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109-602: Euthydemus was an Ionian-Greek from one of the Magnesias in Ionia , though it is uncertain from which one ( Magnesia on the Maeander or Magnesia ad Sipylum ), and was the father of Demetrius I , according to Strabo and Polybius . William Woodthorpe Tarn proposed that Euthydemus was the son of a Greek general called Antimachus or Apollodotus, born c. 295 BC, whom he considered to be the son of Sophytes , and that he married

218-459: A bearded male head, identified as Heracles, on the obverse and a rearing horse on the reverse with the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜΟΥ ('of King Euthydemos'). The earlier coins have thick flans with beveled edges (like the bronze of the Diodotids) and no monograms. These coins were issued in four denominations, referred to by modern scholars as a double unit (5.26-11.82 g), a single unit (2.95-5.07 g),

327-550: A few have a trident, anchor with ΔΙ, or an Ε. The anchor was one of the main symbols of the Seleucid dynasty and ΔΙ is a monogram used by the Seleucids, so Holt interpreted it as commemorating Euthydemus' treaty with Antiochus III in 206 BC. Simon Glenn is sceptical of this argument, seeing the anchor and other symbols as control marks, but he entertains the possibility that the anchor indicates "a shared production process" between

436-405: A half unit (1.47-2.28 g), and a quarter unit (0.76-0.79 g). Some of the quarter units have a horse's head or a trident on the reverse instead of the usual reverse type. Apparently later issues have thinner, flat flans. These bronzes were minted in the double, single, and half denominations. Most of them have no monograms, but some of them bear the ΡΚ symbol associated with Groups IV-VII at Mint B, and

545-772: A land subsequently called Achaea after him. Another son of Xuthus, Ion , conquered Thrace , after which the Athenians made him king of Athens. Attica was called Ionia after his death. Those Ionians colonized Aigialia changing its name to Ionia also. When the Heracleidae returned the Achaeans drove the Ionians back to Athens. Under the Codridae they set forth for Anatolia and founded 12 cities in Caria and Lydia following

654-498: A number of Old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire as Yaunā ( 𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠 ), a nominative plural masculine, singular Yauna; for example, an inscription of Darius on the south wall of the palace at Persepolis includes in the provinces of the empire "Ionians who are of the mainland and (those) who are by the sea, and countries which are across the sea; ...." At that time the empire probably extended around

763-866: A ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid rule. The territories of the Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of Chorasmia that included much of the territory between the Oxus and the Iaxartes rivers, and the Saka then supplied the Achaemenid army with a large number of mounted bowmen. According to Polyaenus , Darius fought against three armies led by three kings, respectively named Sacesphares , Amorges or Homarges , and Thamyris , with Polyaenus's account being based on accurate Persian historical records. After Darius's administrative reforms of

872-510: A single example weighing 32.73 g. This issue is generally associated with the end of Antiochus III's siege of Bactra in 206 BC. Group III is much smaller than previous issues at Mint A and is the last issue produced by the mint in Euthydemus' reign. At Mint B, the introduction of portrait 4 coincides with the large issue of Groups VI and VII (B17). In addition to the precious metal coinage, Euthydemus also produced bronze coins. Almost all have

981-823: A single group of Sakā . However, following Darius I 's campaign of 520 to 518 BC against the Asian nomads, they were differentiated into two groups, both living in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea: A third name was added after the Darius's campaign north of the Danube : An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere: Moreover, Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions mention two groups of Saka: The scholar David Bivar had tentatively identified

1090-537: A sister of the Greco-Bactrian king Diodotus II . Little is known of his reign until 208 BC when he was attacked by Antiochus III the Great , whom he tried in vain to resist on the shores of the river Arius ( Battle of the Arius ), the modern Harirud. Although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat. He then successfully resisted a three-year siege in

1199-529: A substantial divergence from the usual iconography of Hellenistic kings, whose coinage usually showed them in a youthful, idealised guise, regardless of their age. Portrait type 4 has been compared with a Roman-period bust in the Torlonia Collection , which was accordingly identified by Jan Six (art historian) in 1894 as a bust of Euthydemus, known as the "Torlonia Euthydemus." This identification has been contested by R. R. R. Smith , who identifies

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1308-547: Is a further indication, alongside the passages from Polybius, that Euthydemus had made his son Demetrius a junior partner in his rule during his lifetime. The reference to Demetrius as a "glorious conqueror" might refer to a specific victory, in the conflict with Antiochus III or in India, or look forward to future victories. Euthydemus minted coins in gold, silver and bronze at two mints, known as 'Mint A' and 'Mint B'. He produced significantly more coins than any of his successors and

1417-552: Is connected semantically with the name Saka. The region once again came under Chinese suzerainty with the campaigns of conquest by Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649). From the late eighth to ninth centuries, the region changed hands between the rival Tang and Tibetan Empires . However, by the early 11th century the region fell to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the Kara-Khanid Khanate , which led to both

