page_title: Menander I
section_title: Indo-Greek ruler
hierarchical_section_title: Menander I / Indo-Greek ruler
context_page_description: Menander I Soter was an Indo-Greek King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom who administered a large empire in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent from his capital at Sagala. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Buddhism.
  Menander was initially a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab he established an empire in the Indian Subcontinent stretching from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia. Ancient Indian writers indicate that he launched expeditions southward into Rajasthan and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra, and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."
  Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and duration of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha. After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathokleia, the possible daughter of Agatokles, who ruled as regent for his son Strato I.
context_section_description: Menander was born to a Greek family in a village called Kalasi adjacent to Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram, Afghanistan), although another source says he was born near Sagala (modern Sialkot in the Punjab, Pakistan). His territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria (modern day ولایت بلخ or Bactria Province) and extended to India (modern day regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab in Pakistan and Punjab, Haryana and parts of Himachal Pradesh and the Jammu region in present day India).
  His capital is supposed to have been Sagala, a prosperous city in northern Punjab (believed to be modern Sialkot), Pakistan. He subsequently travelled across northern India and visited the Maurayan capital of Patna. Any plans of conquering the capital were put aside as Eucratides I king of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom began warring with the Indo-Greeks in the north-western frontier. He is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them Apollodorus of Artemita, quoted by Strabo, who claims that the Greeks from Bactria were even greater conquerors than Alexander the Great, and that Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings, with Demetrius, who extended their power farthest into India.
  The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander-- by Menander in particular (at least if he actually crossed the Hypanis towards the east and advanced as far as the Imaüs), for some were subdued by him personally and others by Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus the king of the Bactrians; and they took possession, not only of Patalena, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom of Saraostus and Sigerdis. In short, Apollodorus says that Bactriana is the ornament of Ariana as a whole; and, more than that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni.
  — Strabo, Geographica
  Strabo also suggests that these Greek conquests went as far as the capital Pataliputra in northeastern India (today Patna):
  Those who came after Alexander went to the Ganges and Pataliputra
  — Strabo, 15.698
  The Indian records also describe Greek attacks on Mathura, Panchala, Saketa, and Pataliputra. This is particularly the case of some mentions of the invasion by Patanjali around 150 BC, and of the Yuga Purana, which describes Indian historical events in the form of a prophecy:
  After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras, the Yavanas (Greeks), wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja. The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt.  Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines).
  — Gargi-Samhita, Yuga Purana, ch. 5
  In the West, Menander seems to have repelled the invasion of the dynasty of Greco-Bactrian usurper Eucratides, and pushed them back as far as the Paropamisadae, thereby consolidating the rule of the Indo-Greek kings in the northern part of the Indian Subcontinent.
  The Milinda Panha gives some glimpses of his military methods:
  – Has it ever happened to you, O king, that rival kings rose up against you as enemies and opponents?
  
  – Yes, certainly.
  
  – Then you set to work, I suppose, to have moats dug, and ramparts thrown up, and watch towers erected, and strongholds built, and stores of food collected?
  
  – Not at all. All that had been prepared beforehand.
  
  – Or you had yourself trained in the management of war elephants, and in horsemanship, and in the use of the war chariot, and in archery and fencing?
  
  – Not at all. I had learnt all that before.
  
  – But why?
  
  – With the object of warding off future danger.
  — Milinda Panha, Book III, ch. 7
  His reign was long and successful. Generous findings of coins testify to the prosperity and extension of his empire (with finds as far as Britain): the finds of his coins are the most numerous and the most widespr
caption: 2. Silver drachm of Menander I (155-130 BC).
  Obv: Greek legend, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU) lit. "Of Saviour King Menander".
   Rev: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA MENAMDRASA "Saviour King Menander". Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.
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