1.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
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The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was – along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom – the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC. It was centered on the north of present-day Afghanistan, the expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into present-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan from 180 BC established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which was to last until around 10 AD. Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom when he seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC, the preserved ancient sources are somewhat contradictory, and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a chronology and a low chronology for Diodotos’ secession. The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire. Diodotus, the governor of the cities of Bactria, defected and proclaimed himself king, all the other people of the Orient followed his example. Their cities were Bactra, and Darapsa, and several others, among these was Eucratidia, which was named after its ruler. In 247 BC, the Ptolemaic empire captured the Seleucid capital, in the resulting power vacuum, the satrap of Parthia proclaimed independence from the Seleucids, declaring himself king. A decade later, he was defeated and killed by Arsaces of Parthia and this cut Bactria off from contact with the Greek world. Overland trade continued at a rate, while sea trade between Greek Egypt and Bactria developed. Euthydemus, a Magnesian Greek according to Polybius and possibly satrap of Sogdiana, overthrew the dynasty of Diodotus I around 230-220 BC, and the Iaxartes forms also the boundary between the Sogdians and the nomads. Euthydemus was attacked by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III around 210 BC, although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat. Following the departure of the Seleucid army, the Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded, in the west, areas in north-eastern Iran may have been absorbed, possibly as far as into Parthia, whose ruler had been defeated by Antiochus the Great. These territories possibly are identical with the Bactrian satrapies of Tapuria, the Greek historian Strabo too writes that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni. Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been north of the Tien Shan, on the doorstep to China. Greek influences on Chinese art have also been suggested, designs with rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences, can be found on some early Han dynasty bronze mirrors. The practice of exporting Chinese metals, in iron, for trade is attested around that period
2.
Demetrius I of Bactria
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Demetrius I was a Greek king of Gandhara. He was never defeated in battle and was qualified as the Invincible on the pedigree coins of his successor Agathocles. Demetrius I may have been the initiator of the Yavana era, starting in 186-185 BC, Demetrius was the name of at least two and probably three Greek kings of Bactria. The much debated Demetrius II was a relative, whereas Demetrius III, is known only from numismatic evidence. Demetrius I was also known as the second Alexander, the father of Demetrius, Euthydemus, was attacked by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III around 210 BC. Although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat and he then successfully resisted a three-year siege in the fortified city of Bactra, before Antiochus finally decided to recognize the new ruler. The final negotiations were made between Antiochus III and Demetrius, polybius 11.34 The term used for young prince is neaniskos, suggesting an age around 16, which in turn gives a birth date for Demetrius around 222 BC. Demetrius started the invasion of northwestern India in 180 BC, following the destruction of the Mauryan dynasty by the general Pushyamitra Shunga, the Mauryans had diplomatic alliances with the Greeks, and they may have been considered as allies by the Greco-Bactrians. The Greco-Bactrians may also have invaded India in order to protect Greek populations in the subcontinent, in his Parthian stations, Isidorus of Charax mentions a colony named Demetrias, supposedly founded by Demetrius himself, Beyond is Arachosia. As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians and it is generally considered that Demetrius ruled in Taxila. The Indian records also describes Greek attacks on Saketa, Panchala, however, the campaigns to Pataliputra are generally attested to the later king Menander I and Demetrius I probably only invaded areas in Pakistan. Other kings may have expanded the territory as well, by c.175 BC, the Indo-Greeks ruled parts of northwestern India, while the Shungas remained in the Gangetic, Central, and Eastern India. The Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga king Kharavela mentions that fearing him, the name of the Yavana king is not clear, but it contains three letters, and the middle letter can be read as ma or mi. Some historians, such as R. D. Banerji and K. P, jayaswal reconstructed the name of the Yavana king as Dimita, and identified him with Demetrius. However, several historians, such as Ramaprasad Chanda, Sailendra Nath Sen. At the same time coinage technology also evolved, as double-die coins started to appear, the archaeological excavations of coins have shown that these coins, as well as the new double die coins, were contemporary with those of the Indo-Greeks. According to Osmund Bopearachchi these coins, and particularly those depicting the goddess Lakshmi, were minted by Demetrius I following his invasion of Gandhara. Demetrius I died of unknown reasons, and the date 180 BC is merely a suggestion aimed to allow suitable regnal periods for subsequent kings, even if some of them were co-regents, civil wars and temporary divisions of the empire are most likely
3.
