Editing Menander I (section)

{{Short description|2nd-century BCE Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek king}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Menander I
| title        = [[Maharaja]] <br> [[Basileus]]
| succession   = [[Indo-Greek]] King
| image        = Menander I, portrait from coinage.jpg
| image_size   = 225
| caption      = Portrait of Menander I Soter, from his coinage
| reign        = 165/155–130 BC
| coronation   = 
| full name    = 
| predecessor  = [[Antimachus II]]
| successor    = [[Strato I]] (Agathoclea as regent)
| queen        = [[Agathokleia|Agathoclea]]
| spouse       = 
| issue        = [[Strato I]]
| father       = 
| mother       = 
| birth_date   = {{Circa|180 BC}}
| birth_place  = Kalisi (in present-day [[Bagram]], Afghanistan)<ref name=eb>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/374659/Menander |title=Menander |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |access-date=8 September 2012}}</ref><ref name="Hazel 2013"/> or [[Sagala]] (present-day [[Sialkot]], [[Pakistan]])<ref name="Magill 2003"/>
| death_date   = 130 BC (aged 50)
| date of burial = 
| place of burial = [[Stupas]] across the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom]]
| religion     = |
| Image width  = 
}}
'''Menander I Soter''' ({{langx|grc|Μένανδρος Σωτήρ|Ménandros Sōtḗr}}, {{Lit|Menander the [[Soter|Saviour]]}}; {{langx|pi|Milinda|italic=yes}}), sometimes called '''Menander the Great''',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ḍār |first=Saifurraḥmān |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXxNAQAAIAAJ&q=Menander+the+Great+shifted+his+capital+to+a+more+central+place+of+his+empire+than+Taxila.+His+new+capital,+named |title=Historical Routes Through Gandhara (Pakistan): 200 B.C-200 A.D |date=2006 |publisher=National College of Arts |isbn=9789690020352 |pages=88 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dar |first1=Saifur Rahman |last2=Jan |first2=Zakirullah |date=2015 |title=Three Seasons of Excavations at Pir Manakrai, Haripur: Preliminary Report |url=http://ojs.uop.edu.pk/ancientpakistan/article/view/50 |journal=Ancient Pakistan |language=en |volume=26 |pages=1–44 |issn=2708-4590}}</ref> was an [[Indo-Greek]] king (reigned {{Circa|165}}/155<ref name=Bopearachchi>Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectively. The first date is estimated by Osmund [[Bopearachchi]] and R. C. Senior, the other Boperachchi</ref>&nbsp;–130 BC) who administered a large territory in the northwestern regions of the [[Indian subcontinent]] and [[Central Asia]]. Menander is noted for having become a patron of [[Greco-Buddhism]] and is  regarded as the greatest and most well-known of the Indo-Greek kings.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Menander {{!}} Indo-Greek king|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menander-Indo-Greek-king|access-date=2021-09-06|website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2025-01-29 |title=Biographie de MÉNANDRE, roi de Bactriane (env. 160-env. 140 av. J.-C.) |url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/menandre-roi-de-bactriane/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=[[Encyclopædia Universalis]] |language=fr-FR}}</ref> 

Menander might have initially been a prince or [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|king of Bactria]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Menandros |date=2025-02-22 |work=[[Store norske leksikon]] |url=https://snl.no/Menandros |access-date=2025-04-20 |language=no}}.</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Milinda |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/milinda_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=[[Treccani]] |language=it}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> After conquering the [[Punjab region|Punjab]],<ref name="Hazel 2013"/> as far as [[Taxila]] and [[Sagala]], he established an empire which stretched from the [[Kabul River]] in the west to the [[Ravi River]] in the east, and from the [[Swat River|Swat River valley]] in the north to [[Arachosia]] (the [[Helmand Province]]). The [[Greeks|Greek]] [[List of Graeco-Roman geographers|geographer]] [[Strabo]] wrote that he "conquered more tribes than [[Alexander the Great]]." Ancient Indian writers indicate that he possibly launched unsuccessful expeditions southward into [[Rajputana]] ([[Rajasthan]], [[Gujarat]] and [[Sindh]]) and [[central India]] (Gujarat and Malwa) and as far east down the [[Ganges River Valley]] as [[Pataliputra]] ([[Patna]]).<ref>{{cite book | last=Thapar | first=Romila | title=Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 | publisher=University of California Press | year=2003 | page=215 | isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC&pg=PA215}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

Large numbers of Menander’s [[coins]] have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and longevity 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]]'' ("The Questions of King Milinda"; ''panha'' meaning "question" in [[Pali]]). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife [[Agathoclea (Indo-Greek)|Agathocleia]], perhaps the daughter of [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]], who ruled as regent for his son [[Strato I]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |date=1970 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-23448-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient02edwa/page/406 406] |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient02edwa |url-access=registration |language=en}}</ref> Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but [[Plutarch]] says that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably [[stupas]], across his realm.