Antialcidas Nikephoros (;

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

means "the Bearer of Victory" or "the Victorious",

Brahmi Brahmi ( ; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system from ancient India. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' or ...

: 𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀮𑀺𑀓𑀺𑀢𑀲 ''Aṃtalikitasa'', in the

Heliodorus Pillar The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India in Besnagar (Vidisha), Madhya Pradesh. The pillar is commonly named after Heliodorus (identified by him as a Garuda-standard), who was an ambassador of the In ...

) was a king of the

Indo-Greek Kingdom The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Ancient Greece, Greek kingdom covering various parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" ...

, who reigned from his capital at

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila () is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the ...

. Bopearachchi has suggested that he ruled from ca. 115 to 95 BCE in the western parts of the Indo-Greek realms, whereas R. C. Senior places him around 130 to 120 BCE and also in eastern

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

(which seems better supported by coin findings). Senior does however believe that he ruled in tandem with King Lysias.

Genealogy

Antialcidas may have been a relative of the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles I, but ruled after the fall of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Several later kings may have been related to Antialcidas: Heliokles II, Amyntas,

Diomedes Diomedes (Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. ''Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary''. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.) or Diomede (; ) is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan ...

and

Hermaeus Hermaeus Soter (, ''Hermaîos ho Sōtḗr,'' meaning "Hermaeus the Saviour") was a Western Indo-Greek king of the Eucratid dynasty, who ruled the territory of Paropamisadae in the Hindu-Kush region, with his capital in Alexandria of the Caucasus ( ...

all struck coins with similar features.

The Heliodorus inscription

Though there are few sources for the late Indo-Greek history, Antialcidas is known from an inscription left on a pillar (the

Heliodorus pillar The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India in Besnagar (Vidisha), Madhya Pradesh. The pillar is commonly named after Heliodorus (identified by him as a Garuda-standard), who was an ambassador of the In ...

), which was erected by his ambassador Heliodorus at the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra at Vidisha, near

Sanchi Sanchi Stupa is a Buddhist art, Buddhist complex, famous for its Great Stupa, on a hilltop at Sanchi Town in Raisen District of the States and territories of India, State of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located, about 23 kilometers from Raisen ...

. It states that he was a devotee of Vishnu, the Hindu god.Greek Culture in Afghanistan and India: Old Evidence and New Discoveries
Shane Wallace, 2016, p.222-223 A part of the inscription 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."Archaeological Survey of India, Annual report 1908-190
p.129
/ref>

Coins

Otherwise, Antialcidas is also known through his plentiful coins. He issued a number of bilingual Indian silver types: diademed, wearing a helmet with bull's horns or a flat kausia. He also appears throwing a spear. According to some interpretations (Grousset), the baby elephant may symbolize the Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

, who took the shape of a small elephant to enter the womb of his mother

Queen Maya Maya (; Devanagari: , IAST: ), also known as Mahāmāyā and Māyādevī, was Queen of Shakya and the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha. She was the wife of Śuddhodana, the king of the Shakya kingdom. She died days after ...

, a scene often depicted in

Greco-Buddhist art The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara, located in the northwestern fringe of t ...

. 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

"Mule coins" (overstrikes)

There is a bronze which features the obverse of

Lysias Lysias (; ; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a Logographer (legal), logographer (speech writer) in ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrac ...

and the reverse of Antialcidas. This was interpreted by Tarn and other earlier scholars as though the two kings might have forged some kind of alliance, but later, a bronze with the opposite arrangement was found. Modern scholarship has however largely accepted that what was originally supposed to be a "joint issue" was in fact a

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

; in other words, a mistake occurred in the process of overstriking the original coin, and it was accidentally issued with both king's standards.

Gallery

File:Antialkidas with Zeus giving wreath of victory to elephant.jpg, Antialcidas with Zeus directly giving wreath of victory to the elephant. With Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΑΛΚΙΔΟΥ, ''Basileōs Nikēphorou Antialkidou'', "Of Victorious King Antialcidas". Obverse with Kharoshti legend: ''Maharajasa Jayadharasa Antialikitasa''. File:Seal of king on elephant receiving wreath of victory.jpg,

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

seal of king on

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

receiving wreath of victory, a motif with some similarity to the coins of Antialcidas. The art is a mix of both Greek and Indian styles, which was characteristic of the region of Gandhara during the Hellenistic period.

References

Sources

* ''The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies'' by Thomas McEvilley (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002) * ''Buddhism in Central Asia'' by B. N. Puri (Motilal Banarsidass, January 1, 2000) * ''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

External links

Coins of Antialcidas
{{Hellenistic rulers Indo-Greek kings 1st-century BC monarchs in Asia 2nd-century BC monarchs in Asia