Magnesia (regional unit)
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Magnesia, deriving from the tribe name Magnetes, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Thessaly and its capital is the city of Volos. About 70% of the population of Magnesia live in the Greater Volos area, which is the second-largest city in Thessaly, according to the most recent census, the population stands at 190,010. The regional unit hosts 2,000,000 tourists annually, Magnesia is represented in the Greek Parliament by five seats. Its main agricultural products are wheat, cotton, tomatoes, grapes, olives, apples, a prominent geographic feature of Magnesia is the Pagasetic Gulf, a bay of the Aegean Sea. The Pelion mountain range closes off the Gulf on the east and south side, the highest peak of the wooded Pelion is Pourianos Stavros or Xeforti. On the south edge of Magnesia peninsula Tisaio mountain is found, mt. Maurovouni is the northeasternmost mountain of the regional unit and extends to the neighboring regional unit of Larissa. The southwest border of Magnesia is formed by the Othrys, with its highest peak Gerakovouni, the interior of Magnesia has two plains. The plains southwest of the Pagasetic Gulf arecalled Almyros plains, while the plains northwest of the Gulf are called the Volos-Velestino plain, the hydrological network of Magnesia is not particularly rich and is characterized by the absence of big rivers. The waters coming from Pelion shape the rivers Anavros, Platanorema, in the North section of Magnesia, Lake Karla was formerly found. Lake Karla was drained in 1962, but attempts have been made for its partial restoration, on the bight of Sourpi, next to Amaliapolis a coastal wetland is located, with various species of migratory birds. This wetland together with the forest of Kouri - an infrequent lowland of Oak tree forest close to Almyros - is included in the list of the regions of the European Network Natura 2000. The average temperature is 17 degrees Celsius and the rainfall about 540 millimetres per year. Heat waves and intense cold periods are rare, during the summer the temperature rises up to about 37 to 38 °C in August. The climate varies in different parts of the prefecture, close to the Pagasetic Gulf conditions are humid, in Nea Ionia it is dry and in Velestino. In winter there is significant snowfall in the mountains and often freezing temperatures, the regional unit Magnesia is subdivided into 5 municipalities. These are, Almyros Rigas Feraios South Pelion Volos Zagora-Mouresi Magnesia was created as a prefecture, in addition to the territory of the present regional unit of Magnesia, the Magnesia Prefecture included the Northern Sporades group of islands. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the prefecture was split into the Magnesia, at the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below
4.
Pantaleon
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Pantaleon was a Greek king who reigned some time between 190–180 BCE in Bactria and India. He was a contemporary or successor of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius. The limited size of his coinage indicates a short reign, known evidence suggests that he was replaced by his brother or son Agathocles, by whom he was commemorated on a pedigree coin. This suggests that exchanges of the alloy or technicians happened between China and the region of Bactria. Coins of Pantaleon Catalogue of coins of Pantaleon
5.
Antimachus I
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Anthimachus I Theos was one of the Greco-Bactrian kings, generally dated from around 185 BC to 170 BC. Tarn and numismatist Robert Senior place Antimachus as a member of the Euthydemid dynasty and probably as a son of Euthydemus, other historians, like Narain, mark him as independent of Euthydemid authority, and probably a scion of some relation to the Diodotid dynasty. He was king of an area covering parts of Bactria and probably also Arachosia in southern Afghanistan, Antimachus I was either defeated during his resistance to the usurper Eucratides, or his main territory was absorbed by the latter upon his death. Apparently adding to the argument against direct Euthydemid familial connections, is a unique tax-receipt that states, In the reign of Antimachos Theos and Eumenes, the fourth year, month of Olous, in Asangorna, the guardian of the law being. The tax collector Menodotus, in the presence of, who was also sent out by Demonax, the former. By the agency of Diodorus, controller of revenues, acknowledges receipt from, the son of Dataes from the priests. The dues relating to the purchase, a tax receipt from Hellenistic Bactria. Eumenes and Antimachus could be his heirs, it was standard by Ptolemaic and Seleucid kings to include their sons as joint regents, while Eumenes never issued any coins, a king named Antimachus II Nikephoros later appeared in India. It seems plausible that the Indian Antimachus was identical with the son of Antimachus I, Antimachus I issued a numerous silver coinage on the Attic standard, with his own image in a flat Macedonian kausia hat, and on the reverse Poseidon with his trident. On his coinage, Antimachus called himself Theos, The God, just like his colleague Agathocles, he issued commemorative coinage, in his case silver tetradrachms honouring Euthydemus I, also called The God, and Diodotus I, called The Saviour. This indicates that Antimachus I might have been instrumental in creating a state cult. Antimachus I also issued round bronzes depicting an elephant on the obverse, the elephant could be a Buddhist symbol. These coins are reminiscent of those of Demetrius I, as well as Apollodotus I, other bronzes, square and rather crude, also portray a walking elephant, but with a reverse of a thunderbolt. These have been attributed by Bopearachchi to Arachosia and they are Indian in their design, but the legend is only in Greek. The Greek in Bactria and India, W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press The Decline of the Indo-Greeks, Senior and D. MacDonald, Hellenistic Numismatic Society The Indo-Greeks, A. K. Narain, B. R. Publications Coins of Antimachus More coins of Antimachus
6.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
7.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
"Euthydemus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
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