1526-506: Is correct, at least some of the Ionian marauders came from Cyprus : Sargon's Annals for 709, claiming that tribute was sent to him by 'seven kings of Ya (ya-a'), a district of Yadnana whose distant abodes are situated a seven-days' journey in the sea of the setting sun', is confirmed by a stele set up at Citium in Cyprus 'at the base of a mountain ravine ... of Yadnana.' Ionians appear in

1635-416: Is very similar to images of Diodotus I on his coinage. The second shows him with a tall, large face with heavier jowls; his eye is smaller and the diadem is much narrower. The third portrait is similar, but with the hair above his forehead stylised as a series of semicircles. Finally, in the fourth portrait style, Euthydemus is portrayed as a visibly aged man with very large jowls; his hair also interacts with

1744-620: The Sakā haumavargā of his ally Amorges, later carried out a campaign against the Massagetae / Sakā tigraxaudā in 530 BC. According to Herodotus, Cyrus captured a Massagetaean camp by ruse, after which the Massagetae queen Tomyris led the tribe's main force against the Persians, defeated them, and placed the severed head of Cyrus in a sack full of blood. Some versions of the records of

1853-482: The Sakā haumavargā , lived on the north-east border of the Achaemenid Empire on the Iaxartes river. Some other Saka groups lived to the east of the Pamir Mountains and to the north of the Iaxartes river , as well as in the regions corresponding to modern-day Qirghizia , Tian Shan , Altai , Tuva , Mongolia , Xinjiang , and Kazakhstan . The Sək , that is the Saka who were in contact with

1962-604: The Sakā tigraxaudā . Although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and " Cimmerian " for all the steppe nomads, modern scholars now use the term Saka to refer specifically to Iranian peoples who inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin ; and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian , they may have differed ethnically from

2071-614: The Sk tꜣ with the Sakā haumavargā , and John Manuel Cook had tentatively identified the Sꜣg pḥ with the Sakā tigraxaudā . More recently, the scholar Rüdiger Schmitt has suggested that the Sꜣg pḥ and the Sk tꜣ might have collectively designated the Sakā tigraxaudā /Massagetae. The Achaemenid king Xerxes I listed the Saka coupled with the Dahā ( 𐎭𐏃𐎠 ) people of Central Asia, who might possibly have been identical with

2180-770: The Asioi , Pasianoi , Tokharoi and Sakaraulai – came from land north of the Syr Darya where the Ili and Chu valleys are located. Identification of these four tribes varies, but Sakaraulai may indicate an ancient Saka tribe, the Tokharoi is possibly the Yuezhi, and while the Asioi had been proposed to be groups such as the Wusun or Alans . René Grousset wrote of the migration of

2289-615: The Archaic and Classical periods, both in poetry and prose. The works of Homer ( The Iliad , The Odyssey , Homeric Hymns ) and of Hesiod were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek . Ionic was eventually supplanted by the Attic dialect which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world by the 5th century BC. The literary evidence of

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2398-831: The Caspian Sea and the Hungry steppe , and those who lived to the north of the Danube and the Black Sea . The Assyrians meanwhile called these nomads the Ishkuzai ( Akkadian : 𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀 Iškuzaya ) or Askuzai ( Akkadian : 𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 Asguzaya , 𒆳𒊍𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀 mat Askuzaya , 𒆳𒀾𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 mat Ášguzaya ), and the Ancient Greeks called them Skuthai ( Ancient Greek : Σκύθης Skúthēs , Σκύθοι Skúthoi , Σκύθαι Skúthai ). The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed

2507-707: The Dian Kingdom in Yunnan , China . In the Tarim Basin and Taklamakan Desert of today's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region , they settled in Khotan , Yarkand , Kashgar and other places. Linguist Oswald Szemerényi studied synonyms of various origins for Scythian and differentiated the following terms: Sakā 𐎿𐎣𐎠 , Skuthēs Σκύθης , Skudra 𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼 , and Sugᵘda 𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭 . Derived from an Iranian verbal root sak- , "go, roam" (related to "seek") and thus meaning "nomad"

2616-638: The Eurasian Steppe , following which the Scythians displaced the Cimmerians and the Agathyrsi , who were also nomadic Iranian peoples closely related to the Massagetae and the Scythians, conquered their territories, and invaded Western Asia , where their presence had an important role in the history of the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia , Anatolia , Egypt , and Iran . During

2725-828: The Hexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu , who conquered the area in 177–176 BC. In turn the Yuehzhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai ( i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where, between 140 and 130 BC, the latter crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria. The Saka also moved southwards toward the Pamirs and northern India, where they settled in Kashmir, and eastward, to settle in some of

2834-671: The Mathura lion capital belonging to the Saka kingdom of the Indo-Scythians (200 BC – 400 AD) in North India , roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of Jibin 罽賓 (i.e. Kashmir , of modern-day India and Pakistan). Iaroslav Lebedynsky and Victor H. Mair speculate that some Sakas may also have migrated to the area of Yunnan in southern China following their expulsion by

2943-820: The Pazyryk burials , the Issyk kurgan , Saka Kurgan tombs , the Barrows of Tasmola and possibly Tillya Tepe . In the 2nd century BC, many Sakas were driven by the Yuezhi from the steppe into Sogdia and Bactria and then to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent , where they were known as the Indo-Scythians . Other Sakas invaded the Parthian Empire , eventually settling in Sistan , while others may have migrated to

