Indo-Greek Kingdom
(205-171 BC), wearing the scalp of an elephant, symbol of his conquest of India.]]The Indo-Greeks (or sometimes Greco-Indians) designate a series of Greek kings, who invaded and controled parts of northwest India from 180 BC to 1 BC.
They are the continuation of the Greco-Bactrian dynasty of Greek kings (the Euthydemid) founded by the military governor Diodotus around 250 BC when he split his Bactrian territory from the Seleucid Empire.
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2 Scythian and Kushan invasions 3 Main Indo-Greek kings 4 See also: 5 References: 6 External links |
The conquest of India
(165-130 BC)]]
The Indo-Greek kingdom was established by Demetrius, the son of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus. Demetrius started the invasion of the Mauryan empire in Northwestern India from 180 BC, and seems to have been as far as the Mauryan capital Pataliputra in eastern India (today Patna). The invasion was completed by 175 BC.
Menander, after Demetrius, ruled from 150 to 135 BC. He is presented by Greek authors as an even greater conqueror than Alexander the Great. Strabo (XI.II.I) says Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings who extended their power farthest into India.
Menander seems to have converted to Buddhism, and is described in Buddhist texts as a great benefactor of the religion. He is famous for his dialogues with the Buddhist monk Nagasena, transmitted to us in the Milinda Panha.
There were over 30 Indo-Greek kings, often in competition on different territories. Many of them are only known through their coins. The Indo-Greeks correspond to a key period of cultural interaction between the Hellenistic and the Buddhist cultures (see Greco-Buddhism).
Scythian and Kushan invasions
From 130 BC, Indo-European nomads (the Scythians and then the Yuezhi) started to invade Bactria from the north. In 125 BC the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles abandonned Bactria and moved his capital to the Kabul valley, from where he ruled his Indian holdings.
While the Yuezhi were to stay in Bactria for more than a century, the Scythians went on to the south-east into northern Pakistan to form Indo-Scythians kingdoms, seemingly recognizing the power of the local Indo-Greeks rulers there. The coins of the Indo-Scythians displayed Greek legends and Greek divinities such as Zeus or Nike. However, towards the end of the 1st century BC it seems they finally controled most of the territory under Azes II.
The last Indo-Greek king Hermaeus died in 1 BC, although this dating may be related to posthumus issues. In that case Strato II (40-10 BC) would be the last one.
From the 1st century AD, the Greek communities of central Asia and northwestern India lived under the control of the Kushan branch of the Yuezhi, appart from a short-lived invasion of the Indo-Parthian. The Kushans founded the Kushan Empire, which was to prosper for several centuries.
Main Indo-Greek kings
See also:
References:
External links
