family tree of the greco bactrian and indo greek kings
Family tree of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kings GudangMovies21 Rebahinxxi LK21
This family tree (and the trees below it) is based on a combination of Tarn's and Narain's genealogies of the Greco-Bactrian kings, which are not necessarily fully correct, as with all ancient family trees. Additionally, according to Tarn and Narain, the Eucratid dynasty is descended from Laodice, sister of Antiochus the Great and daughter of Seleukos II, whose sister married Diodotus I, the first Greco-Bactrian king. Additionally, one of Diodotus's descendants, the Greco-Bactrian ruler Demetrius the Unconquered, the first Indo-Greek king, married a daughter of Antiochus III the Great and had issue, which is shown here below. Thus, most of the Greco-Bactrian kings are related to each other through the Seleukid Dynasty, and thus, are related to the Diadochi and Alexander the Great. Perhaps Menander, an Indo-Greek king, married a probable daughter of Eucratides the Great (see the family trees of the Diodotids, mainline Euthydemids, and the Indo-Greek Menanderids below for a different ancestry for Agathoclea), meaning the Indo-Greek kings are related as well. This tree covers all the Greek rulers of Bactria and India, from 255 B.C. to A.D. 10. This article also covers the family trees of the rulers of the post-Greco-Bactrian state of Dayuan and Oxyartes's family tree and his relationship to the Greco-Bactrian kings. To find more information on the various dynasties and rulers, see these articles: Greco-Bactria, Indo-Greeks, Diodotids, Euthydemids, Eucratids, Menanderids, Indo-Scythians, the Dayuan, and the Yavana people. See the various chronologies and lists of rulers below the trees for easier navigation and understanding of the placement of the various kings in each tree.
Family tree of the early Greco-Bactrian kings (mostly Diodotids and some Euthydemids)
Below are family trees of the Euthydemid, Eucratid, and Menanderid dynasties. The Greek connection to the Qin emperors of China is shown below, and with this connection (and with Chandragupta Maurya's marriage to Seleukos's daughter, see Eucratids below), the ancient kings of Persia, India, Greece, and China, oddly enough, are all related.
Other family trees (Euthydemids, Eucratids, Menanderids, the later Indo-Greek Euthydemid dynasty, Indo-Scythians, Dynasty of Oxyartes, and the Ferghana kings)
Chronologies of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kings
These chronologies can be used to more easily navigate the family trees.
The chronology used here is adapted from Osmund Bopearachchi, supplemented by the views of R C Senior and occasionally other authorities.
List of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kings
= Greco-Bactrian kings
=The below table lists the known Greek rulers of Bactria, along with their dates and titles or epithets.
Dates that overlap show that multiple kings ruled at the same time, but in different regions whose exact details are not known very well. For example, Apollodotus I likely ruled areas south of Bactria and the Indian subcontinent while Antimachus I ruled in Bactria. Eucratides II and Plato would have each ruled smaller parts of southern Bactria.
= Indo-Greek kings
=The following list of kings, dates and territories after the reign of Demetrius the Unconquered (see Euthydemids above) is derived from the latest and most extensive analysis on the subject, by Osmund Bopearachchi ("Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Catalogue Raisonné", 1991).
Eastern territories
The descendants of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus invaded northern India around 180 BC as far as the Punjab.
Demetrius I (reigned c. 200–170 BC) Son of Euthydemus I. Greco-Bactrian king, and conqueror of India. Coins
The territory ruled by Demetrius, from Bactria to Pataliputra, was then separated between western and eastern parts, and ruled by several sub-kings and successor kings. The Western part made of Bactria was ruled by a succession of Greco-Bactrian kings until the end of the reign of Heliocles around 130 BCE. The Eastern part, made of the Paropamisadae, Arachosia, Gandhara and Punjab, perhaps as far as Mathura, was ruled by a succession of kings, called "Indo-Greek":
= Territories of Paropamisadae to Mathura (house of Euthydemus)
=Agathocles (190-180 BC) Coins
Pantaleon (190-185 BC)
Apollodotus I (reigned c. 180–160 BC)
Antimachus II Nikephoros (160-155 BC)
Coins
Demetrius II (155-150 BC)
The usurper Eucratides managed to eradicate the Euthydemid dynasty and occupy territory as far as the Indus River, between 170 and 145 BCE. Eucratides was then murdered by his son, thereafter Menander I seems to have regained all of the territory as far west as the Hindu-Kush
= Territory from Hindu-Kush to Mathura (150 - 125 BCE)
=Menander I (reigned c. 150–125 BC). Successor to Apollodotus. Married to Agathocleia. Legendary for the size of his Kingdom, and his support of the Buddhist faith. Coins
Agathokleia (r.c. 130-125 BCE), Probably widow of Menander, Queen-Mother and regent for her son Strato I. Coins
After the death of Menander I, his successors seem to have been pushed back east to Gandhara, losing the Paropamisadae and Arachosia to a Western Indo-Greek kingdom. Some years later the Eastern kings probably had to retreat even further, to Western Punjab.
