Invencible Demetrio Realeza (divina) en Bactria a la sombra de los Grandes Reyes
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
En las ahora famosas inscripciones de Külob de Taǧikistān, el hijo de Eutidemo I de Baktria, el príncipe Demetrio, es celebrado como "glorioso en la victoria" (παῖς καλλἰνικος), testimonio de su papel en la defensa contra el avance de Antíoco III: una señal precoz del aspecto militar de su personalidad real. Posteriormente, emprendería campañas a lo largo y ancho de la India, y sus monedas lo asociaron estrechamente con Dioniso o Alejandro Magno. Los eruditos han interpretado durante mucho tiempo esta evidencia como un intento de los reyes bactrianos de aprovechar el capital simbólico del fundador macedonio para competir por la validez imperial contra los seléucidas. Este artículo aboga por una interpretación más amplia, sugiriendo que las campañas de Demetrio en la India pueden comprenderse mejor en el marco de un discurso milenario sobre el Imperio y el dominio universal de origen en Oriente Próximo, que alcanzó su expresión más elaborada bajo los aqueménidas. Además, incorpora el registro etnohistórico para sugerir un nuevo enfoque de la realeza helenística en general a través del prisma de la realeza sagrada (divina).
Article Details

Esta obra está bajo una licencia internacional Creative Commons Atribución 4.0.
(c) Marco Ferrario, 2025
Derechos de autor
Los autores que publican en esta revista están de acuerdo con los siguientes términos:- Los autores conservan los derechos de autor.
- Los textos publicados en esta revista están sujetos –si no se indica lo contrario– a una licencia de Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional de Creative Commons. Puede copiarlos, distribuirlos, comunicarlos públicamente, hacer obras derivadas y usos comerciales siempre que reconozca los créditos de las obras (autoría, nombre de la revista, institución editora) de la manera especificada por los autores o por la revista. La licencia completa se puede consultar en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Los autores pueden establecer por separado acuerdos adicionales para la distribución no exclusiva de la versión de la obra publicada en la revista (por ejemplo, situarlo en un repositorio institucional o publicarlo en un libro), con un reconocimiento de su publicación inicial en esta revista.
- Se permite y se anima a los autores a difundir sus trabajos electrónicamente (por ejemplo, en repositorios institucionales o en su propio sitio web) antes y durante el proceso de envío, ya que puede dar lugar a intercambios productivos, así como a una citación más temprana y mayor de los trabajos publicados (Véase The Effect of Open Access) (en inglés).
Marco Ferrario, Northeast Normal University
Northeast Normal University, Changchun (PRC): https://ihac.nenu.edu.cn/ENGLISH.htm)
BERNARD, P.; PINAULT, G.-J.; ROUGEMONT, G. (2004): “Deux nouvelles inscriptions grecques de l’Asie centrale”, Journal des savants 95.2: 27-356. https://doi.org/10.3406/jds.2004.1686
BIAGI, P. (2017): “Uneasy Riders: With Alexander and Nearchus from Pattala to Rhambakia”, in C. ANTONETTI – P. BIAGI (eds.), With Alexander in India & Central Asia. Moving East & Back to West, Oxford: 255-278. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/karanos.17
BUCCIANTINI, V. (2015): Studio su Nearco di Creta. Dalla descrizione geografica alla narrazione storica, Torino. https://doi.org/10.29173/histos372
COLORU, O. (2009): Da Alessandro a Menandro. Il regno greco di Battriana, Roma-Pisa.
COLORU, O. (2024): “Indians in the Graeco-Roman World”, in B. FORSÉN – A. LAMPINEN (eds.), Oriental Mirages. Stereotypes and Identity Creation in the Ancient World, Stuttgart: 163-196. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515136808
DEGEN, J. (2021): “Alexander III, the Achaemenids and the Quest for Dionysos. Framing and Claiming Universal Rulership in the Macedonian World Empire”, in T. DARYAEE – R. ROLLINGER (eds.), Iran and its Histories. From the Beginnings through the Achaemenid Empire. Proceedings of the First and Second Payravi Lectures on Ancient Iranian History, UC Irvine, March 23rd, 2018, & March 11th-12th, Wiesbaden: 239-287.
