Agathokleia
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Obv: Conjugate busts of Strato and Agathokleia. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTIROS STRATONOS KAI AGATOKLEIA "Saviour King Strato, and Agathokleia".
Rev: Athena throwing thunderbolt. Kharoshthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATASARA DHARMIKASA STRATASA "King Strato, Saviour and Just (="of the Dharma")".
- For the 3rd century BC mistress of Ptolemy IV Philopator, see Agathoclea.
Agathokleia Theotropa, "the Goddess-like" was an Indo-Greek queen who ruled in parts of northern India as regent for her son Strato I.
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[edit] Date and genealogy
The traditional view, introduced by Tarn and defended as late as 1998 by Bopearachchi, is that Agathokleaia was the widow of Menander I. In the civil wars after Menander's death, the Indo-Greek empire was divided, with Agathokleia and her young son Strato maintaining themselves in the eastern territories of Gandhara and Punjab.
The modern view, embraced by R.C. Senior and probably more solid since it is founded on numismatical analyses, suggests that Agathokleia was a later queen, perhaps ruling from 110-100 BCE or slightly later. In this case, Agathokleia was likely the widow of another king, possibly Nicias or Theophilus.
In either case, Agathokleia was among the first women to rule a Hellenistic kingdom, in the period following the reign of Alexander the Great.
Some of her subjects may have been reluctant to accept an infant king with a queen regent: unlike the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms, almost all Indo-Greek rulers were depicted as grown men. This was probably because the kings were required to command armies, as can be seen on their coins where they are often depicted with helmets and spears. Agathokleia seems to have associated herself with Athena, the goddess of war. Athena was also the dynastic deity of the family of Menander, and Agathokleia's prominent position suggests that she was herself the daughter of a king, though she was probably too late to have been a daughter of the Bactrian king Agathocles .
The coins of Agathokleia and Strato were all bilingual, and Agathokleia's name appears more often in the Greek legend than in the Indian. This seems to indicate that the idea of a female ruler was more acceptable to the Greeks.
[edit] Coins of Agathokleia
(See Strato I for details of legends.)
Most of Agathokleia's coins were struck jointly with her son Strato, though on their first issues, he is not featured on the portrait.
Silver: Bust of Agathokleia / walking king
Bust of Strato & Agathokleia conjoined / Athena Alkidemos
Bronzes: Bust of either helmeted Athena or Agathokleia as a personification of this goddess / sitting Herakles
The later king Heliokles II overstruck some of Agathokleia's coins.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- W.W. Tarn. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Third edition. Cambridge: University Press, 1966.
- Main coins of Agathokleia
| Preceded by: Menander I |
Indo-Greek Ruler (Gandhara, Punjab) |
Succeeded by: Strato I |
