View source for Zoilus II

{{Infobox monarch
| name            =Zoilus II Soter ("The Saviour")
| succession      =[[Indo-Greek]] king
| image           =Zoilos II portrait.jpg
| caption         =Portrait of Zoilus II
| reign           =55–35 BC
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[[File:Zoilos II as a balding man.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|<small>Coin of Zoilus II, as a balding man.<br/>'''Obv:''' Bust of Zoilus with Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΖΩΙΛΟΥ "Of King Zoilos the Saviour".<br/>'''Rev:''' [[Athena]] advancing left, with thunderbolt and shield covered with [[aegis]] (type of [[Menander I]]). [[Kharosthi]] legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA JHOILASA "King Zoilus the Saviour".</small>]]
'''Zoilus II Soter''' ({{langx|grc|Ζωΐλος Σωτήρ|Zōïlos Sōtēr}}; [[epithet]] means "the Saviour")  was an [[Indo-Greek]] king who ruled in eastern [[Punjab region|Punjab]]. Bopearachchi dates his reign to c. 55&ndash;35 BC, a date approximately supported by R. C. Senior. It is possible that some of his coins were issued by a separate king, Zoilus III.

==Rule==
[[File:Zoilos II coin with Apollo and small elephant behind him.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Coin of Zoilus II, with Apollo and small elephant behind him. Tripod on the reverse.]]
[[File:Coin of Indo-Greek king Zoilos II.jpg|thumb|Elephant and tripod.]]
Zoilus seems to have been one of the rulers who succeeded the last important Indo-Greek king [[Apollodotus II]] in the eastern parts of his former kingdom. All these kings use the same symbol as Apollodotus II, the fighting [[Pallas Athene]] introduced by Menander I, and usually also the same epithet  ''Soter'' (Saviour). It is therefore possible that they belonged to the same dynasty, and Zoilus II could also have been related to the earlier king [[Zoilus I]], but the lack of written sources make all such conjections uncertain.

He may have been the Bactrian ally of [[Mark Antony]] and [[Cleopatra VII]] referred to by [[Virgil]] in his vision of the [[Battle of Actium]] in : 
{{Verse translation|Hinc ope barbarica variisque Antonius armis,
victor ab Aurorae populis et litore rubro,
Aegyptum viresque Orientis et ultima secum
Bactra vehit.|
Antony, with barbarous wealth and strange weapons, conqueror of eastern peoples and the Indian shores, bringing Egypt, 
and the might of the Orient, with him, and furthest Bactria.|attr1=Virgil, ''The [[Aeneid]],'' 8.688<ref>[[Francis Henry Skrine]] and [[Edward Denison Ross]], ''The Heart of Asia: A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times,'' by London, Methuen, 1899, p.19; E. Drouin, “Bactriane”, ''La Grande Encyclopédie: Inventaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts,'' Paris, Lamirault, 1885-1902, Tome 4, pp.1115-1122, nb 1118.</ref>}}

===Coinage===
Zoilus II issued silver drachms with diademed portrait and Pallas Athene in rather crude style, and two sorts of bronzes in various denominations: "Apollo, with tripod and small elephant", and "Elephant and tripod".

===Zoilus III, a separate king?===
<!-- the redirect [[Zoilos III]] links here -->
[[File:Coin of Zoilos II Soter.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|<small>Coin of full-haired Zoilus with later "boxy" mint-mark, hypothesized to be Zoilus III.<br/>'''Obv:''' Bust of king with Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΖΩΙΛΟΥ "Of King Zoilos the Saviour".<br/>'''Rev:''' [[Athena]] advancing left, with thunderbolt and shield covered with [[aegis]] (type of [[Menander I]]). [[Kharosthi]] legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA JHOILASA "King Zoilus the Saviour".</small>]]
[[File:Zoilos II Indian standard with boxy mintmark.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Zoilus II Indian-standard coin with "boxy" mint-mark, possibly characteristic of Zoilus III. '''Obv''' Standing god Apollo, holding an arrow and a bow.'''Rev''' Tripod.]]
[[File:Zoilos II Soter Maharajasa tratarasa Jhahilasa.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Monolingual coin of Zoilus II Soter with "boxy" mint-mark. '''Obv''' Standing [[Apollo]] with [[bead and reel]] border. '''Rev''' Diadem with Kharoshthi legend "Maharajasa tratarasa Jhahilasa" (Saviour King Zoilus). ]]
The portraits attributed to Zoilus II could be divided into two groups; one depicting a balding man with hollow cheeks, the other a seemingly younger man with a fringe and round cheeks. As numismatic evidence indicates that the younger portraits are later, recent research has suggested that they be attributed to a younger king, Zoilus III Soter, who would then have been a son and successor of the older Zoilos.<ref name="JJ">{{cite journal|last1=Jakobsson|first1=J|title=A Possible New Indo-Greek King Zoilos III, and an Analysis of Realism on Indo-Greek Royal Portraits|journal=Numismatic Chronicle|date=2010}} [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42678881 JSTOR article]</ref> 

