Heliocles I ( grc, Ἡλιοκλῆς, Helioklēs; reigned 145–120 BCE) was a Greco-Bactrian king, brother and successor of Eucratides the Great, and considered (along with his co-ruler and son/nephew

Heliocles II Heliocles II Dicaeus ( Greek: ; epithet means "the just") is thought to have been one of the later Indo-Greek kings and a relative of the Bactrian king Heliocles I. Current scholarly consensus is that he ruled ca 95–80 BCE. Heliocles II se ...

) the last Greek king to reign over the Bactrian country. His reign was a troubled one; according to Roman historian Justin, Eucratides was murdered crossing the Hindu Kush by one of his sons, although this is highly disputed and Justin fails to name the perpetrator. Eucratides’ death led to instability, even civil war, which caused the Indian parts of the empire to be lost to Indo-Greek king Menander I and southern

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

to be lost to the Yuezhi.

Yuezhi invasion

From 130 BCE a nomadic people, the Yuezhi, started to invade

from the north and we could assume that Heliocles was killed in battle during this invasion. Details from Chinese sources seem to indicate that the nomad invasion did not end civilisation in Bactria entirely. Hellenised cities continued to exist for some time, and the well-organised agricultural systems were not demolished. The Yuezhi would copy and adapt the coin types of Heliokles for a long time.

Continuation of the Indo-Greek kingdom

Even if this was the end of the original Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

continued to rule in northwestern India to the beginning of the 1st century AD, under the Indo-Greek Kingdom. It is unclear whether 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 ...

of Eucratides was extinguished with the death of Heliocles I or if members of the family emigrated eastwards. Several later Indo-Greek kings, including

, struck coins which could be associated with the dynasty.

References

* ''The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies'' by Thomas McEvilley (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002) * ''Buddhism in Central Asia'' by B. N. Puri (Motilal Banarsidass Pub, January 1, 2000) * ''The Greeks in Bactria and India'', W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.

External links

Coins of Heliocles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heliocles 01 Greco-Bactrian kings 2nd-century BC rulers in Asia Diodotid dynasty Greek Buddhist monarchs