3052-576: The Pazyryk culture in the Ukok Plateau in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC are thought to be of Saka chieftains. These burials show striking similarities with the earlier Tarim mummies at Gumugou . The Issyk kurgan of south-eastern Kazakhstan , and the Ordos culture of the Ordos Plateau has also been connected with the Saka. It has been suggested that the ruling elite of the Xiongnu

3161-678: The Peloponnesus , dwelt in what is now called Achaea , and before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnesus, as the Greeks say, they were called Aegialian Pelasgians . They were named Ionians after Ion the son of Xuthus . Achaea was divided into 12 communities originally Ionian: Pellene , Aegira , Aegae , Bura , Helice , Aegion , Rhype, Patrae , Phareae, Olenus , Dyme and Tritaeae. The most aboriginal Ionians were of Cynuria: The Cynurians are aboriginal and seem to be

3270-693: The Scythian phylum , one of the Eastern Iranian languages . However, the Sakas of the Asian steppes are to be distinguished from the Scythians of the Pontic Steppe ; and although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and " Cimmerian " for all the steppe nomads, the name "Saka" is used specifically for the ancient nomads of

3379-512: The Tarim basin walled cities together with enrolled Hellenized Saka horsemen even before he ascended the throne of Bactria in 250-230 BC. In an inscription found in the Kuliab area of Tajikistan , northeastern Greco-Bactria, and dated to 200-195 BC, a Greek by the name of Heliodotus, dedicating an altar to Hestia , mentions Euthydemus as the greatest of all kings, and his son Demetrius I: This

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3488-728: The Turkification of the region as well as its conversion from Buddhism to Islam . Later Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature , have been found in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in the Dunhuang manuscripts . Although the ancient Chinese had called Khotan Yutian (于闐), another more native Iranian name occasionally used

3597-453: The dative or nominative plural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance in Crete , if the name refers to Cretans . The name first appears in Greek literature in Homer as Ἰάονες , iāones , used on a single occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked by Hector and apparently identified with Athenians, and this Homeric form appears to be identical with

3706-438: The four major tribes that the Greeks considered themselves to be divided into during the ancient period ; the other three being the Dorians , Aeolians , and Achaeans . The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world , together with the Dorian and Aeolian dialects. When referring to populations, " Ionian " defines several groups in Classical Greece . In its narrowest sense,

3815-408: The "Yonas". Dayuan' (or Tayuan; Chinese : 大宛 ; pinyin : Dàyuān ; lit. 'Great Ionians'; Middle Chinese dâi -jwɐn < LHC : dɑh-ʔyɑn ) is the Chinese exonym for a country that existed in Ferghana valley in Central Asia , described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han . It is mentioned in the accounts of

3924-475: The 520s BC, the Saka expanded into the valleys of the Ili and Chu in eastern Central Asia. Around 30 Saka tombs in the form of kurgans (burial mounds) have also been found in the Tian Shan area dated to between 550 and 250 BC. Darius I waged wars against the eastern Sakas during a campaign of 520 to 518 BC where, according to his inscription at Behistun , he conquered the Massagetae/ Sakā tigraxaudā , captured their king Skunxa , and replaced him with

4033-415: The 730s BC discovered at Nimrud . The Assyrian word, which is preceded by the country determinative, has been reconstructed as *Iaunaia. More common is ia-a-ma-nu, ia-ma-nu and ia-am-na-a-a with the country determinative, reconstructed as Iamānu. Sargon II related that he took the latter from the sea like fish and that they were from "the sea of the setting sun." If the identification of Assyrian names

4142-419: The 7th century BC itself, Saka presence started appearing in the Tarim Basin region. According to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus , the Parthians rebelled against the Medes during the reign of Cyaxares , after which the Parthians put their country and capital city under the protection of the Sakas. This was followed by a long war opposing the Medes to the Saka, the latter of whom were led by

4251-430: The Achaemenid Empire, the Sakā tigraxaudā were included within the same tax district as the Medes . During the period of Achaemenid rule, Central Asia was in contact with Saka populations who were themselves in contact with China . After Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire, the Saka resisted his incursions into Central Asia. At least by the late 2nd century BC, the Sakas had founded states in

4360-432: The Aegean to northern Greece. Inspired by Achaemenid Iranians, Ionians appear in Indic literature and documents as Yavana and Yona. In documents, these names refer to the Indo-Greek Kingdoms : the states formed by the Macedonian Alexander the Great and his successors on the Indian subcontinent . The earliest such documentation is the Edicts of Ashoka . The Thirteenth Edict is dated to 260–258 BC and directly refers to

4469-474: The Altai kurgan Arzhan 1 in Tuva ), and elements of the Animal style are first attested in areas of the Yenisei river and modern-day China in the 10th century BC. Genetic evidence corroborates archaeological findings, suggesting an initial eastwards expansion of Western Steppe Herders towards the Altai region and Western Mongolia, spreading Iranian languages , and subsequent contact episodes with local Siberian and Eastern Asian populations, giving rise to

