Demetrius II of India

Demetrius II
Indo-Greek king
Portrait of Demetrius II.
Reign	175–170 BC or 140 BC

Demetrius II (Greek: Δημήτριος Β΄) was a Greco-Bactrian/Indo-Greek king who ruled brieftly during the 2nd century BC. Little is known about him and there are different views about how to date him. Earlier authors such as Tarn and Narain saw him as a son and sub-king of Demetrius I, but this view is now abandoned.

Osmund Bopearachchi has suggested that he ruled in Bactria and Arachosia c. 175–170 BC, but this has been challenged by later authors. R. C. Senior instead prefers c. 175–140 BC, and this is supported by L M Wilson who also assumes from numismatical clues and portrait likeness that Demetrius II was a relative of Eucratides the Great. The later dating is supported by the circumstance that no coins of Demetrius II have been found in the ruins of Ai Khanoum, which was presumably destroyed during the reign of Eucratides I.

History records keep one reference to a king Demetrius contemporary with Eucratides, and this reference is highly problematic.

Roman historian Justin names a Demetrius, king of the Indians, who was an enemy of Eucratides the Great. Justin's Demetrius beleaguered the warlike Eucratides with an army of 60,000 men against the latter's garrison of 300, but still — according to the probably exaggerated account — eventually was defeated. This episode is referred to as occurring at the end of the reign of Eucratides, hence dating the death of Justin's Demetrius around 150 BC. Justin's Demetrius may have been a relative of the Indian king Apollodotus I or a fugitive prince of the Euthydemid dynasty.

However, the king of Justin's quote is not easily reconciled with the numismatical evidence, and views are divided as for how to interpret the various coinage series bearing the name Demetrius. Bopearachchi (1991) has singled out three kings named Demetrius. Demetrius I reigned c. 200- 185 BC, well before the rise of Eucratides, and Demetrius III was an Indian king who is thought to have ruled much later, around 100 BC. There remains Demetrius II, who Bopearachchi suggested reigned around 170 BC.