The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.211

c10.s6.211

The best solution I can see is that Vonones was the Suren, or rather the ruler of the Suren’s realm, for the time being;¹ he cannot have been Maues’ successor, as his name is Parthian, not Saca. The Suren who in May 53 had won the battle of Carrhae for Orodes II of Parthia had been put to death by him soon afterwards, perhaps the same year;² as he was under thirty he cannot have left a grown son, and Vonones might have been a kinsman, left to govern the East while the Suren was engaged in the West, or even an usurper. In either case he acted as though completely independent and took the title Great King of Kings left vacant by Maues’ death, which shows that what he was thinking of was dominion over the Sacas in India. He was safe from interference from the Arsacids in the West, for down to the failure of Antony’s invasion in 36 B.C. they were fully occupied in fighting or watching Rome; Orodes had no opportunity to attend to the East, and it agrees with this that no Suren took part in the resistance to Antony.³ As for Vonones’ vassals, Spalyris, the ruler of Arachosia and Kabul, on some coins⁴ acknowledges Vonones as his suzerain and does not call himself king, but on another series,⁵ which does not mention Vonones, he calls himself ‘king’s brother’; he cannot (as I see it) have been really Vonones’ brother,⁶ as Vonones was a Parthian, and it was probably merely a title of honour, since ‘brother’, implying brother of the king, was a known title of honour at Hellenistic courts;⁷ though the view has been taken (I think wrongly) that it means brother-in-law.⁸ Spalyris’ son Spalagadames does call himself king on his coins¹ but also acknowledges Vonones’ suzerainty. If Vonones grasped independence and took his title in the winter of 53-2, there is room for the coins before Hermaeus killed Spalagadames and took Kabul, which need not have been before 49; Spalyris might have governed Arachosia and Kabul for years as Parthian governor or vassal without coining and might only have begun to coin when Vonones seized power. For Vonones’ title shows that he was thinking of something much bigger than Kabul: the explanation of the peace and of the trade communication between Hippostratus and Hermaeus must be that he did succeed in asserting his authority over the Sacas in India, at any rate over Gandhāra and Taxila, though he did not apparently transfer his seat of government to India, as Gondophares was to do. The peace then was a Parthian peace, and attacks on the Greeks by the disunited Sacas ceased; Vonones may have even favoured the Greek states—many Parthians were Philhellenes—as a useful counterpoise to the ambitions of his Saca vassals. After the death of Spalagadames Vonones’ vassal ruler in Arachosia was Spalirises, who on his early coins² called himself ‘king’s brother’.