Demetrios I (Bactria)

Silver coin Demetrios I with elephant skull symbolism and Hercules

Demetrios I († around 182 BC or around 175 BC) was a Greco-Bactrian king who ruled from around 200 BC. Ruled. He was the son of his predecessor Euthydemos I . After the first Bactrian rulers had established their empire and had to maintain their independence, especially against the Seleucids , it was Demetrios I who expanded the young empire considerably.

We are only briefly informed about the history of the Greco-Bactrian kings, mainly due to problematic coin finds, whereby it is disputed how many rulers with the name Demetrios there were. It is also sometimes assumed that Demetrios II, a son of Demetrios I, carried out campaigns in India. All of the following information should therefore be used with a certain degree of caution, since the reconstruction of the history of the Greco-Bactrian Empire is largely speculative.

Demetrios fell around 184/183 BC. BC via the Kabul valley in north-west India and conquered the western provinces of the Maurya Empire . The Maurya general Pushyamitra Shunga overthrew the last Maurya ruler and founded the empire of the Shunga dynasty (185-73 BC) on the territory of the vanished Maurya state that he ruled . Demetrios occupied Taxila and marched down the Indus to Patala ; he renamed the city Demetrias . He then advanced to central India and finally to the Ganges , where he began the siege of Pataliputra , the ancient capital of Maurya. Demetrios' rapid successes can be explained in part by the fact that Shunga pursued an anti-Buddhist (albeit moderate) policy, so that many welcomed the Greeks as liberators. Like Alexander the Great , he was depicted with an elephant scalp on silver coins and referred to as Aníketos ("the invincible").

But before Pataliputra, Demetrios learned that a rebellion had broken out in the Bactrian heartland. A certain Eucratides , who appears to have been loyal to the Seleucids, rose. Demetrios then gave up most of his conquests in India, only in the west did he leave his brother Apollodotos and his general Menander as governors. Demetrios himself was defeated by Eucratides, who also defeated Apollodotus. Only Menander was able to stay in India and founded the Indo-Greek Empire .

literature

• Abodh K. Narain: The Greeks of Bactria and India. In: IES Edwards et al: The Cambridge Ancient History . Volume 8: Alan E. Astin, Frank W. Walbank , Marten W. Frederiksen (eds.): Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1989, ISBN 0-521-23448-4 , pp. 399 ff., Doi : 10.1017 / CHOL9780521234481.012 .
• William W. Tarn: The Greeks in Bactria and India. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1951, pp. 129 ff. (Detailed, but partly speculative).

Web links

Commons : Demetrios I.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Philip Huyse: Epigraphy ii. Greek inscriptions from ancient Iran . In: Ehsan Yarshater (ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica . Volume 7 (3), Paragraph 323, accessed on June 9, 2011 (English, including references)
• Robert C. Senior: Indo-Scythian Dynasty . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica , as of: July 20, 2005, accessed on June 9, 2011 (English, including references)
• Pierre Leriche, Franz Grenet: Bactria . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica , as of December 15, 1988, accessed on June 9, 2011 (English, including references)
• Hugo Willrich : Demetrios 43 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2802.

Remarks

1. ↑ Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, was groundbreaking at the time . AK Narain, The Indo-Greeks , revised and expanded edition, New Delhi 2003 (first edition 1957) should be used as a corrective , even if Narain is sometimes too harshly judged by Tarn's theses.
2. ↑ The exact background is not clear, however.

predecessor	Office	successor
Euthydemus I.	Greco-Bactrian King 200–182 BC Chr.	Euthydemus II