The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.158

c10.s6.158

This dating for Maues’ death brings coherence into the whole story. The rising which expelled Maues’ governor from Kapisa and brought Amyntas to the throne of Alexandria was in 58, immediately upon the news of Maues’ defeat and death, and Hippostratus and Nicias won their victory upon the Jhelum about the same time; these things, combined with the defeat which lost Ujjain, are pointers which show (as it appears that the story necessitates) that Maues’ swiftly won empire broke down, or broke up, on his death, which gives point to the Indian king’s Era; that empire evidently depended on a single personality and had not yet had time to become consolidated. The Chinese noticed that the Sacas were composed of various peoples and normally formed separate kingdoms,¹ which means that anyone who attempted to weld them into an empire would have to reckon with strong fissiparous tendencies; and if Maues really belonged to the Sai-wang (p. 321), who cannot have been very numerous in India, he may have supplied one more instance of the ruler of a small tribe only holding the larger tribes to a precarious allegiance because his command alone gave promise of victory.² There is in existence an autonomous gold coin of the city of Pushkalāvatī,³ which shows that at some time the city was independent; one would like to suppose that its brief independence was also won on Maues’ death (Azes subsequently coined in Pushkalāvatī) but it is difficult to suppose that a *gold* coin with a Kharoshthi legend on the *obverse* can belong to this period, though precedents for either alone perhaps exist;⁴ it is, however, equally difficult to suppose that Pushkalāvatī, even if still a *polis*, achieved independence in the period when imported gold was being freely coined by the Kushan kings. I must leave it unexplained. One point may be added about Maues’ date: even though his conquest of Taxila was not long before *c.* 77, his death in 58 still gives plenty of time for his coinage; before he died he controlled at least three Greek mints, if not more.