Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/244

 206 INDO- GREEK AND INDO - PARTHIAN DYNASTIES Parthian or Persian power under the Arsakidan kings. Mithradates I, a very able monarch (174 to 136 B.C.), who was for many years the contemporary of Eukra- tides, King of Bactria, succeeded in extending his dominion so widely that his power was felt as far as the Indus, and possibly even to the east of that river. The Saka chiefs of Taxila and Mathura would not have assumed the purely Persian title of satrap, if they had not regarded themselves as subordinates of the Persian or Parthian sovereign, and the close relations between the Parthian monarchy and the Indian borderland at this period are demonstrated by the appearance of a long line of princes of Parthian origin, who now enter on the scene. The earliest of these Indo-Parthian kings apparently was Maues, or Mauas, who attained power in the Kabul valley andv Panjab about 120 B. c., and adopted the title Of " Great King Of Kings " (/Soo-iX&t /Sa<rtXeW /ieyaXou), which had been used for the first time by Mithra- dates I. His coins are closely related to those of that monarch, as well as to those of the unmistakably Par- thian border chief, who called himself Arsakes Theos. The King Moga, to whom the Taxila satrap was imme- diately subordinate, was almost certainly the personage whose name appears on the coins as Mauou in the genitive case. Vonones, or Onones, whose name is unquestionably Parthian, was probably the immediate successor of Maues on the throne of Kabul. He was succeeded by his brother Spalyris, who was followed in order by