Lysias Anikitou ("The Invincible") was an Indo-Greek king who ruled between around 120-110 BCE in Northern India in the area of Punjab. He was probably a successor of King Zoilos I.
His territory extended from the mid-Punjab at the Jhelum River in the West to Mathura in the East, with the probable capital at Sagala (modern Sialkot) in the northern Punjab, or possibly to the city of Bucephala (Plutarch, p. 48 n. 5).
Coin types
Lysias' coins use almost entirely the type of King Demetrius: the elephant scalp, Herakles standing, crowning himself, and holding his club, with the single addition of a palm to signify victory. On some other coins, he can be helmeted, or wearing the Greek flat hat "kausia".
His "Indian type" square copper coinage show a bust of Herakles, with an "elephant god" on reverse.
Lysias with elephant scalp and Herakles.
|
Lysias with helmet, and Herakles.
|
Lysias with kausia, and Herakles.
|
Lysias with diadem, and Herakles.
|
Lysias with helmet and spear, with a small elephant on the shoulder in place of aegis.
|
Coin of Lysias, with bust of Herakles with club, and elephant in reverse.
|
East-West alliance
Lysias issued some coins which bear the name of the "Western" king Antialcidas on the reverse, in the Kharoshthi script: MAHARAJASA JAYADHARASA AMTIALIKIDASA "The victorious king Antialcidas", together with the pilei (hats) of the Dioscuri, a type typical of Antialcidas. The obverse is a bust of Herakles with the Greek legend BASILEOS ANIKITOU LUSIOU "Invicible King Lysias" (British Museum Catalogue). The two kings probably forged some kind of alliance, between the "Eucratides House" in the West and the "Euthydemid House" in the East, which may have remained until the last Indo-Greek kings, as suggested by the marital coins of Hermaeus.
See also
References
- "The Greeks in Bactria and India" W.W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press
External links