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4578-415: The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley , controlled by the Hellenistic polis Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand , Tajikistan ), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language. Most modern Western Asian languages use

4687-417: The Chinese, inhabited the Ili and Chu valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan , which was called the "land of the Sək ", i.e. "land of the Saka", in the Book of Han . The Scythian/Saka cultures emerged on the Eurasian Steppe at the dawn of the Iron Age in the early 1st millennium BC. Their origins has long been a source of debate among archaeologists. The Pontic–Caspian steppe

4796-444: The Great . The reverse shows Heracles , naked, seated on a rock, resting his club on a neighbouring rock or on his knee, with a legend reading ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜΟΥ ('of King Euthydemos'). Heracles was apparently a popular deity in Bactria, associated with Alexander the Great, but this reverse type is very similar to coins minted by the Seleucids in western Asia Minor, near Euthydemus' home city of Magnesia. Heracles continues to appear on

4905-416: The Greek Ion , and to serve as a name for the Greeks and Macedonians . The term is also found in other ancient literature; the Yevana (Ionians) aligned with the Hittites against Egypt, while the Yauna of the Persian records corresponds to the Ionians of Asia Minor. Additionally, though less surely, Japheth may be related linguistically to the Greek mythological figure Iapetus . The locations of

5014-617: The Iaxartes river as well as seven fortresses to protect the northern frontier of his empire against the Saka. Cyrus then attacked the Sakā haumavargā , initially defeated them and captured their king, Amorges . After this, Amorges's queen, Sparethra , defeated Cyrus with a large army of both men and women warriors and captured Parmises , the brother-in-law of Cyrus and the brother of his wife Amytis , as well as Parmises's three sons, whom Sparethra exchanged in return for her husband, after which Cyrus and Amorges became allies, and Amorges helped Cyrus conquer Lydia . Cyrus, accompanied by

5123-477: The Ionians leads back to mainland Greece in Mycenaean times before there was an Ionia . The classical sources seem determined that they were to be called Ionians along with other names even then. This cannot be documented with inscriptional evidence, and yet the literary evidence, which is manifestly at least partially legendary, seems to reflect a general verbal tradition. Herodotus of Halicarnassus asserts: all are Ionians who are of Athenian descent and keep

5232-419: The Khotanese kṣuṇa , "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power," according to the Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick. He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of Iranian." Furthermore, he argued that the early form of the name of Khotan, hvatana ,

5341-403: The Mycenaean form but without the *-w- . This name also appears in a fragment of the other early poet, Hesiod , in the singular Ἰάων , iāōn . In the Book of Genesis of the English Bible , Javan , known in Hebrew as Yāwān and in plural Yəwānīm , is a son of Japheth . Javan, meaning 'Greek', is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians, corresponding to

5450-438: The Oxus delta, the Iaxartes delta, between the Caspian and Aral seas or further to the north or northeast, but without basing these suggestions on any conclusive arguments. Other locations assigned to the Massagetae include the area corresponding to modern-day Turkmenistan . The Sakā haumavargā lived around the Pamir Mountains and the Ferghana Valley. The Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam , who may have been identical with

5559-499: The Saka, similarly with the sites of Sirkap and Taxila in ancient India . The rich graves at Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka. The Shakya clan of India, to which Gautama Buddha , called Śākyamuni "Sage of the Shakyas", belonged, were also likely Sakas, as Michael Witzel and Christopher I. Beckwith have alleged. The scholar Bryan Levman however criticised this hypothesis for resting on slim to no evidence, and maintains that

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5668-546: The Saka: "the Saka, under pressure from the Yueh-chih [Yuezhi], overran Sogdiana and then Bactria, there taking the place of the Greeks." Then, "Thrust back in the south by the Yueh-chih," the Saka occupied "the Saka country, Sakastana, whence the modern Persian Seistan." Some of the Saka fleeing the Yuezhi attacked the Parthian Empire , where they defeated and killed the kings Phraates II and Artabanus . These Sakas were eventually settled by Mithridates II in what become known as Sakastan . According to Harold Walter Bailey ,

5777-408: The Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians. The Sakā tigraxaudā and Sakā haumavargā both lived in the steppe and highland areas located in northern Central Asia and to the east of the Caspian Sea. The Sakā tigraxaudā /Massagetae more specifically lived around Chorasmia and in the lowlands of Central Asia located to

5886-422: The Shakyas were a population native to the north-east Gangetic plain who were unrelated to Iranic Sakas. The region in modern Afghanistan and Iran where the Saka moved to became known as "land of the Saka" or Sakastan . This is attested in a contemporary Kharosthi inscription found on the Mathura lion capital belonging to the Saka kingdom of the Indo-Scythians (200 BC – 400 AD) in northern India , roughly

5995-405: The Tarim Basin provided information on the language spoken by the Saka. The official language of Khotan was initially Gandhari Prakrit written in Kharosthi, and coins from Khotan dated to the 1st century bear dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit, indicating links of Khotan to both India and China. Surviving documents however suggest that an Iranian language was used by the people of