DEGEN, J. (2022a): “Source and Criticism. Traces of Alexander’s ‘Official Language’ in the Anabasis”, in R. ROLLINGER – J. DEGEN (eds.), The World of Alexander in Perspective. Contextualizing Arrian, Wiesbaden: 25-72. https://doi.org/10.13173/9783447119085.025
DEGEN, J. (2022b): “Alexander und die κήτεα des Okeanos”, Klio 104.2: 517-549. https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2021-0061
DEGEN, J. (2024): “Approaching “inherited geographies” in the ancient worlds”, in K. Ruffing – B. Truschnegg – A. Rudigier – J. Degen – S. Fink – K. Schnegg (eds.), Navigating the Worlds of History. Studies in Honor of Robert Rollinger on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, Wiesbaden: 49–84
DEGEN, J. (forthcoming): “Defining imperial space from the Achaemenid period until the early Roman Empire”, in R. ROLLINGER (ed.), The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th c. BC–2nd c. BC), Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119071860.ch31
DUMKE, G. R. (2021): “Grieche sein um jeden Preis? Strategien zur Überwindung gesellschaftlicher Spaltungen im hellenistischen Fernen Osten”, in S. PFEIFFER - G. WEBER (eds.), Gesellschaftliche Spaltungen im Zeitalter des Hellenismus (4.–1. JH. V. CHR.). Stuttgart:181-195. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515130820
FABIAN, L. (2020): “Russian Perspectives on Eurasian Pasts”, in S. VON REDEN (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 1: Contexts, Berlin: 581-618. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607741-022
FERRARIO, M. (forthcoming): “Walking Down the (Dynastic) Line. Royal Ancestors and Sacred Kingship in Early Achaemenid Persia”, Asdiwal 19.
GLENN, S. (2020a): “History from coins: The role of numismatics in the study of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek worlds”, in R. R. MAIRS (ed.), The graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World, London: 467-486. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315108513-25
GLENN, S. (2020b): Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria, New York (NY).
GORŠENINA, S. M. – RAPIN, C. (2020): “Hellenism with or without Alexander the Great: Russian, Soviet and Central Asian approaches”, in R. R. MAIRS (ed.), The graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World, London: 171-214. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315108513-11
HÄRTEL, S. (2023): “Thoughts on the Iconography of the Sophytos Coinage”, Dabir 10.2: 162-174. https://doi.org/10.1163/29497833-20230008
HOLT, F. L. (2012): Lost World of the Golden King. In Search of Ancient Afghanistan, Oakland (CA).
HOO, M. (2020): “Globalization and interpreting visual culture”, in R. R. MAIRS (ed.), The graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World, London: 553-569. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315108513-32
HOO, M. (2022): Eurasian Localisms. Towards a translocal approach to Hellenism and inbetweenness in central Eurasia, third to first centuries BCE, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515133166
HOO, M. (2023): “Global History and the Study of Frontier Zones in Ancient Afro-Eurasia: A Postcolonial Endeavor”, in S. VON REDEN (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 3: Frontier-Zone Processes and Transimperial Exchange, Berlin: 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607628-003
HOO, M. (forthcoming): “Frontiers of ambition: Diplomacy, peer polity interaction, and identity formation between the Graeco-Bactrian and Seleucid kings”, Cahiers d’Asie Centrale.
KOSMIN, P. J. (2014): The Land of the Elephant Kings. Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire, Cambridge (MA). https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674416161
KOSMIN, P. J. (2018): Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire, Cambridge (MA).
MAIRS, R. R. (2014): The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, language, and identity in Greek Central Asia, Berkeley (CA). https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520959545
MAIRS, R. R. (2020): “Greek Inscriptions and Documentary Texts and the Graeco-Roman Tradition”, in R. R. MAIRS (ed.), The graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World, London: 419-429. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315108513-21
MAIRS, R. R. (2021): “‘Ai Khanoum God with Feet of Marble’. Reading Ai Khanoum through Commagene”, in M. BLÖMER – S. RIEDEL, M.-J. VERSLUYS – E. WINTER (eds.), Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods Commagene in its Local, Regional and Global Hellenistic Context, Stuttgart: 33-42. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515129268
MARCINKIEWICZ-JOSEPH, F. A. (2016): Demetrius I of Bactria: An Analysis of Hellenistic Royal Power Through Numismatic Evidence, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Houston (TX).
MARTINEZ-SEVE, L. (2010): “Pouvoir et religion dans la Bactriane hellénistique”, Chiron 40: 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3790/hpb.2025.407553
MARTINEZ-SÈVE, L. (2023): “Seleucid Religious Architecture in Ai Khanoum: A Case Study”, in T. DARYAEE – R. ROLLINGER – M. P. CANEPA (eds.), Iran and the Transformation of Ancient Near Eastern History: the Seleucids (ca. 312–150 BCE), Proceedings of the Third Payravi Conference on Ancient Iranian History, UC Irvine, February 24th–25th, 2020, Wiesbaden: 217-252.
MELLONI, M. F. (2020): “Identità nella Battriana ellenistica. Le dediche al dio Oxus”, Geographia Antiqua 29: 111-123.