= Territory from Gandhara/Western Punjab to Mathura (125 - 100 BC)
=Strato I (125 - 110 BC) Coin, son of Menander and Agathokleia
Heliokles II (110 - 100 BC) Coins
The following minor kings who ruled parts of the kingdom:
Polyxenios (c. 100 BC - possibly in Gandhara)
Demetrius III Aniketos (c. 100 BC).
After around 100 BCE, Indian kings recovered the area of Mathura and Eastern Punjab east of the Ravi River, and started to mint their own coins.
The Western king Philoxenus briefly occupied the whole remaining Greek territory from the Paropamisadae to Western Punjab between 100 and 95 BC, after what the territories fragmented again. The eastern kings regained their territory as far west as Arachosia.
During the 1st century BC, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground against the invasion of the Indo-Scythians, until the last king Strato II ended his ruled in Eastern Punjab around 10 CE.
= Territory of Arachosia and Gandhara (95-70 BCE)
=Amyntas Nikator (95 - 90 BC) Coins
Peukolaos (c. 90 BC)
Menander II Dikaios "The Just" (90 - 85 BCE) Coins
Archebios (90 - 80 BC) (with western Punjab) Coins
(Maues), Indo-Scythian king.
Artemidoros (c.80 BC) Coins.
Telephos (75 - 70 BC) Coins
= Territory of Western Punjab (95-55 BC)
=Epander (95 - 90 BC) Coins
Archebios (90 - 80 BC) Coins
(Maues), Indo-Scythian king
Thraso (around 80 BC or earlier)
Apollodotus II (80 - 65 BC) (with Eastern Punjab) Coins
Hippostratos (65 - 55 BC) Coins, defeated by the Indo-Scythian King Azes I.
(Azes I). Indo-Scythian king.
Around 80 BCE, parts of Eastern Punjab were regained again:
= Territories of Eastern Punjab (80 BC - 10 AD)
=Apollodotus II (80 - 65 BCE)Coins
Dionysios (65 - 55 BC)
Zoilos II (55 - 35 BC)
Apollophanes (35-25 BC)
Strato II (25 BC - 10 AD) Coin
(Rajuvula), Indo-Scythian king.
Western territories
The following kings ruled the western parts of the Indo-Greek/Graeco-Bactrian realms, which are here referred to as the "Western kingdom". Probably after the death of Menander I, the Paropamisadae and Arachosia broke loose, and the Western kings eventually seem to have extended into Gandhara by the following kings. Several of its rulers are believed to have belonged to the house of Eucratides.
= Territories of the Paropamisadae, Arachosia and Gandhara (130 - 95 BC)
=Zoilos I (130 - 120 BC´), revolted against the dynasty of Menander.Coins
Lysias (120 - 110 BC), probably conquered Gandhara for the Western kingdom. Coins
Antialcidas (r.c. 115-95 BC) Coins
Philoxenus (reigned c. 100- 95 BCE) Coins. Philoxenus ruled in western Punjab as well.
After the death of Philoxenus, the Western kingdom fragmented and never became dominating again. The following kings ruled mostly in the Paropamisadae.
= Territory of the Paropamisadae (95-70 BC)
=Diomedes (95 - 90 BC)Coin
Theophilos (c. 90 BC) Coin
Nicias (reigned c. 90–85 BC
Hermaeus (reigned c. 90–70 BC).
(Yuezhi rulers)
The Yuezhi probably then took control of the Paropamisadae after Hermaeus. The first documented Yuezhi prince, Sapadbizes, ruled around 20 BCE, and minted in Greek and in the same style as the western Indo-Greek kings, probably depending on Greek mints and celators. The Yuezhi expanded to the east during the 1st century CE, to found the Kushan Empire. The first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises ostensibly associated himself with Hermaeus on his coins, suggesting that he may have been one of his descendants by alliance, or at least wanted to claim his legacy.
Indo-Greek princelets (Gandhara)
After the Indo-Scythian Kings became the rulers of northern India, remaining Greek communities were probably governed by lesser Greek rulers, without the right of coinage, into the 1st century CE, in the areas of the Paropamisadae and Gandhara:
Theodamas (c. 1st century CE) Indo-Greek ruler of the Bajaur area, northern Gandhara.
The Indo-Greeks may have kept a significant military role towards the 2nd century CE as suggested by the inscriptions of the Satavahana kings.
See also
Indian campaign of Alexander the Great
Timeline of Indo-Greek kingdoms
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Indo-Greek Kingdom
Diodotids
Euthydemids
Greco-Buddhism
Indo-Greek religions
Indo-Greek art
Sources of Indo-Greek history
William Woodthorpe Tarn
A. K. Narain
Osmund Bopearachchi
References
Sources
Narain, A.K. (1957). The Indo-Greeks: Revisited and Supplemented (4 ed.). Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation. p. 305. ISBN 9788176463492. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
Tarn, William Woodthorpe (1966). The Greeks in Bactria and India (2 ed.). New York, U.S.: Cambridge University Press. p. 568. ISBN 9781108009416. Retrieved 30 December 2024.