Wednesday, 9 October 2019

EUCRATIDES II ~ KING OF BACTRIA


Eucratides II or Eukratides II (Greek: Εὐκρατίδης Β΄) was a Greco-Bactrian king who was a successor and probably a son of Eucratides I. It seems likely that Eucratides II ruled for a relatively short time after the murder of his namesake, until he was dethroned in the dynastic civil war caused by the same murder:

"As Eucratides returned from India, he was killed on the way back by his son, whom he had associated to his rule, and who, without hiding his patricide, as if he didn't kill a father but an enemy, ran with his chariot over the blood of his father, and ordered the corpse to be left without a sepulture." Justin XLI,6 
During his earlier years, Eucratides II may have been a co-regent of his father: on his later coins he adds the title Soter (Saviour), which could be an indication that he now ruled in his own right.

Soon after Eucratides' II death, the last Bactrian king Heliocles I (probably another member of the same dynasty) was defeated by the Yuezhi tribes, who expelled the Greek kings from Bactria.

SOURCES:  Wikipedia and Coinindia

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