Numismatical Sources
One of the key pieces of archaeological evidence about the Indo-Greeks is the coins. There are coin finds of several dozen Indo-Greek rulers in India; exactly how many is complicated to determine, because the Greeks did not number their kings, and the eastern Greeks did not date their coins. For example, there are a substantial number of coin finds for a King Demetrius, but authors have postulated one, two, or three Demetrii, and the same coins have been identified by different enquirers as describing Demetrius I, Demetrius II, or Demetrius III. The following deductions have been made from coins, in addition to mere existence:
- Kings who left many coins reigned long and prosperously.
- Hoards which contain many coins of the same king come from his realm.
- Kings who use the same iconography are friendly, and may well be from the same family,
- If a king overstrikes another king's coins, this is an important evidence to show that the overstriker reigned after the overstruck. Overstrikes may indicate that the two kings were enemies.
- Indo-Greek coins, like other Hellenistic coins, have monograms in addition to their inscriptions. These are generally held to indicate a mint official; therefore, if two kings issue coins with the same monogram, they reigned in the same area, and if not immediately following one another, have no long interval between them.
All of these arguments are arguments of probability, and have exceptions; one of Menander's coins was found in Wales.
| INDO-GREEK KINGS AND THEIR TERRITORIES Based on Bopearachchi (1991) |
||||||||||||
| Territories/ Dates |
PAROPAMISADE |
ARACHOSIA | GANDHARA | WESTERN PUNJAB | EASTERN PUNJAB | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200–190 BCE | Demetrius I | |||||||||||
| 190–180 BCE | Agathocles | Pantaleon | ||||||||||
| 185–170 BCE | Antimachus I | |||||||||||
| 180–160 BCE | Apollodotus I | |||||||||||
| 175–170 BCE | Demetrius II | |||||||||||
| 170–145 BCE | Eucratides | |||||||||||
| 160–155 BCE | Antimachus II | |||||||||||
| 155–130 BCE | Menander I | |||||||||||
| 130–120 BCE | Zoilos I | Agathokleia | ||||||||||
| 120–110 BCE | Lysias | Strato I | ||||||||||
| 110–100 BCE | Antialcidas | Heliokles II | ||||||||||
| 100 BCE | Polyxenios | Demetrius III | ||||||||||
| 100–95 BCE | Philoxenus | |||||||||||
| 95–90 BCE | Diomedes | Amyntas | Epander | |||||||||
| 90 BCE | Theophilos | Peukolaos | Thraso | |||||||||
| 90–85 BCE | Nicias | Menander II | Artemidoros | |||||||||
| 90–70 BCE | Hermaeus | Archebios | ||||||||||
| Yuezhi tribes | Maues (Indo-Scythian) | |||||||||||
| 75–70 BCE | Telephos | Apollodotus II | ||||||||||
| 65–55 BCE | Hippostratos | Dionysios | ||||||||||
| 55–35 BCE | Azes I (Indo-Scythian) | Zoilos II | ||||||||||
| 55–35 BCE | Apollophanes | |||||||||||
| 25 BCE – 10 CE | Strato II & III | |||||||||||
| Rajuvula (Indo-Scythian) | ||||||||||||
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