Zoilus II

Zoilus II Soter ("The Saviour")
Zoilus II Soter ("The Saviour")
	Indo-Greek king
Reign	55–35 BC

Zoilus II Soter (

Punjab

. Bopearachchi dates his reign to c. 55–35 BC, a date approximately supported by R. C. Senior. It is possible that some of his coins were issued by a separate king, Zoilus III.

Rule

Zoilus seems to have been one of the rulers who succeeded the last important Indo-Greek king

Pallas Athene introduced by Menander I, and usually also the same epithet Soter (Saviour). It is therefore possible that they belonged to the same dynasty, and Zoilus II could also have been related to the earlier king Zoilus I

, but the lack of written sources make all such conjections uncertain.

He may have been the Bactrian ally of

Cleopatra VII referred to by Virgil in his vision of the Battle of Actium

in :

Hinc ope barbarica variisque Antonius armis,
victor ab Aurorae populis et litore rubro,
Aegyptum viresque Orientis et ultima secum
Bactra vehit.

Antony, with barbarous wealth and strange weapons, conqueror of eastern peoples and the Indian shores, bringing Egypt,
and the might of the Orient, with him, and furthest Bactria.

—Virgil, The Aeneid, 8.688^[1]

Coinage

Zoilus II issued silver drachms with diademed portrait and Pallas Athene in rather crude style, and two sorts of bronzes in various denominations: "Apollo, with tripod and small elephant", and "Elephant and tripod".

Zoilus III, a separate king?

The portraits attributed to Zoilus II could be divided into two groups; one depicting a balding man with hollow cheeks, the other a seemingly younger man with a fringe and round cheeks. As numismatic evidence indicates that the younger portraits are later, recent research has suggested that they be attributed to a younger king, Zoilus III Soter, who would then have been a son and successor of the older Zoilos.^[2]

In particular, the mint mark which is characteristic of the coins of Zoilos with a full head of hair, is a later mint mark used down to the last Indo-Greek kings Strato II and Strato III, suggesting a later reign for Zoilus III.^[2] This mint-mark however was never used by the "balding" Zoilus II, or by any king before him.^[2]

Indo-Scythian imitations

The

Kharoshthi legend of his coins.^[2]

The "boxy" mint mark characteristic of Zoilus III and later Indo-Greek kings.
Another coin of the proposed Zoilus III.
Coin of Bhadayasa, an imitation of the proposed Zoilus IIII.

Monograms

Many of the

Dionysios

. Furthermore, the monogram is often identical on their coins, indicating that the moneyer, or the place of mint, were the same.

The coins of Zoilus II combine Greek monograms with

Kharoshthi

monograms are the letters for: sti, ji, ra, ga, gri, ha, stri, ri, bu, a, di, stra, and śi. The "Apollo and tripod" and "Elephant and tripod" types only have Kharoshthi monograms, while the portrait types usually have combinations of Greek and Kharoshthi monograms. The monogram 62 (below) has been shown to be the last Indo-Greek monogram, and only appears on the younger portraits that may belong to Zoilus III.

Findspots

Coin of Zoilus II/III, younger portrait.

Dharmarajika

Buddhist monastery.

The coins of Zoilus II have been found in the

Bopearachchi

, p138).

Also, 25 coins of Zoilus II were found under the foundations of a 1st-century BC rectangular chapel in the monastery of

Dharmarajika, near Taxila.^[3]^[4]

Two coins of Zoilus II were also found in the Bara hoard near Peshawar, together with coins of the Indo-Scythian kings Azes I, Azilises, Azes II.^[5]

Overstrikes

A coin of Zoilus II was overstruck on a coin of Apollodotus II.

Notes

^ Francis Henry Skrine and Edward Denison Ross, The Heart of Asia: A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times, by London, Methuen, 1899, p.19; E. Drouin, “Bactriane”, La Grande Encyclopédie: Inventaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts, Paris, Lamirault, 1885-1902, Tome 4, pp.1115-1122, nb 1118.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jakobsson, J (2010). "A Possible New Indo-Greek King Zoilos III, and an Analysis of Realism on Indo-Greek Royal Portraits". Numismatic Chronicle. JSTOR article
^ "Another group of coins which was found in greater numbers at religious sites, at Dharmarajika in particular, than at Sirkap is that of Zoilos II. A hoard of 25 drachms from the monastery are the only silver coins of Zoilos Soter found at Taxila" Numismatic Digest - Volume 4 - Page 13, 1980
^ John Marshall, "Taxila, Archaeological excavations", p. 248 "The only minor antiquities of interest found in this building were twenty-five debased silver coins of the Greek king Zoilus II, which were brought to light beneath the foundations of the earliest chapel".)
^ Reference

References

The Greeks in Bactria and India, W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
Indo-Greek Coins, R. B. Whitehead, 1914.

Preceded by Dionysios	Eastern Punjab ) 55 – 35 BC	Succeeded by Apollophanes

[1] Francis Henry Skrine and Edward Denison Ross, The Heart of Asia: A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times, by London, Methuen, 1899, p.19; E. Drouin, “Bactriane”, La Grande Encyclopédie: Inventaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts, Paris, Lamirault, 1885-1902, Tome 4, pp.1115-1122, nb 1118.

[JJ-2] Jakobsson, J (2010). "A Possible New Indo-Greek King Zoilos III, and an Analysis of Realism on Indo-Greek Royal Portraits". Numismatic Chronicle. JSTOR article

[3] "Another group of coins which was found in greater numbers at religious sites, at Dharmarajika in particular, than at Sirkap is that of Zoilos II. A hoard of 25 drachms from the monastery are the only silver coins of Zoilos Soter found at Taxila" Numismatic Digest - Volume 4 - Page 13, 1980

[4] John Marshall, "Taxila, Archaeological excavations", p. 248 "The only minor antiquities of interest found in this building were twenty-five debased silver coins of the Greek king Zoilus II, which were brought to light beneath the foundations of the earliest chapel".)

[5] Reference

[6] O. Bopearachchi, "Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques, Catalogue raisonné", Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1991, p.453

[7] Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2 April 2019). "History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE". BRILL – via Google Books.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[t 1]

[t 2]

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