The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.8

c10.s4.8

There is no difficulty about these dates from Agathocleia’s side. It was found possible in Chapter IV to give the approximate dates at which Demetrius’ four sons were respectively given office as kings; they show that the eldest, Euthydemus II, cannot have been born very long after 204, say *c.* 202 at latest (it is known from Polybius that Demetrius was not yet married in 206), and that the youngest, Agathocles, cannot have been born too long after 195; 190 would hardly be possible. Agathocleia, from her name, should come next to Agathocles, whether before or after; her birth would then fall somewhere from *c.* 195 to *c.* 190. Again taking the two possible extremes, she might have been about twenty-four when she married or she might have been about thirty-four; probably she was not much, if at all, under thirty. There is precedent enough for Hellenistic princesses not marrying till thirty, or even later: putting aside the first Berenice, Ptolemais and Berenice II at once occur to the mind, even if the marriage of Cleopatra VII, who was thirty-three when she married Antony, be hardly in point; in Agathocleia’s case it may well have happened that, unlike her sisters in the West, there was no one of suitable standing for her to marry. It is generally safe to assume that a princess marrying a commoner was not in her first youth.