The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s6.236

c10.s6.236

This too might be the reason why Azes did not use the old Saca Era which had been used by the Saca Maues (App. 16), though Sacas themselves used it much later when under Parthian rule.³ It is now believed that the Era of Azes used by some individuals in the Kushan period to date their donations was the Vikrama Era of 58 B.C.⁴ (p. 335), and the explanation might be that Azes, finding two Eras already current in his realm, emphasised the fact that he was not a Saca and that his house and people had never been subject to Maues by adopting the Indian Vikrama Era in preference to the Saca one. But it would remain strange that Azes’ name should have become attached to an Indian Era, and possibly it was not the Vikrama Era that he used but one of his own creation, dating like the Vikrama from Maues' death in 58 B.C. and indicating that he claimed not only to have succeeded to Maues' empire but that that empire, though it had lapsed *de facto*, had never lapsed *de jure*. For in any case it does not mean that Azes came to the throne in 58 B.C. It used to be believed that he followed Maues immediately; but the reasons for a considerable interval between Maues and himself are much too strong,¹ as has been seen.