The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.20

c10.s6.20

I see only one way to fit these facts together. It must be supposed that when Heliocles recovered Bactria some son of Demetrius, either Demetrius II or Agathocles, had survived and had continued to maintain himself in some of the hill provinces, cut off from the great road, the capitals, and the mints; as he had no mint, no trace of him during this period would remain. Lysias was his son,⁵ and his ‘joint’ coin with Antialcidas refers to a rapprochement, probably a treaty of permanent peace, between the two factions, the end of the long feud of the rival houses;¹ Lysias must have kept his hill kingdom but become in some form an associate—it could not here be sub-king—of Antialcidas, as he henceforth coined in his mints. For all four of Lysias’ monograms appear on Antialcidas’ coins² (though the latter has a couple of others also), which is decisive proof that they shared the same moneyers; there are arguments for both Kapisa and Taxila as the mint,³ and probably Lysias used both. The ‘joint’ coin of course does not express the treaty, though it refers to it; it is not a joint coin at all, but a coin of Lysias, who (though Antialcidas was probably the more powerful) has naturally allotted to himself the obverse and the Greek legend; probably there were coins of Antialcidas with the position reversed. This treaty may be the reason why coins exist which show Antialcidas wearing the flat kausia of the Euthydemids⁴ and Lysias wearing the helmet of Eucratides;⁵ and an unexplained coin of Antialcidas, on which the elephant-god and his elephant are marching,⁶ might relate to the same event, which would doubtless have been celebrated with some sort of a display or procession. The reason for such a reconciliation is obvious: the Saca menace was already coming into view.