The Divine Agathokleia

Triton XVI, Lot: 649. Estimate $40000. Sold for $30000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Indo-Greek Kingdom. Strato I Soter. Circa 105-85/0 BC. AV Half Stater (15mm, 4.13 g, 12h). Laureate and draped bust right within bead-and-reel border / Ornate tripod; monogram to left, inverted “kha” in Kharosthi to right; all within pelleted border. Cf. Bopearachchi 32B (for obv. type and control) and 31C (for rev. type and control); otherwise unpublished. Good VF, traces of encrustation, a few field marks, obverse struck with slightly worn dies. Apparently unique and an important coin.

Like the gold unit of the heretofore unknown Heliodotos (CNG 91, lot 442), this half stater of Strato I demands a review of the use of gold coinage among the later Baktrian kings, and especially the role of its female rulers. The most well-known gold issues of the kings of Baktria are those of Eukratides I (see Bopearachchi Séries 4 and 5). A very rare stater of Menander I Soter, with the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse, is also known through a total of five specimens in London, Oxford, and Boston (Bopearachchi Série 1). While Mitchiner doubted the authenticity of some of these specimens, he did not condemn the entire series - indicating that it was quite rare, but not entirely unusual, for at least some of the kings to strike gold issues. Our coin is one more example.

The tripod reverse and control mark connect this coin to Bopearachchi Série 31. Our coin also includes an early period Kharosthi letter "kha" (correspondence with O. Bopearachchi, 26 March 2012). The coin's portrait, however, is most noteworthy, for it shares distinct similarities with the known coin portraits of Agathokleia. Little is known of this queen apart from her coinage and her position in the rule of her son, Strato I is a subject of dispute. Traditionally, she was the widow of Menander I Soter and ruled as regent for her son in the territories they held during the division of the Indo-Greek kingdom following Menander's death (Bopearachchi, p. 88). It is also possible that Agathokleia was the widow of Nikias or Theophilos, but even this is conjecture. On her coins, Agathokleia has a unique epithet Theotropa, possibly meaning “godlike” (A. Cunningham, “Coins of Alexander’s successors in the East,” NC 1869, p. 218). The inclusion of an additional title was reserved only for the ruler, lending support to the idea that she enjoyed some measure of regal power. The epithet also suggests that she possessed some divine association, which thus has lead some catalogers to confuse her portrait with that of Apollo.