Polyxenos Epiphanes Soter
Polyxenos Epiphanes Soter | |
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Indo-Greek king | |
Coin of Polyxenus. | |
Reign | c. 100 BCE |
Polyxenos Epiphanes Soter (Greek: Πολύξενος ὁ Ἐπιφανῆς, ὁ Σωτήρ; epithets mean respectivelly, "the Illustrious", "the Saviour") was an Indo-Greek king who ruled briefly in western Punjab or Gandhara.
Time of reign
Bopearachchi places Polyxenos c. 100 BCE[1] and R. C. Senior c. 85–80 BCE.
Coins of Polyxenos
Polyxenos, whose portraits depict a diademed young man, struck silver coins which closely resemble those of Strato I. Both kings used the epithets Soter Epiphanes and the reverse of Athena Alkidemos (fighting Pallas Athene), the emblem of the dynasty of Menander I. Polyxenos also struck bronzes with Athena on the obverse and her aegis on the reverse. He issued no Attic silver.
His bronzes depict the head of Athena with a reverse of her aegis.
Polyxenos' coins are few and feature only three monograms: these he shares with Straton I as well as the kings Heliokles II and Archebios, according to Bopearachchi and RC Senior.
He was therefore likely to have been a brief contestant for power in the central Indo-Greek kingdom after the presumably violent death of Straton I, who was possibly his father.
Notes
References
- Osmund Bopearachchi, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: American Numismatic Society, part 9, Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Coins, 1998, American Numismatic Society, ISBN 0-89722-273-3.
Preceded by Heliokles II (?) |
Indo-Greek ruler in Paropamisade, Arachosia c. 100 BCE |
Succeeded by Philoxenus |