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Lot 57. Antialkidas AR Drachm, c. 125-110 BC (or later)

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Antialkidas AR Drachm, c. 125-110 BC (or later)

Time left: 		Bidding closed (Sunday, March 18th, 19:28:30 CET)
Current time: Sunday, November 24th, 05:36:45 CET
Price realised: CHF 160.00 (1 bid)
Approx. EUR 171.87 / USD 179.06 / GBP 142.91
High bidder: Bidder 1

eAuction #4, Lot 57. Estimate: CHF 200.00

Kings of Bactria. Antialkidas (c. 125-110 BC or slightly later). AR Drachm (16 mm, 2.31 g).
Obv. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΑΛΚΙΔΟΥ, diademed and draped bust right.
Rev. Zeus seated on throne to left, half facing, holding Nike in his right hand and scepter in his left; to left, forepart of elephant to right; legend in karoshti around.
Mitchiner, Indogreek, 275b; SNG ANS 1058.

Very nice portrait. Good very fine.

Ex F. R. Künker 89 (2004), 1628.

Antialkidas I. seems to have been one of the last Bactrian kings of some importance. He is not only known from his coinage but also from a single inscription, the so-called Heliodoros pillar. Heliodoros of Taxila was the king's ambassador to the Sunga king Bhagabhadra and devoted a pillar with a short account of his journey to Vasudeva. The inscription says:

This Garuda-standard of Vasudeva, the God of Gods
was erected here by the devotee Heliodoros,
the son of Dion, a man of Taxila,
sent by the Great Greek King
Antialkidas, as ambassador to
King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior,
son of the princess from Benares, in the fourteenth year of his reign.

This seems to be the earliest record of a Westerner's conversion to Vaishnavism.



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