6104-437: The Tarim Basin. The Kingdom of Khotan was a Saka city state on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. As a consequence of the Han–Xiongnu War spanning from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin (now Xinjiang, Northwest China ), including Khotan and Kashgar , fell under Han Chinese influence, beginning with the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC). Archaeological evidence and documents from Khotan and other sites in

6213-493: The Yuezhi. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the Dian Kingdom of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing. The scenes depicted on these drums sometimes represent these horsemen practising hunting. Animal scenes of felines attacking oxen are also at times reminiscent of Scythian art both in theme and in composition. Migrations of the 2nd and 1st century BC have left traces in Sogdia and Bactria, but they cannot firmly be attributed to

6322-571: The anchor bronzes and the coinage produced by Antiochus III in Bactria. Euthydemus is also featured on the 'pedigree' coinage produced by the later kings Agathocles and Antimachus I . On this coinage he bears the royal epithet, Theos ('God'); it is unclear whether he used this title in life or if it was assigned to him by Agathocles. His coins were imitated by the nomadic tribes of Central Asia for decades after his death; these imitations are called "barbaric" because of their crude style. Lyonnet proposes that these coins were produced by refugees fleeing

6431-411: The biblical tribal countries have been the subjects of centuries of scholarship and yet remain open questions to various degrees. The final chapter of the Book of Isaiah , who lived in the 8th century BC, contains what may be a hint by listing "the nations ... that have not heard my fame" including Javan immediately after "the isles afar off". These isles may be considered as an apposition to Javan or

6540-399: The bust as a general of the Roman republic . Like the earlier Diodotid coinage and that of Euthydemus' successors, monograms and die links allow the precious metal coinage to be divided into two mints, which produced coins simultaneously. "Mint A" uses two types of monogram: one in the form of vertical line bisecting an equilateral triangle, with two shorter vertical lines hanging down from

6649-424: The coinage of Euthydemus' immediate successors, Demetrius and Euthydemus II . There are four distinct versions of the obverse portrait, presumably reflecting different models given to the die engravers. The first of these is an 'idealising' portrait, depicting him as a young or middle-aged man, with very large eyes, an arching eyebrow, pointed nose and protruding chin, the diadem is very broad. The overall appearance

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6758-510: The corners of the triangle, and another with an Α contained within a Π. Mint B initially used three monograms, of which the most long-lasting was a combination of Ρ and Η; later these were replaced by a monogram combining a Ρ and a Κ. A putative "Mint C" has now been shown to be identical with "Mint B". Frank Holt and Brian Kritt identify "Mint B" with Bactra , the kingdom's capital. Holt identifies "Mint A" with Ai Khanoum, while Kritt prefers some other location near Ai Khanoum. Simon Glenn emphasises

6867-513: The death of Cyrus named the Derbices, rather than the Massagetae, as the tribe against whom Cyrus died in battle, because the Derbices were a member tribe of the Massagetae confederation or identical with the whole of the Massagetae. After Cyrus had been mortally wounded by the Derbices/Massagetae, Amorges and his Sakā haumavargā army helped the Persian soldiers defeat them. Cyrus told his sons to respect their own mother as well as Amorges above everyone else before dying. Possibly shortly before

6976-582: The descendants of the original rebel Diodotus, and that he was protecting Central Asia from nomadic invasions thanks to his defensive efforts. The war lasted altogether three years and after the Seleucid army left, the kingdom seems to have recovered quickly from the assault. The death of Euthydemus has been roughly estimated to 200 BC or perhaps 195 BC. He was succeeded by Demetrius, who went on to invade northwestern regions of South Asia . Polybius claims that Euthydemus justified his kingship during his peace negotiations with Antiochus III in 206 BC by reference to

7085-406: The destruction of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom by the Yuezhi in the mid-second century BC. The " Torlonia Euthydemus" or " Albani Euthydemus" bust, now in the Torlonia Collection in Rome but formerly belonging to the Villa Albani collection, has often been suggested as a possible statue of the Bactrian ruler Euthydemus, based on resemblance with his effigy on coinage. This is now rejected, as

7194-416: The development of the 'scientific attitude' towards the study of Nature. According to physicist Carlo Rovelli , the work of the Ionian school produced the "first great scientific revolution" and the earliest example of critical thinking, which would come to define Greek, and subsequently modern, thought. Saka The Saka were a group of nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who historically inhabited

7303-442: The diadem in a more natural way. Portrait type 1 is the earliest and portrait type 4 is the latest and these coins have often been interpreted as showing Euthydemus aging over the course of a long reign. However, Simon Glenn argues that the types instead represent a shift from 'idealising' portraiture to 'naturalising', pointing out that distinctions of age in the first three types are highly subjective. This shift to verism represents

7412-407: The east into Central Asia, from where they expelled the Scythians , another nomadic Iranian tribe to whom they were closely related, after which they came to occupy large areas of the region beginning in the 6th century BC. The Massagetae forcing the Early Scythians to the west across the Araxes river and into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes started a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of

