Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/241

 FROM EUKRATIDES TO MENANDER 203 pality in the Pan jab for a few years, and was perhaps the immediate successor of Apollodotos. Agathokles and Pantaleon, whose coins are specially Indian in character, were earlier in date, and contemporary with Euthydemos and Demetrios. It is evident from the great variety of the royal names in the coin-legends, which are nearly forty in number, that both before and after the death of Eukra- tides, the Indian borderland was parcelled out among a crowd of Greek princelings, for the most part related either to the family of Euthydemos and Demetrios or to that of their rival, Eukratides. Some of these prince- lings, among whom was Antialkidas, were subdued by Eukratides, who, if he had lived, might have consoli- dated a great border kingdom. But his death in the hour of victory increased the existing confusion, and it is quite impossible to make a satisfactory territorial and chronological arrangement of the Indo-Greek fron- tier kings contemporary with and posterior to Eukra- tides. Their names, with two exceptions, are known from coins only. One name, that of Menander, stands out conspic- uously amid the crowd of obscure princes. He seems to have belonged to the family of Eukratides, and to have had his capital at Kabul, whence he issued in 155 B. c. to make the bold invasion of India described in the last chapter. Two years later he was obliged to retire and devote his energies to the encounter with dangers which menaced him at home, due to the never- ending quarrels with his neighbours on the frontier.