Sophytes
Encyclopedia
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
. Curtius also records a dramatic interview between the tall and handsome Saubhuti and Alexander in which Saubhuti offers war He has been mentioned as both a Greek prince and a mercenary captain in the late fourth century BCE and as an Indian King of Paropamisdae in Bactria. His coins have been found in Southern Asia; however, exactly where he may have operated or reigned remains unresolved. Some scholars posit his region of influence as the modern Pakistani Punjab while others note that it was further west in Bactria (Northern Afghanistan). He was born in today's Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
in the end of 326 BC and perhaps a son of Alexander the Great by Dkhti, daughter of Subhuti (d. aft. 327 BC), Indian Prince of Paropamisos (Kabul), as well as the father of Greek General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Apollodotus (b. c. 295 BC), in turn the father of King Euthydemus I
Euthydemus I
Euthydemus I , Greco-Bactrian king in about 230 or 223 BCE according to Polybius., he is thought to have originally been a Satrap of Sogdiana, who overturned the dynasty of Diodotus of Bactria and became a Greco-Bactrian king. Strabo, on the other hand, correlates his accession with internal...
of Bactria
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
.
The kingdom extended over the Salt Range
Salt Range
The Salt Range is a hill system in the Punjab province of Pakistan, deriving its name from its extensive deposits of rock salt. The range extends from the Jhelum River to the Indus, across the northern portion of the Punjab province. The Salt Range contains the great mines of Mayo, Khewra, Warcha...
, around Saubhuta and Phegelas, from c. 305 to 294 BCE. Though the history of the region appears to agree with this 11 year reign, the apparent age difference of Sophytes himself as he is portrayed on his coins, has suggested a number of different possible regnal extents. Among the prevailing theories, are that the change in age is representative of Sophytes' actual aging process, or that the "young" issues were actually stylized. In the first case, his reign may have extended as a vassal, while in the second case it probably would have ended with the conquests of either the Seleucid King or the Mauryan King Chandragupta
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...
who the former had ceded many of his Eastern possessions to. General Alexander Cunningham
Alexander Cunningham
Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI was a British archaeologist and army engineer, known as the father of the Archaeological Survey of India...
and other classical numismatists have also confirmed that he probably copied his coin types from Seleucus I, suggesting that his reign would have extended at least beyond Seleucus' initial Eastern conquests.
Sophytes has been subject to a great deal of speculation, with Indian origin at one end of the spectrum and Greek at the other. Cunningham identifies him with the Indian King Fobnath of "Sangala," (a name some read as "Saka-town") while A.C.L. Carlleyle connects him with the same king's son Suveg, which is more likely in light of the identification of Fobnath as a royal title rather than a name; potentially making him a Madra
Madra
Madra, Mada or Madraka is the name of an ancient region and its inhabitants, located in the north-west division of the ancient Indian sub-continent.-Uttaramadra division:...
of Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
/Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
origin. Cunningham believes the Sobii and Kathaei to have been his subjects, whom he asserts were Turanians, making them of the same stock as the Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
or Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Sakas , who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE....
. It is interesting to note that Sagala was the capital of the later Indo-Greek dynasty of Menander I
Menander I
Menander I Soter "The Saviour" was one of the rulers of the Indo-Greek Kingdom from either 165 or 155 BC to 130 BC ....
for several generations, and that Menander himself struck several coins with a similar reverse, suggesting that his dynasty inherited the older king's mints when he took the city for himself.
John D. Grainger however, identifies him as a Greek dynast; Frank L. Holt
Frank L. Holt
Frank Lee Holt is a professor of ancient history at the University of Houston, and is an expert on ancient military and classical history, in particular on classical Greece and Rome....
speculating that he was a mercenary captain who minted coins simply to meet the needs of his troops. In light of his coin type, he may have been a local official, installed (although he may have been an older official, reinstated or simply recognized) by Seleucus after he took the region.
There is also an Indian king "Sophytes", described as ruling along the Indus during the campaigns of Alexander the Great, in the Bibliotheca of Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
. Curtius also records a dramatic interview between the tall and handsome Saubhuti and Alexander in which Saubhuti offers war (Shastri 69). The hunting dogs of his country appeared to have impressed the Macedonian. As such, questions continue to remain about exactly who Sophytes was and where he ruled.