7521-414: The east of the Caspian Sea and the south-east of the Aral Sea , in the Kyzylkum Desert and the Ustyurt Plateau , most especially between the Araxes and Iaxartes rivers. The Sakā tigraxaudā /Massagetae could also be found in the Caspian Steppe. The imprecise description of where the Massagetae lived by ancient authors has however led modern scholars to ascribe to them various locations, such as

7630-421: The eastern steppe, while "Scythian" is used for the related group of nomads living in the western steppe. While the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian , they may have differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians. Prominent archaeological remains of the Sakas include Arzhan , Tunnug,

7739-449: The evolution of *Skuδa into *Skula . From this was derived the Greek word Skṓlotoi Σκώλοτοι , which, according to Herodotus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians. Other sound changes have produced Sugᵘda 𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭 . Although the Scythians , Saka and Cimmerians were closely related nomadic Iranic peoples, and the ancient Babylonians , ancient Persians and ancient Greeks respectively used

7848-469: The feast Apaturia . He further explains: The whole Hellenic stock was then small, and the last of all its branches and the least regarded was the Ionian; for it had no considerable city except Athens . The Ionians spread from Athens to other places in the Aegean Sea : Sifnos and Serifos , Naxos , Kea and Samos . But they were not just from Athens: These Ionians, as long as they were in

7957-479: The fortified city of Bactra , before Antiochus finally decided to recognize the new ruler, and to offer one of his daughters to Euthydemus's son Demetrius around 206 BC. As part of the peace treaty, Antiochus was given Indian war elephants by Euthydemus. For Euthydemus himself was a native of Magnesia, and he now, in defending himself to Teleas, said that Antiochus was not justified in attempting to deprive him of his kingdom, as he himself had never revolted against

8066-427: The gold staters are die-linked to earlier Diodotid coins minted in the name of "Antiochus," but it is possible that the linked coins are modern forgeries. At Mint B, these coins are followed by Group II (CR1-CR3), which consists of gold staters and silver tetradrachms with portrait type 1 (but with some features similar to portrait model 3). Most of these coins use the Η with triangle monogram. The next period starts with

8175-611: The initial (Eastern) Scythian material cultures (Saka). It was however also found that the various later Scythian sub-groups of the Eurasian Steppe had local origins; different Scythian groups arose locally through cultural adaption, rather than via migration patterns from East-to-West or West-to-East. The Sakas spoke a language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages . The Pazyryk burials of

8284-476: The introduction of the second portrait type. At Mint A, Group II (A11-A14) only tetradrachms were minted in this period, all with the bisected triangle monogram, sometimes accompanied by a Ν or an Α. At Mint B this issue consisted of Group III (CR4), composed of gold staters and silver tetradrachms, with a monogram composed of Ρ, Η, and Α. This is followed by the first issue at Mint B to use a 12 o'clock die axis, Group IV (B13), consisting only of tetradrachms, all with

8393-603: The king, but after others had revolted he had possessed himself of the throne of Bactria by destroying their descendants. (...) finally Euthydemus sent off his son Demetrius to ratify the agreement. Antiochus, on receiving the young man and judging him from his appearance, conversation, and dignity of bearing to be worthy of royal rank, in the first place promised to give him one of his daughters in marriage and next gave permission to his father to style himself king Polybius also relates that Euthydemus negotiated peace with Antiochus III by suggesting that he deserved credit for overthrowing

8502-599: The kingdom for a long time. Third-century AD documents in Prakrit from nearby Shanshan record the title for the king of Khotan as hinajha (i.e. " generalissimo "), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the Sanskrit title senapati , yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Saka hīnāysa attested in later Khotanese documents. This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given as

8611-625: The languages of different civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean and as far east as Han China . They are not the earliest Greeks to appear in the records; that distinction belongs to the Danaans and the Achaeans . The trail of the Ionians begins in the Mycenaean Greek records of Crete . A fragmentary Linear B tablet from Knossos (tablet Xd 146) bears the name i-ja-wo-ne , interpreted by Ventris and Chadwick as possibly

8720-531: The last item in the series. If the former, the expression is typically used of the population of the islands in the Aegean Sea . Some letters of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC record attacks by what appear to be Ionians on the cities of Phoenicia : For example, a raid by the Ionians ( ia-u-na-a-a ) on the Phoenician coast is reported to Tiglath-Pileser III in a letter from

8829-457: The local population of Attica, and many years later emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor founding the historical region of Ionia . Unlike the austere and militaristic Dorians, the Ionians are renowned for their love of philosophy , art , democracy , and pleasure – Ionian traits that were most famously expressed by the Athenians . The Ionian school of philosophy , centered on Miletus ,

8938-742: The model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian. During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such as Miletus and Ephesus , became the focus of a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature. Instead of explaining natural phenomena by recourse to traditional religion/myth, the cultural climate was such that men began to form hypotheses about the natural world based on ideas gained from both personal experience and deep reflection. These men— Thales and his successors —were called physiologoi , those who discoursed on Nature . They were skeptical of religious explanations for natural phenomena and instead sought purely mechanical and physical explanations. They are credited as being of critical importance to

