Diomedes Soter or Diodotus (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ;

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

means "the Saviour") was an

Indo-Greek The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Ancient Greece, Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern r ...

king and possible claimant

Greco-Bactrian The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the India ...

King who may have attempted to reconquer the lands north of the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...

. The places where his coins have been found seem to indicate that his rule was based in the area of the

Paropamisadae Paropamisadae or Parapamisadae (Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι) was a satrapy of the Alexandrian Empire in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, which largely coincided with the Achaemenid province of Parupraesanna. It consisted of the districts o ...

, possibly with temporary dominions further east. Judging from their similar portraits and many overlapping monograms, the young Diomedes seems to have been the heir (and probably a relative) of Philoxenus, the last king to rule before the kingdom of

Menander I Menander I Soter ( grc, Μένανδρος Σωτήρ, Ménandros Sōtḗr, Menander the Saviour; pi, मिलिन्दो, Milinda), was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King (reigned c.165/155Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectivel ...

finally fragmented.

Time of reign

Bopearachchi Osmund Bopearachchi (born 1949) is a Sri Lankan historian and numismatist who has specialized notably standardized the coinage of the Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms. He is currently Emeritus Director of the CNRS at the École Normale Supé ...

dates Diomedes to c. 95–90 BCE and R. C. Senior dates him to c. 115–105 BCE.

Coins of Diomedes (Diodotus)

Diomedes either born Diodotus or reigning as such; perhaps erroneously labelled on legend as Diomedes, is depicted with the

Dioscuri Castor; grc, Κάστωρ, Kástōr, beaver. and Pollux. (or Polydeukes). are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri.; grc, Διόσκουροι, Dióskouroi, sons of Zeus, links=no, f ...

on his coins, either on horseback or standing; both types were previously used by Eucratides the Great, which strongly suggests a likt to the

Diodotid dynasty The Diodotid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty founded by Seleucid viceroy, Diodotus I Soter in 255 BC, ruling the far-eastern Kingdom of Bactria. The dynasty reached its zenith under Eucratides I the Great, who conquered large parts of modern ...

,and further supports the subject of his mistaken name. It is however uncertain how the two were related, since Eucratides I died long before Diomedes. Diomedes minted both Attic-type coins (

style, with Greek legend only), and bilingual coins (with Greek and

Kharoshthi The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and ...

), indicating that he was ruling in the western part of the Indo-Greek territory. One overstrike is known, of a coin of Strato and Agathokleia over a coin of Diomedes.Bopearachchi, ''De l'Indus à l'Oxus'', p. 129 This overstrike could indicate that Diomedes fought over the central areas of the Indo-Greek territories with Strato and Agathokleia.

References

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External links

Coins of DiomedesOther coins of Diomedes
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Le roi Diomède
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diomedes Soter Indo-Greek kings 1st-century BC rulers in Asia Diodotid dynasty

Time of reign

Coins of Diomedes (Diodotus)

See also

References

External links