Antialcidas
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Obv: Helmetted bust of Antialcidas, bead and reel border.
Rev: Seated Zeus with Nike on right hand, holding a wreath over a small elephant. Greek legend: BASILEOS NIKEPHOROI ANTIALKIDOI "Victorious King Antialcidas.
Obv: Bust of Antialcidas wearing aegis and holding a spear, with Greek legend BASILEOS NIKEPHOROI ANTIALKIDOI "Victorious King Antialcidas".
Rev: Zeus with lotus-tipped sceptre, in front of an elephant with a bell (symbol of Taxila), surmouted by Nike holding a wreath, crowning the elephant. Kharoshti legend: MAHARAJASA JAYADHARASA ANTIALIKITASA "Victorious King Antialcidas". Pushkalavati mint.
Obv: Bust of Antialcidas wearing a helmet, with Greek legend BASILEOS NIKEPHOROI ANTIALKIDOI "Victorious King Antialcidas".
Rev: Seated Zeus with lotus-tipped sceptre, with Nike on his extended arm, holding out a wreath to a baby elephant with bell. Kharoshti legend: MAHARAJASA JAYADHARASA ANTIALIKITASA "Victorious King Antialcidas".
Antialcidas was an Indo-Greek king, who reigned from his capital at Taxila from around 115 to 95 BCE.
Antialcidas is known from an inscription left on a pillar (the Heliodorus pillar) erected by his ambassador Heliodorus at the court of the Sunga king Bhagabhadra at Vidisha.
The inscriptions says: "This Garuda-standard was made by order of the Bhagavata _.Heliodoros, the son of Dion, a man of Taxila, a Greek ambassador from King Antialkidas, to King Bhagabhadra, the son of the Princess from Benares, the saviour, while prospering in the fourteenth year of his reign."
Otherwise, Antialcidas is also known through his coins. He is typically shown in profile bare-headed or wearing a round crested helmet or a flat kausia. On reverse Zeus is accompanied by Nike, who offers a wreath of victory to a rejoicing baby elephant wearing a bell around the neck. According to some interpretations (Grousset), the baby elephant may symbolize the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, who took the shape of a small elephant to enter the womb of his mother Queen Maya, a scene often depicted in Greco-Buddhist art. In that case the coin scene would represent a victory of Buddhism. According to other interpretations the elephant was the symbol of the city of Taxila.
Antialcidas minted a few Greco-Bactrian-style coins (with legend in Greek only), and mostly bi-lingual (Greek and Kharoshthi) coins.
[edit] A relative of Eucratides?
Coins struck by Antialcidas and the preceding king Lysias together suggest the two kings were co-regents. However, unlike Lysias, the coins of Antialcidas seem related to those of Eucratides and his son Heliocles I. Not only are some of the portraits struck in similar style, but Antialcidas also uses obverses with the Dioscuri and Zeus throned, typical deities of the above kings. This indicates that Antialcidas might have been a descendant of the dynasty. A possible suggestion is that his mother was a Eucratid princess married to Lysias.
Modern scholarship has, however, largely accepted that what was originally supposed to be a "joint issue" was in fact a mule; in other words, a mistake occurred in the process of overstriking the original coin, and it was accidentally issued with both king's standards.
Several later kings seem related to Antialcidas as well: Heliokles II, Amyntas, Diomedes and Hermaeus all strike coins with similar features.
| Preceded by: Lysias |
Indo-Greek Ruler (Paropamisadae, Arachosia,Gandhara) (115-95 BCE) |
Succeeded by: Polyxenios or Philoxenus |
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- "The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies" by Thomas McEvilley (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002) ISBN 1-58115-203-5
- "Buddhism in Central Asia" by B.N. Puri (Motilal Banarsidass Pub, January 1, 2000) ISBN 81-208-0372-8
- "The Greeks in Bactria and India", W.W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
- "The Indo-Greeks", A.K. Narain, B.R Publications
- "The Decline of the Indo-Greeks", R.C. Senior & D. MacDonald, the Hellenistic Numismatic Society