9047-468: The names " Cimmerian ," "Saka," and " Scythian " for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as Edward Gibbon used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian Steppe, The name Sakā was used by the ancient Persian to refer to all the Iranian nomadic tribes living to the north of their empire , including both those who lived between

9156-587: The northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin . The Sakas were closely related to the Scythians , and both groups formed part of the wider Scythian cultures , through which they ultimately derived from the earlier Andronovo , Sintashta and Srubnaya cultures , with secondary influence from the BMAC , and since the Iron Age, also East Asian genetic influx, with the Saka language forming part of

9265-629: The northwest of Kashgar, Tumshuq to its northeast, and Tushkurgan south in the Pamirs. Kashgar also conquered other states such as Yarkand and Kucha during the Han dynasty, but in its later history, Kashgar was controlled by various empires, including Tang China, before it became part of the Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate in the 10th century. In the 11th century, according to Mahmud al-Kashgari , some non-Turkic languages like Kanchaki and Sogdian were still used in some areas in

9374-463: The northwest, but from Bactria to the southeast. Hundreds of arrowheads also seem to indicate an attack on the wall from the southeast. Stančo proposes that Euthydemus was originally based in Sogdia and built the fortifications to protect himself from Bactria, before seizing control of the latter. Lucas Christopoulos goes further, proposing that he controlled a large area going from Sogdiana to Gansu and

9483-531: The oasis-states of Tarim Basin sites, like Yanqi (焉耆, Karasahr ) and Qiuci (龜茲, Kucha ). The Yuehzhi, themselves under attacks from another nomadic tribe, the Wusun , in 133–132 BC, moved, again, from the Ili and Chu valleys, and occupied the country of Daxia , (大夏, "Bactria"). The ancient Greco-Roman geographer Strabo noted that the four tribes that took down the Bactrians in the Greek and Roman account –

9592-536: The only Ionians, but they have been Dorianized by time and by Argive rule. In Strabo 's account of the origin of the Ionians, Hellen , son of Deucalion , ancestor of the Hellenes , king of Phthia , arranged a marriage between his son Xuthus and the daughter of king Erechtheus of Athens . Xuthus then founded the Tetrapolis ("Four Cities") of Attica , a rural district. His son, Achaeus , went into exile in

9701-708: The queen Zarinaea . At the end of this war, the Parthians accepted Median rule, and the Saka and the Medes made peace. According to the Greek historian Ctesias , once the Persian Achaemenid Empire 's founder, Cyrus , had overthrown his grandfather the Median king Astyages , the Bactrians accepted him as the heir of Astyages and submitted to him, after which he founded the city of Cyropolis on

9810-802: The same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of Jibin 罽賓 (i.e. Kashmir , of modern-day India and Pakistan). In the Persian language of contemporary Iran the territory of Drangiana was called Sakastāna, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the Middle Persian tongue used in Turfan , Xinjiang, China. The Sakas also captured Gandhara and Taxila , and migrated to North India . The most famous Indo-Scythian king

9919-665: The statue in question is now considered as a 1st century portrait of a Republican commander or a client ruler. The style of the statue itself is consistent with the style of the Republican period, rather than the Hellenistic period . The style of the broad-brimmed hat on the statue is also very different from the Hellenistic kausia . Ionian Greeks The Ionians ( / aɪ ˈ oʊ n i ə n z / ; Greek : Ἴωνες , Íōnes , singular Ἴων , Íōn ) were one of

10028-692: The term referred to the region of Ionia in Asia Minor . In a broader sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which in addition to those in Ionia proper also included the Greek populations of Euboea , the Cyclades , and many cities founded by Ionian colonists . Finally, in the broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic . The foundation myth which

10137-690: The terms "Ionia" and "Ionian" to refer to Greece and Greeks. That is true of Hebrew (Yavan 'Greece' / Yevani fem. Yevania 'a Greek'), Armenian (Hunastan 'Greece' / Huyn 'a Greek' ), and the Classical Arabic words (al-Yūnān 'Greece' / Yūnānī fem. Yūnāniyya pl. Yūnān 'a Greek', probably from Aramaic Yawnānā ) are used in most modern Arabic dialects including Egyptian and Palestinian as well as being used in modern Persian (Yūnānestān 'Greece' / Yūnānī pl. Yūnānīhā/Yūnānīyān 'Greeks') and Turkish too via Persian (Yunanistan 'Greece' / Yunan 'a Greek person' pl. Yunanlar 'Greek people'). Ionic Greek

10246-460: The territory of Drangiana (now in Afghanistan and Pakistan) became known as "Land of the Sakas", and was called Sakastāna in the Persian language of contemporary Iran, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the Middle Persian tongue used in Turfan , Xinjiang, China. This is attested in a contemporary Kharosthi inscription found on

10355-405: The that "we do not know the location of either mint" and that it is particularly uncertain whether there was a mint at Ai Khanoum at all. The earliest coins use portrait type 1 and have a 6 o'clock die axis (i.e. the top of the obverse is aligned with the bottom of the reverse). At Mint A, these coins, Group I (A1-A10) consist of silver tetradrachms , drachms , and hemidrachms ; they use either of

