Sophytes

Who was Sophytes?

Sophytes is a figure whose origin is subject to much debate. There is an Indian king "Sophytes", described as ruling along the Indus during the campaigns of Alexander the Great, in the Bibliotheca of Diodorus Siculus. 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. He was born in today's Kabul in the end of 326 BC and perhaps a son of Alexander the Great by Dkhti, daughter of Subhuti, Indian Prince of Paropamisos, as well as the father of Greek General Apollodotus, in turn the father of King Euthydemus I of Bactria.

The kingdom extended over the Salt Range, 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 who the former had ceded many of his Eastern possessions to. General Alexander Cunningham 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.