Phraotes was an Indo-Parthian king of Taxila, in northern

Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

, met by the Greek philosopher

Apollonius of Tyana Apollonius of Tyana ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Τυανεύς; c. 3 BC – c. 97 AD) was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. He is the subject of '' ...

around 46 CE according to the '' Life of Apollonius Tyana'' written by

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...

. Apollonius reported constructions of the Greek type in Taxila, probably referring to

Sirkap Sirkap (Urdu and pnb, ) is the name of an archaeological site on the bank opposite to the city of Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan. The city of Sirkap was built by the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius after he invaded modern-day Pakistan around 180 BC. ...

, and explains that Phraotes speaks Greek fluently, a language he had been educated in while in exile to the east, beyond the river Hyphasis: :"Tell me, O King, how you acquired such a command of the Greek tongue, and whence you derived all your philosophical attainments in this place?" : .."My father, after a Greek education, brought me to the sages at an age somewhat too early perhaps, for I was only twelve at the time, but they brought me up like their own son; for any that they admit knowing the Greek tongue they are especially fond of, because they consider that in virtue of the similarity of his disposition he already belongs to themselves." Coins of a king "Prahat" or "Prahara", thought to be Phraotes, have been found in the area of Taxila, and it has been suggested that he might be identical with the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares.Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, 1968, vol. 30, p. 188-190. A. K. Narain This is however unlikely, as this king was probably much earlier, but he could have been one of the later Indo-Parthian kings who were also named Gondophares.

Notes

Indo-Parthian Kingdom 1st-century Iranian people Zoroastrian rulers