10464-537: The threat of attack by nomads on the Central Asian steppe : Archaeological evidence from coin finds shows that Euthydemus' reign saw extensive activity at fortresses in northwestern Bactria (the modern Surkhan Darya region of Uzbekistan ), especially in the Gissar and Köýtendag mountains . The Seleucid fortress at Uzundara was expanded and large numbers of Euthydemus' bronze coins have been found there, as

10573-531: The two monograms, plus the letters ΤΙ, ΑΝ, Α, Ν, or no monogram at all. These additional letters may have referred to the specific batch of bullion used in minting the coins. Partway through this issue, Mint A switches to a 12 o'clock die axis (i.e. the top of the obverse is aligned with the top of the reverse). At Mint A, Group I continues after this change. At Mint B ("Group I"), the coins consist of gold staters (ca. 8.27 g), and small numbers of silver tetradrachms and drachms, and all three monograms are used. Some of

10682-693: The vicinity of Kashgar, and Kanchaki is thought to belong to the Saka language group. It is believed that the Tarim Basin was linguistically Turkified before the 11th century ended. The Saka were pushed out of the Ili and Chu River valleys by the Yuezhi . An account of the movement of these people is given in Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian . The Yuehzhi, who originally lived between Tängri Tagh ( Tian Shan ) and Dunhuang of Gansu , China, were assaulted and forced to flee from

10791-407: The ΡΚ monogram, and produced in much large numbers than had previously been the case at Mint B. The third portrait type, introduced only at Mint B, characterises Group V (B14-B15), which consists of tetradrachms and drachms. At Mint A, the introduction of portrait type 4 is marked by the start of Group III (A16-A17) and a gold octodrachm (A15) with a reverse modelled on Mint B's Group V, known from

10900-533: Was Jusadanna (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana , the names of the town and region around it, respectively. Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, the people of Kashgar , the capital of Shule, spoke Saka, one of the Eastern Iranian languages . According to the Book of Han , the Saka split and formed several states in the region. These Saka states may include two states to

11009-582: Was Maues . An Indo-Scythian kingdom was established in Mathura (200 BC – 400 AD). Weer Rajendra Rishi , an Indian linguist, identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sakan influence in North India. According to historian Michael Mitchiner, the Abhira tribe were a Saka people cited in the Gunda inscription of

11118-582: Was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek . The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central Ionic), and from c.  1000 BC onward in Asiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. Ionic was the base of several literary language forms of

11227-580: Was as hundreds of arrowheads and other remains indicating a violent assault. Coin finds also seem to indicate that Euthydemus was responsible for the first construction of the Derbent Wall, otherwise known as the " Iron Gate ", a 1.6-1.7 km long stone wall with towers and a central fortress guarding a key pass. Landislav Stančo tentatively links the archaeological evidence with the nomad threat. However, Stančo also notes that Derbent wall seems to have been designed not to defend against an attack from Sogdia to

11336-514: Was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy. The etymology of the word Ἴωνες or Ἰᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain. Frisk isolates an unknown root, *Ia- , pronounced *ya- . There are, however, some theories: Unlike "Aeolians" and "Dorians", "Ionians" appears in

11445-668: Was current in the Classical period suggested that the Ionians were named after Ion , son of Xuthus , who lived in the north Peloponnesian region of Aigialeia . When the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese they expelled the Achaeans from the Argolid and Lacedaemonia . The displaced Achaeans moved into Aigialeia (thereafter known as Achaea ), in turn expelling the Ionians from Aigialeia. The Ionians moved to Attica and mingled with

11554-531: Was initially thought to have been their place of origin, until the Soviet archaeologist Aleksey Terenozhkin suggested a Central Asian origin. Archaeological evidence now tends to suggest that the origins of Scythian culture , characterized by its kurgans (a type of burial mound) and its Animal style of the 1st millennium BC, are to be found among Eastern Scythians rather than their Western counterparts: eastern kurgans are older than western ones (such as

11663-500: Was of Saka origin, or at least significantly influenced by their Eastern Iranian neighbours. Some scholars contend that in the 8th century BC, a Saka raid from the Altai may be "connected" with a raid on Zhou China . The Saka are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century BC. The Saka tribe of the Massagetae / Tigraxaudā rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, when they migrated from

11772-471: Was the last Greco-Bactrian coinage to include gold denominations until the time of Eucratides I (ca. 170-145 BC). Euthydemus' gold and silver issues are all minted on the Attic weight standard with a tetradrachm of ca. 16.13 g and all have the same basic design. On the obverse , his face is depicted in profile, clean-shaven, with unruly hair, and a diadem - this iconography is typical of Hellenistic kings, ultimately deriving from depictions of Alexander

11881-499: Was the term Sakā , from which came the names: From the Indo-European root (s)kewd- , meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word shoot ), of which *skud- is the zero-grade form, was descended the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as *Skuδa (roughly "archer"). From this were descended the following exonyms: A late Scythian sound change from /δ/ to /l/ resulted in

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