The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.28

c26.s1.28

The murder of Eukratides shattered to fragments the kingdom for which he had fought so valiantly. Another son, named Heliokles, who assumed the title of 'the Just', perhaps as the avenger of his father's cruel death, enjoyed for a brief space a precarious tenure of power in Bactria. Strato I, who also seems to have belonged to the family of Eukratides, held a principality in the Panjāb for many years, and was perhaps the immediate successor of Apollodotos. Agathokles and Pantaleon (*c.* 190–180 B. C.), whose coins are specially Indian in character, were earlier in date, and contemporary with Euthydēmos and Demetrios. It is evident from the great variety of the royal names in the coin-legends, nearly forty in number, that both before and after the death of Eukratides, the Indian borderland was parcelled out among a crowd of Greek princelings, for the most part related either to the family of Euthydēmos and Demetrios or to that of their rival Eukratides. Some of these princelings, among whom was Antialkidas (*c.* 140–130 B. C.),³ were subdued by Eukratides, who, if he had lived, might have consolidated a great border kingdom. But his death in the hour of victory increased the existing confusion, and it is quite impossible to make a satisfactory territorial and chronological arrangement of the Indo-Greek frontier kings contemporary with and posterior to Eukratides. Their names, which, with two exceptions, are known from coins only, will be found included in the list appended to this chapter (Appendix J).