BC after invading from Bactria. The Indo-Greek Kingdom reached its peak under Menander I but later declined due to emerging rival powers in India and invasions from the west.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom emerged after Alexander the Great's death as the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I, established independence around 250 BC. The kingdom engaged in territorial expansion under the Diodotid and Euthydemid dynasties. However, the Parthian empire cut off contact with Greece and later defeated the Greco-Bactrians. Demetrius established the Indo-Greek Kingdom in northwest India around 180 BC after invading from Bactria. The Indo-Greek Kingdom reached its peak under Menander I but later declined due to emerging rival powers in India and invasions from the west.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom emerged after Alexander the Great's death as the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I, established independence around 250 BC. The kingdom engaged in territorial expansion under the Diodotid and Euthydemid dynasties. However, the Parthian empire cut off contact with Greece and later defeated the Greco-Bactrians. Demetrius established the Indo-Greek Kingdom in northwest India around 180 BC after invading from Bactria. The Indo-Greek Kingdom reached its peak under Menander I but later declined due to emerging rival powers in India and invasions from the west.
Nattapon Preedasak The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Before the Independence
● Political & power struggle after Alexander’s
death (323 BC). ● Conflict & wars happened. ● Caused several partitions of Alexander’s empire.
Martinez-Sève, Laurianne (2020) "Afghan Bactria"
Independence and Diodotid dynasty
● Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria took advantage of the
troubles and established his kingdom (250 BC). ● Highly urbanized and considered one of the richest of the Orient. ● Grew in power and engaged in territorial expansion to the Diodotus I of Bactria, Cabinet des Medailles, Paris east and the west. ● The independence of Parthian empire cut Bactria off from contact with the Greek world. ● Overland trade decreased but sea trade with Greek Egypt developed. ● Diodotus I (250 - 235 BC) → Diodotus II (235 - 225 BC)
Diodotus II of Bactria, Classical Numismatic Group
Euthydemid dynasty and Seleucid invasion
● Euthydemus of Magnesia (225 - 190 BC) overthrew the
dynasty of Diodotus II and started his own dynasty. ● Euthydemus negotiated peace with Antiochus III of the Seleucid empire. ● Their children married. Euthydemos I, Classical Numismatic Group ● After the Seleucid army left, the kingdom expanded. ● Some territories are possibly Tapuria and Traxiane.
Heliodotos inscription, Kuliab, 3rd century BCE,
modern Tajikistan (2005) A New Inscription dated in the "Yona" (Greek) Era of 186/5 B.C. Expansion into the Indian subcontinent
● Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, started an invasion of the
subcontinent from 180 BC. ○ few years after the Mauryan empire had been overthrown by the Shunga dynasty. ● Demetrius may have been as far as the imperial capital Demetrius I of Bactria, Bopearachchi & Rahman Pataliputra in today's eastern India (today Patna). 124 (fourrée); SNG ANS 190 ○ These campaigns are typically attributed to Menander. ● This established in the northwestern Indian Subcontinent what is called the Indo-Greek Kingdom (Yavanarajya). Defeats by Parthia
● Eucratides, a general of Demetrius or an ally of the Seleucids,
managed to overthrow the Euthydemid dynasty and establish his own rule around 170 BC. ● During or after his Indian campaigns, Eucratides was attacked and defeated by the Parthian king Mithridates I. Eucratides I, Musée Guimet, Paris ● Mithridates I gained Bactria's territory west of the Arius, the regions of Tapuria and Traxiane. ● The defeat, both in the west and the east, may have left Bactria very weakened and open to nomadic invasions.
Yuezhis, embroidered carpet of the Xiongnu
Noin-Ula burial site The Indo-Greek Kingdom Expansion of Demetrius into India
● Demetrius I, the son of Euthydemus is generally considered
the Greco-Bactrian king who first launched the Greek expansion into India. ● The elimination of the Maurya Empire by the Sunga greatly encouraged this expansion. The coinage of Agathocles incorporated the Brahmi ● He probably conquered the Kabul valley, Arachosia and script and several deities from India. perhaps Gandhara. ● Bactrian kings followed after Demetrius' death, and it seems likely that the civil wars between them made it possible for Apollodotus I to make himself independent as the first proper Indo-Greek king. Kharoshthi legend on the ● Apollodotus I was succeeded by or ruled alongside reverse of a coin of Indo-Greek king Artemidoros Antimachus II, likely the son of the Bactrian king Antimachus Aniketos I. Rule of Menander I
● Menander I is considered to have been the most
successful of the Indo-Greek kings. Menander I, unknown ○ expanded the kingdom to its greatest extent by means of his various conquests. ● Menander is also remembered in Buddhist literature as Milinda. ● The Indo-Greeks also had control over Mathura during the period between 185 BCE and 85 BCE, and The Mathura Herakles. A statue of Herakles especially during the rule of Menander I (165–135 BC). strangling the Nemean ● After his death, the empire was greatly reduced due to lion from Mathura, the emergence of new kingdoms and republics within Kolkota Indian Museum.
India. Decline
● Philoxenus (100–95 BC) briefly occupied the whole Greek
territory from the Paropamisadae to Western Punjab, after what the territories fragmented again between smaller Indo-Greek kings. ● Throughout the 1st century BC, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground to the Indians in the east, and the Scythians, the Yuezhi, and the Parthians in the West.