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Tetradrachm - Theophilos Autokrator
| Issuer | Indo-Greek Kingdom (India (ancient)) |
|---|---|
| Year | 90 BC |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and draped bust of King Theophilos facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic portrait tradition with curly hair bound by a royal diadem. The effigy displays fine drapery at the shoulder and a strong facial profile characteristic of late Indo-Greek coinage. The circular Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ ΘΕΟΦΙΛΟΥ ('Of the Just King Theophilos') surrounds the portrait in the field. The flan is irregular, as typical of hammered Indo-Greek issues of this period. |
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| Reverse script | Kharosthi |
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| Additional information |
Theophilos is among the most obscure rulers of the Indo-Greek succession, known almost entirely through his coinage rather than any surviving literary record. His exact position in the dynastic sequence remains contested — scholars have placed him variously in the eastern Punjab and the Paropamisadae, and the Bopearachchi reference number alone signals how thin the surviving corpus is. These tetradrachms likely circulated in a political environment of fragmentary kingdoms competing with Saka pressure from the northwest, which may explain why so few examples turn up in structured hoards.