Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 79, the Indo-Greeks, Homer on the Indus

Whether he was a great conqueror of Buddhist saint, the death of Menando the first Sautaire in approximately 130 BC

marked a turning point for the Indo-Greeks,

both in terms of their overall strength

and our ability to give a coherent reconstruction of its history.

Menander is the final Indo-Greek ruler, chronologically speaking, to be mentioned in any

Greco-Roman text, and yet there are over 20 additional kings and queens that ruled for another

140 years, and almost

all of them are only attested to by their coins.

Indian sources and epigraphy are little better, and are still subject to intense scrutiny.

Outside of broad strokes and individual snapshots, attempting to reconcile the various

competing theories would be an exercise in futility.

But we can give a general approximation of the events that transpired between the second century

BC and the second century AD, not only to document the decline and fall of the Indo-Greek kingdoms,

but also witnessed the development of Indo-Roman trade and assess the legacy of Hellenistic rule in Central and South Asia,

as new kingdoms and empires followed after.

Upon his death, Menander was likely succeeded by a ruling pair, a king named Strato I, and a woman named Agathoclea,

along with another figure named Zoylos I. This queen is unusual

compared to her predecessors, a lack of evidence of royal women notwithstanding. Unlike Lao D.K.,

the mysterious woman who was found sharing the adverse side of a Eucradite coin with a man named

Heliocles, Agathoclea not only is depicted alongside Strato,

but also minted coins bearing her own portrait, along with the title Basilis Theotropu Agathocleus,

...