Heliocles II Dicaeus (;

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 just") is thought to have been one of the later

Indo-Greek 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" ...

kings and a relative of the Bactrian king Heliocles I. Current scholarly consensus is that he ruled ca 95–80 BC. Heliocles II seems to have been engaged in a series of wars with

Strato I Strato I Dikaios (Greek: ''Strátо̄n Díkaios,'' “Strato the Just”) also known as Stratha in Sanskrit, was a Yavana King (reigned 125/120-110 BCE), the son and successor of Menander, Strato’s mother, Agathoclea ruled as Queen Mother ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

; the two share several mintmarks and Heliocles II overstruck many of his coins. During this period, a number of kings fought for hegemony in the Indo-Greek territories. Some of them were likely supported by nomad Saka rulers such as

Maues Maues (Greek language, Greek: ; (epigraphic); Kharosthi: , , called , on the Taxila copper plate; also called , in the Mathura lion capital inscription,) was the first Indo-Scythian king, ruling from 98/85 to 60/57 BCE. He invaded Indi ...

Genealogy

Heliocles II used a reverse of standing

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

, who was a common deity among the later Indo-Greek kings. J. Jakobsson sees Heliocles as the son of the important king Antialcidas Nikephoros (whose type was sitting Zeus) and perhaps the grandson of Heliocles I. He goes on to suggest that Heliocles was the older brother of the king Archebius Nikephoros Dikaios, who seems to have succeeded Heliocles II in Gandhara (perhaps after his death from disease; Heliocles I looks emaciated on his later portraits). Archebius uses a very similar reverse and combines the epithets of Heliocles II and Antialcidas; in addition, their coin portraits are similar, with hooked noses and fierce expressions. R.C. Senior has instead suggested a connection with Demetrius III, who used a similar reverse of standing Zeus.

Coins of Heliocles II

Heliocles II issued Indian silver with portrait (diademed, helmeted or spear-throwing) / standing Zeus and bronzes with bearded diademed portrait (Heliocles or Zeus) / elephant. It is uncertain whether he struck Attic coins. A number of posthumous coins for Heliocles I have been found in Bactria; possibly some of these may have been struck by Heliocles II, though there are no similar monograms.

Overstrikes

The existence of numerous

overstrike In typography, overstrike is a method of printing characters that are missing from the printer's character set. The character is created by placing one character on another one – for example, overstriking ⟨L⟩ with ⟨-⟩ results in prin ...

s helps locate the reign of Heliocles II in relation to other Indo-Greek kings. Heliocles overstruck coins of Agathokleia,

, 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 ( ...

. Conversely, Amyntas overstruck coins of Heliocles II. These overstrikes suggest that Heliocles II reigned around 95–85 BC and was a contemporary of Amyntas and Hermaeus Bopearachchi, "De l'Indus à l'Oxus", p129

Notes

References

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

Genealogy

Coins of Heliocles II

Overstrikes

See also

Notes

References