Lysias Anicetus (

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 Invincible") 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.

Time of reign

According to numismatist

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 ...

, Lysias was a close successor to

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 ...

and

Zoilos I Zoilus I Dicaeus ( grc, Ζωΐλος Δίκαιος, Zōïlos Dikaios; epithet means "the Just") was an Indo-Greek king who ruled in Afghanistan and Pakistan and occupied the areas of the Paropamisade and Arachosia previously held by Menander I ...

, and therefore may have ruled around 130–120 BCE. R. C. Senior suggests a similar date. Bopearachchi suggests that Lysias' territory covered the areas of the

Paropamisade 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 ...

and

Arachosia Arachosia () is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy situated in the eastern parts of the Achaemenid empire. It was centred around the valley of the Arghandab River in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended as far east as the In ...

, but his coins have been found in the Punjab and it is possible that Lysias ruled most of the Indo-Greek territory for a period, though perhaps in cooperation with

Antialcidas Antialcidas Nikephoros ( grc, Ἀντιαλκίδας ὁ Νικηφόρος; epithet means "the Victorious", Brahmi: 𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀮𑀺𑀓𑀺𑀢𑀲 ''Aṃtalikitasa'', in the Heliodorus Pillar) was a king of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, who re ...

, with whom he shared most of his monograms. Lysias apparently claimed to be a descendant of

Demetrius Demetrius is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning “Demetris” - "devoted to goddess Demeter". Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, Dimitri, Dimitrie, Dimitar, Dumit ...

, using a similar reverse of Heracles crowning himself, Demetrius' epithet ''Invincible'', and sometimes the elephant crown always worn by this king. A similar reverse was also used by Zoilus I, who may have ruled some decades earlier and was likely an enemy of Menander. Lysias' rule seems to have begun after the murder of Menander's infant son

Thrason Thraso (Greek: ), latinized as Thrason, was an Indo-Greek king in Central and Western Punjab, unknown until the 1982 discovery of one of his coins by R. C. Senior in the Surana hoard. The coin is in a style similar to those of Menander I, has the s ...

, and since his coins do not resemble Menander's it seems as though he, just as Zoilus, belonged to a competing line. Despite his magnificent coinage, his policies were probably rather defensive. The Bactrian kingdom had recently fallen to invading nomads and though the Indo-Greeks managed to avoid the same fate, they became isolated from the Hellenistic world.

Coin types

Lysias issued a number of bilingual Indian coins. On his silver portrait types he appears either diademed or dressed in various types of headgear worn by earlier kings: the elephant scalp of Demetrios I, a bull's horns helmet or Corinthian helmet with scales, and the Greek flat hat "kausia". He also appeared throwing a spear. The reverse is always

Herakles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

crowning himself, and holding his club, with the new addition of a palm to signify victory. He also issued a series of Attic tetradrachms, and even smaller denominations (a hemidrachm is known) for circulation in Bactria. His Indian type square bronzes show a bust of

/elephant.

"Mule coins" (overstrikes)

There is a bronze which features the obverse of Lysias and the reverse of

. This was interpreted by Tarn and other earlier scholars as though the two kings might have forged some kind of alliance, but later, a bronze with the opposite arrangement was found. The modern view is that these coins were "mules"--in other words, an improperly overstruck issue of one of the pertinent rulers. While not signs of an alliance, they still suggest that Lysias' and Antialcidas' reigns were adjacent. Image:Lysias-150.jpg, Lysias with elephant scalp and

. Image:Lysias-156.jpg, Lysias with kausia, and Herakles. Image:Lysias-157.jpg, Coin of Lysias, with bust of Herakles with club, and elephant in reverse.

References

* ''The Greeks in Bactria and India'', W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press

External links

Coins of Lysias
{{Hellenistic rulers Indo-Greek kings 2nd-century BC rulers in Asia

Time of reign

Coin types

"Mule coins" (overstrikes)

See also

References

External links