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Message:: [QUOTE="Pavlos, post: 7856291, member: 96635"]A piece of Hellenic history often forgotten is the vast Indo-Greek Kingdom. I recently started to read about it and obtained my first coin some time ago. The history of the occupation of India by the Greeks started under Alexander the Great in 325 BC, but he never went much further across the Indus. This territory was quickly lost after the death of Alexander during the Seleukid–Mauryan war in 303 BC.The Greco-Baktrian king Demetrios I was the second to attempt it and invaded the Hindu Kush, which initiated the so called 'Yavana era' in India, with Yavana meaning Greek, so the 'Greek era'. Later on, by other Baktrian kings, other parts of India came under Hellenic rule: Gandhara and Western Punjab. The whole empire reached its heights under the great king Eukratides, but after his death the Baktrian kingdom was being subjected by the Asian nomadic tribe Yuezhi. The Indo-Greek kingdom lived on however, under the famous king Menander I in 165 BC, who expanded the territory further into the Eastern Punjab and the Mathura.[ATTACH=full]1353653[/ATTACH] What is interesting actually is that Menander became a devoted Buddhist monk and that the Indo-Greek kingdom kind of fused the Hellenic and Indian culture together which let for example to the Greco-Buddhist art. The Greco-Buddhist art shaped one of the earliest human forms of the Buddha, which in time let to further spread of Buddhism. Anyhow, after Menander's death, the Indo-Greek empire fractured with every 10 years or so two to three new rulers all ruling different parts of India. In 130 BC one of those rulers was Antialkidas. He ruled from his capital Taxila in the territory of Arachosia. [ATTACH=full]1353668[/ATTACH]Indo-Greek Kingdom. Antialkidas Nikephoros. AR Drachm. Kapisa (?) mint. Circa 130-120 BC.Obverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΑΛΚΙΔΟΥ. Diademed and draped bust right, wearing kausia.Reverse: Maharajasa Jayadharasa Amtialkidasa (in Karoshti). Zeus Nikephoros enthroned slightly left; to left, forepart of elephant left, holding wreath in trunk; monogram below throne.Reference: Mitchiner II, S. 150, Typ 279c (Pushkalavati); Bopearachchi, Serie 11 (A) (MIr Zakah); HGC 257 (Kapisa?).2.43gEx Slg. Graeculus and ex Auktion Peus Nachf. 410, 2013, 214. What is especially interesting about the coinage of Antialkidas is the reverse. It features the usual Hellenic combination of Zeus with the goddess Nike: Zeus Nikephoros. However, a small forepart of an elephant is added to the left.It is plausible that the baby elephant symbolizes Buddha, who took the shape of a small elephant to enter the womb of his mother Queen Maya. Another example of the Greco-Buddhist art that I mentioned previously. Please share your coins from the Indo-Greek kingdom![/QUOTE]

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