In particular, the mint mark which is characteristic of the coins of Zoilos with a full head of hair, is a later mint mark used down to the last Indo-Greek kings [[Strato II]] and [[Strato III]], suggesting a later reign for Zoilus III.<ref name="JJ"/> This mint-mark however was never used by the "balding" Zoilus II, or by any king before him.<ref name="JJ"/>

====Indo-Scythian imitations====
The [[Indo-Scythian]] king [[Bhadayasa]] also copied coins of Zoilus II, or the hypothetical Zoilus III, only mentioning his own name on the [[Kharoshthi]] legend of his coins.<ref name="JJ"/>
<gallery>
Image:IGM62.jpg|The "boxy" mint mark characteristic of Zoilus III and later Indo-Greek kings.
File:Coin of Zoilos II.jpg|Another coin of the proposed Zoilus III.
File:Bhadrayasha coin.jpg|Coin of [[Bhadayasa]], an imitation of the proposed Zoilus IIII.
</gallery>

===Monograms===
Many of the [[monogram]]s on the coins of Zoilus II are in Kharoshti, indicating that they were probably made by an Indian moneyer. This is a characteristic of several of the Indo-Greek kings of the eastern Punjab, such as [[Strato I]], [[Apollodotus II]], and sometimes [[Apollophanes]] and [[King Dionysios|Dionysios]]. Furthermore, the monogram is often identical on their coins, indicating that the moneyer, or the place of mint, were the same.

The coins of Zoilus II combine Greek monograms with [[Kharoshthi]] ones, indicating that some of the [[celator]]s may have been native Indians. The [[Kharoshthi]] monograms are the letters for: sti, ji, ra, ga, gri, ha, stri, ri, bu, a, di, stra, and śi. The "Apollo and tripod" and "Elephant and tripod" types only have Kharoshthi monograms, while the portrait types usually have combinations of Greek and Kharoshthi monograms. The monogram 62 (below) has been shown to be the last Indo-Greek monogram, and only appears on the younger portraits that may belong to Zoilus III.
<gallery>
Image:IGM62.jpg
Image:IGM50.jpg
Image:IGM45.jpg
Image:IGM51.jpg
</gallery>

===Findspots===
[[File:ZoilosIICoin.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|Coin of Zoilus II/III, younger portrait.]]
[[File:Taxila1.jpg|thumb|left|Coins of Zoilus II were found under a peripheral stupa in the [[Dharmarajika]] Buddhist monastery.]]
The coins of Zoilus II have been found in the [[Sutlej River|Sutlej]] and [[Sialkot]] II hoards, and in [[Punjab region|Punjab]] hoards east in the [[Jhelum River|Jhelum]] ([[Bopearachchi]], p138).

Also, 25 coins of Zoilus II were found under the foundations of a 1st-century BC rectangular chapel in the monastery of [[Dharmarajika]], near [[Taxila]].<ref>"Another group of coins which was found in greater numbers at religious sites, at Dharmarajika in particular, than at Sirkap is that of Zoilos II. A hoard of 25 drachms from the monastery are the only silver coins of Zoilos Soter found at Taxila" Numismatic Digest - Volume 4 - Page 13, 1980</ref><ref>John Marshall, "Taxila, Archaeological excavations", p.&nbsp;248 "The only minor antiquities of interest found in this building were twenty-five debased silver coins of the Greek king Zoilus II, which were brought to light beneath the foundations of the earliest chapel".)</ref>

Two coins of Zoilus II were also found in the Bara hoard near [[Peshawar]], together with coins of the Indo-Scythian kings [[Azes I]], [[Azilises]], [[Azes II]].<ref>[http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=43045&AucID=46&Lot=541 Reference]</ref>

===Overstrikes===
A coin of Zoilus II was overstruck on a coin of [[Apollodotus II]].



==See also==
* [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]]
* [[Seleucid Empire]]
* [[Greco-Buddhism]]
* [[Indo-Scythians]]
* [[Indo-Parthian Kingdom]]
* [[Kushan Empire]]

==Notes==
<references/>

==References==
* ''The Greeks in Bactria and India'', W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
* ''Indo-Greek Coins'', R. B. Whitehead, 1914.

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[King Dionysios|Dionysios]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Indo-Greek|Indo-Greek Ruler]]<br>(in [[Punjab region|Eastern Punjab]])|years=55 – 35 BC}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Apollophanes]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Indo-Greek kings}}
{{Hellenistic rulers}}

[[Category:Indo-Greek kings]]
[[Category:1st-century BC monarchs in Asia]]
[[Category:Greek Buddhist monarchs]]
[[Category:People of the War of Actium]]