The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s3.155

c10.s3.155

To return to Eucratides. Had he stopped at the Hindu Kush, there is no reason why he should not have formed eastern Iran into a powerful kingdom with elements of permanence; but he proceeded instead to invade India, and that was his undoing. If I am right that the aim of Antiochus was to restore the empire of Alexander, it was of course intended that he should invade India. There is unfortunately not the same certainty for his chronology in India as in Iran. Whatever his energy, he must have needed a certain time to organise his conquests; at the same time, the subsequent troubles behind his back show that his settlement of Bactria was anything but thorough. He may have spent 166 at least in Bactria, and invaded India in 165 or 164. He was alive in 162, when Timarchus in Media copied his coinage (p. 218); and it will appear presently that his death almost certainly fell in 159 (p. 219), with early in 158 just possible; later than that it cannot be. His reign in Bactria-Sogdiana cannot have been a long one, for the nomad conquerors of Bactria did not imitate his coins, while imitations of those of Euthydemus and of Eucratides’ son Heliocles are common (p. 303). Eucratides’ time in India should therefore fall between the years 165 and 160.