Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c16.s1.t2.53

c16.s1.t2.53

Coins bear testimony to struggles between kings of **the house of Eukratides** and rulers of the **family of Euthydemos.** But the evidence which we possess clearly indicates that the contemporaries and rivals of Eukratides and Heliokles were **Apollodotos, Agathokleia and Strato I,** and not Menander. A square copper⁴ coin of Eukratides has on the obverse a bust of the king and the legend "*Basileus Megalou Eukratidou.*" On the reverse there is the figure of Zeus and the legend "*Kavisiye nagara-* *devatā.*" They are often coins (?) of Apollodotos restruck.¹ From this it is probable that Apollodotos was a rival of Eukratides, and was superseded in the rule of Kāpiśa, which lay in the district identified with Kāfiristān and the valleys of Ghorband and Panjshir, by the latter. Rapson further points out² that Heliokles restruck the coins of Agathokleia and Strato I ruling conjointly and also of Strato I reigning alone. Further, the restriking is always by Heliokles, never by Agathokleia and Strato I. From this it is clear that Agathokleia and Strato I ruled over an Indo-Greek principality either before, or in the time of Heliokles, but probably not after him.