Agathocles of Bactria

Agathocles I Dicaeus (, meaning "Agathocles the Just") was a Greco-Bactrian/Indo-Greek king, who reigned between around 190 and 180 BC. He was likely from the dynasty of Euthydemus I, but he is also known to have commemorated both Diodotus I and Antiochus Nicator. It has been proposed to be an illegitimate son of Diodotus II.

Accounts and discovery

There is a near-complete lack of written sources except an extensive coinage.

Agathocles was first discovered by Johann Martin Honigberger in 1834, with hoards of coins being discovered at a rapid pace. No sooner had Desiré-Raoul Rochette held him to be the founder of the Bactrian dynasty than he was rejected by Christian Lassen, who felt that Agathocles was a contemporary of Demetrius and Eucratides I. The Greek Legend reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ, Basileōs Agathokleous, "of King Agathocles".|320x320px]]

Agathocles's father may have been Diodotus II, and he would therefore have been illegitimate. Bronze and silver mints were commonplace. Copper mints having significant Nickel were discovered by Flight in 1868; François Widemann believes them to have had an intermediate value between bronze and silver.

Commemorative coinage

Agathocles issued a series of coins mentioning a variety of rulers.

1. Zeus standing with goddess Hecate. This coin is in bronze.

3. Hindu god Balarama-Samkarshana with attributes. Greek: "King Agathokles".

4. Hindu god Vāsudeva-Krishna with attributes. Brahmi: "Rajane Agathukleyasa", "King Agathokles".

In 1880, a coin of the same kind struck by Agathocles but "commemorating" Alexander, Son of Philip, was published by Percy Garnder of British Museum. In the early-mid 1900, Hugh Rawinson and William Tarn would extrapolate Gardner's ideas to further their visions of a grand Hellenistic past where Agathocles had faked his pedigree and Eucratides I was carrying out the orders of Antiochus IV to reestablish the Seleucid control.

More varieties of these coins would be discovered later. The precise context of minting and significance is still not clear. Monolingual coinage (in Kharosthi) of similar kinds have been discovered.

These finds have led scholars to conclude that Agathocles favored socio-religious tolerance.

File:Bilingual Coin of Agathocles of Bactria.jpg|Buddhist coin of Agathocles, with stupa surmounted by a star, and vegetal symbol.

File:Agatocles Chaitya.jpg|A six-arched hill symbol surmounted by a star. Kharoshthi legend Akathukreyasa "Agathocles". Tree-in-railing, Kharoshthi legend Hirañasame.

File:Agathokles coin.jpg|Agathokles coin Rajaye Agathukleya (Brahmi script).

File:AgathoklesCoinage.jpg|Indian coinage of Agathocles. Obv Lion with Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ. Rev Lakshmi, with Brahmi legend Rajane Agathukleyasa "King Agathocles".

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Hindu

thumb|Coin of Agathocles Obv ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ ([[Basileus|Basileōs Agathokleous). Rev 𑀭𑀚𑀦𑁂 𑀅𑀕𑀣𑀼𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀮𑁂𑀬𑁂𑀲 Rajane Agathukleyesa "King Agathocles".|320x320px]]

On 3 October 1970, six Indian-standard silver drachmas were discovered at the administrative quarters of Ai-Khanoum from a pilgrim's water vessel by a team of French archaeologists. These coins are the first numismatic representations of Vedic deities and serve as key evidences about Bhagavatism being the first form of Vaishnavism in early India.

The coins display early Avatars of Vishnu: Balarama-Sankarshana with attributes of pestle and plow on reverse, and Vāsudeva-Krishna with attributes of Shankha and Sudarshana Chakra on obverse. These coins used the symbolism of Dionysos with a thyrsus over his left shoulder and his panther, which were his type for smaller coinage.

It has long been suggested that the nickel contained in the coins of Agathocles was ultimately of Chinese origin (Chinese Baitong, 白铜, "white copper"), and that they were indicative of the existence of trade links with China around that time. However, a recent archaeometallurgical study of trace elements has shown that nickel in these coins actually came from natural nickeliferous copper ore.

Decipherment of the Brahmi script

thumb|upright=1|Identical regnal names Agathuklayesa ([[Brahmi script|Brahmi: 𑀅𑀕𑀣𑀼𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀮𑁂𑀬𑁂𑀲) and Agathokleous (Greek: ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ) on a bilingual coin of Agathocles, used by Christian Lassen to decipher securely the first Brahmi letters.

The first successful attempts at deciphering the ancient Brahmi script of the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE were made in 1836 by Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen, who used the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coins of Indo-Greek kings Agathocles and Pantaleon to correctly and securely identify several Brahmi letters. The task was then completed by James Prinsep, an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the East India Company, who was able to identify the rest of the Brahmi characters, with the help of Major Cunningham. In a series of results that he published in March 1838 Prinsep was able to translate the inscriptions on a large number of rock edicts found around India, and provide, according to Richard Salomon, a "virtually perfect" rendering of the full Brahmi alphabet.

Gallery

File:Agathocles the Just.jpg|Silver coin of Agathocles. The obverse shows the king's portrait wearing a diadem. The reverse shows standing Zeus holding goddess Hecate and sceptre. Greek legend reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔIKAIOY ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ, Basileōs Dikaiou Agathokleous, "of King Agathocles the Just".

File:Agathokles middle-aged.jpg|Another silver coin of king Agathocles. The obverse with the king's portrait wearing diadem and reverse with standing Zeus holding Hecate and sceptre.

File:Agathokles commemorative coin for Diodotos Sotiros.jpg|Another coin of Agathocles, commemorating Diodotus I Soter, with the Greek legend: ΔIOΔOTOY ΣΩTHPOΣ, "of Diodotus the Saviour". The reverse shows Zeus holding aegis and thunderbolt and advancing left.