The Greeks in Bactria and India c28.31

c28.31

I must however first notice the name Moga of the inscription, generally supposed (as I believe myself) to be the king of the abundant coinage³ whose name is given in Greek as Maues and in Kharoshthi as Moa, though doubts have occasionally been expressed.⁴ I take it that the full form of the name sounded as Mauakes⁵ to Greek ears, just as it sounded to Chinese ears as Mu-ku’a;⁶ this would easily represent Moga. But I do not see how to equate Moga with Moa; there must therefore have been two forms of the name in Saca, a long and a short one. Greek writers record such double name-forms from other languages, *e.g.* Kynna-Kynane, daughter of Philip II and an Illyrian mother (? from Illyrian); Sabba-Sambethe, the ‘Chaldean Sibyl’ (presumably Anatolian); and Phraates-Phraatakes (from Parthian Pahlavi), an exact parallel in another North-Iranian tongue to Maues-Mauakes. Indeed there might be a parallel from Saca itself, if it be correct that Azes-Azilises are only short and long forms of the same name,⁷ and if the language be Saca.