Timeline of Indo-Greek kingdoms

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Within the Indo-Greek Kingdom there were over 30 kings, often in competition on different territories. Many of them are only known through their coins.

Many of the dates, territories, and relationships between Indo-Greek kings are tentative and essentially based on

numismatic analysis (find places, overstrikes, monograms, metallurgy, styles), a few Classical writings, and Indian writings and epigraphic evidence. The following list of kings, dates and territories after the reign of Demetrius is derived from the latest and most extensive analysis on the subject, by Osmund Bopearachchi
("Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Catalogue Raisonné", 1991).

Eastern territories

The descendants of the

Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus
invaded northern India around 180 BC as far as the Punjab.

Demetrius I, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom (r.c. 205-171 BC).
  • Greco-Bactrian king, and conqueror of India. Coins

The territory ruled by Demetrius, from

Mathura
, was ruled by a succession of kings, called "Indo-Greek":

Territories of
Mathura (house of Euthydemus
)

Coins

The usurper

Hindu-Kush

Territory from
Mathura
(150 - 125 BCE)

  • Menander I (reigned c. 150–125 BC). Successor to Apollodotus. Married to Agathocleia. Legendary for the size of his Kingdom, and his support of the Buddhist faith. Coins
  • Agathokleia (r.c. 130-125 BCE), Probably widow of Menander, Queen-Mother and regent for her son Strato I. Coins

After the death of Menander I, his successors seem to have been pushed back east to Gandhara, losing the Paropamisadae and Arachosia to a Western Indo-Greek kingdom. Some years later the Eastern kings probably had to retreat even further, to Western Punjab.

Territory from
Mathura
(125 - 100 BC)

  • Agathokleia
  • Heliokles II (110 - 100 BC) Coins

The following minor kings who ruled parts of the kingdom:

After around 100 BCE, Indian kings recovered the area of

Mathura and Eastern Punjab east of the Ravi River
, and started to mint their own coins.

The Western king

Philoxenus
briefly occupied the whole remaining Greek territory from the Paropamisadae to Western Punjab between 100 and 95 BC, after what the territories fragmented again. The eastern kings regained their territory as far west as Arachosia.

During the 1st century BC, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground against the invasion of the

Indo-Scythians, until the last king Strato II
ended his ruled in Eastern Punjab around 10 CE.

Territory of Arachosia and Gandhara (95-70 BCE)

Territory of Western
Punjab
(95-55 BC)

Tetradrachm of Hippostratus, reigned circa 65-55 BCE.

Around 80 BCE, parts of Eastern Punjab were regained again:

Territories of Eastern
Punjab
(80 BC - 10 AD)

Western territories

The following kings ruled the western parts of the Indo-Greek/Graeco-Bactrian realms, which are here referred to as the "Western kingdom". Probably after the death of Menander I, the Paropamisadae and Arachosia broke loose, and the Western kings eventually seem to have extended into

Eucratides
.

Territories of the Paropamisadae, Arachosia and Gandhara (130 - 95 BC)

Silver coin of Heliocles (145-130 BC)

After the death of Philoxenus, the Western kingdom fragmented and never became dominating again. The following kings ruled mostly in the Paropamisadae.


Territory of the Paropamisadae (95-70 BC)

The Yuezhi probably then took control of the Paropamisadae after Hermaeus. The first documented Yuezhi prince,

Hermaeus
on his coins, suggesting that he may have been one of his descendants by alliance, or at least wanted to claim his legacy.

Indo-Greek princelets (Gandhara)

After the

Indo-Scythian
Kings became the rulers of northern India, remaining Greek communities were probably governed by lesser Greek rulers, without the right of coinage, into the 1st century CE, in the areas of the Paropamisadae and Gandhara:

  • Theodamas (c. 1st century CE) Indo-Greek ruler of the Bajaur area, northern Gandhara.

The Indo-Greeks may have kept a significant military role towards the 2nd century CE as suggested by the inscriptions of the

Satavahana
kings.

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