Heliocles (Greek: Ἡλιοκλῆς; reigned 145–130 BCE) was a Greco-Bactrian king, relative (son or brother) and successor of Eucratides the Great, and probably the last Greek King to reign over the Bactrian country. His reign was a troubled one; according to Roman historian Justin, Eucratides was murdered by his son and co-ruler, though Justin fails to name the perpetrator. The patricide might have 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 to be lost to the Yuezhi.
Some of the horse reverse Heliocles imitations have an extremely interesting aspect: a tamgha on the horse's rump. This tamgha closely resembles the tamgha on the coins of the nameless king "Soter Megas" who issued coins after the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises and is now thought by many to be the grandfather of Kanishka, Vima Takha. This has led some to speculate that these Heliocles imitations were issued by the same king. The tamgha does create a link between these coins and those of Soter Megas, suggesting that the issuers of this coin belonged to the same tribe as Soter Megas.
From 130 BCE a nomadic people, the Yuezhi, started to invade Bactria 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.
Even if this was the end of the original Greco-Bactrian Κingdom, the Greeks continued to rule in northwestern India to the end of the 1st century BCE, under the Indo-Greek Kingdom. It is unclear whether the dynasty of Eucratides was extinguished with the death of Heliocles I or if members of the family emigrated eastwards. Several later Indo-Greek kings, including Heliocles II, struck coins which could be associated with the dynasty.
Source: Wikipedia
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