MINARDI, M. (2020): “Achaemenid ‘echoes’ at Akchakhan-kala, Chorasmia, and their broader significance for Central Asia”, Journal of Asian Civilizations 43.2: 1-42. https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.53140
MITCHELL, L. (2022): “King, Divinity, and Law in Ancient Greece”, in A. Azfar-Moin – A. Strathern (eds.), Sacred Kingship in World History, New York (NY): 111-136. https://doi.org/10.7312/moin20416-007
MORRIS, L. (2020a): “Central Asian Empires”, in S. VON REDEN (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 1: Contexts, Berlin: 53-93. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607741-004
MORRIS, L. (2020b): “Constructing Ancient Central Asia’s Economic History”, in S. VON REDEN (ed.), Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 1: Contexts, Berlin: 669-692. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607741-025
MUCCIOLI, F. M. (2013): Gli epiteti ufficiali dei re ellenistici, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515103831
OELLIG, M. (2023): Die Sukzession von Weltreichen. Zu den antiken Wurzeln einer geschichtsmächtigen Idee, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515131995
OLBRYCHT, M. J. (2021): Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250–165 b.c.). At the Crossroads of Iranian, Hellenistic, and Central Asian History, Leiden. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004460768_011
OVERTOOM, N. L. (2020): Reign of Arrows: The Rise of the Parthian Empire in the Hellenistic Middle East, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190888329.003.0007
RAPIN, C. (2018): “Aux origines de la cartographie. L’Empire achéménide sous Darius I et Xerxès”, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24: 1-67. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700577-12341326
RAPIN, C. (2023): “Sources antiques sur Maracanda-Zariaspa (la Sogdiane entre Spitamène et Alexandre le Grand)”, in L. COLLIVA – A. FILIGENZI – L. M. OLIVIERI (eds.), Le forme della città. Iran, Asia centrale, Gandhara. Studi offerti a Pierfrancesco Callieri in occasione del suo 65° compleanno, Venezia: 443-480.
ROLLINGER, R. (2014): “Aornos and the Mountains of the East: the Assyrian Kings and Alexander the Great”, in S. GASPA – A. GRECO – D. M. BONACCORSI – S. PONCHIA (eds.), From Source to History. Studies on Ancient Near Eastern Worlds and Beyond. Dedicated to Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday on June 23, 2014, Münster: 597-637. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.30625915.52
ROLLINGER, R. (2023): “Contextualizing the Achaemenid-Persian Empire. What does Empire mean in the First Millennium BCE?”, in G. P. BASELLO – P. CALLIERI – A. V. ROSSI, “Achaemenid Studies Today”. Proceedings of the SIE mid-term conference held in Naples, Napoli: 289-338. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511841880.015
ROLLINGER, R. – DEGEN, J. (2021a): “Conceptualizing Universal Rulership: Considerations on the Persian Achaemenid Worldview and the Saka at the “End of the World””, H. Klinkott - A. Luther - J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Beiträge zur Geschichte und Kultur des alten Iran und benachbarter Gebiete. Festschrift für Rüdiger Schmitt, Stuttgart: 187-224. https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515130288
ROLLINGER, R. – DEGEN, J. (2021b): “Alexander the Great, the Indian Ocean, and the Borders of the World”, in D. AGUT-LABORDÈRE – R. BOUCHARLAT – F. JONANNÈS – A. KUHRT – M. W. STOLPER (eds.), Achemenet. Vingt ans après. Études offertes à Pierre Briant à l’occasion des vingt ans du Programme Achemenet, Leuven: 321-342. https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.55710
SHENKAR, M. (2014): Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World, Leiden. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004281493_005
SHENKAR, M. (2024): “The ‘Eternal Fire’, Achaemenid Zoroastrianism and the Origin of the Fire Temples”, in G. BARNEA – R. G. KATZ (eds.), Yahwism under the Achaemenid. Empire Professor Shaul Shaked in Memoriam, Berlin: 379-390. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111018638-014
STARK, S. – MORRIS, L. (2024): “Between Alexander and Byzantium: Notions and Concepts of the “West” in Central Asia (First Century BCE-Eight Century CE)”, in M. P. Canepa (ed.), Persian Cultures of Power and the Entanglement of the Afro-Eurasian World, Los Angeles (CA), 154-180. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.9345422.8
STONEMAN, R. (2019): The Greek Experience of India. From Alexander to the Indo-Greeks, Princeton (NJ). https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691154039.001.0001
STROOTMAN, R. (2023): “A Kingship Ritual in Baktria. Antiochos III and the Reorganization of Seleukid Central Asia”, Studia Hercynia XXVII.1: 88-97.
TARN, W. W. (1938): The Greeks in Bactria and India, Cambridge.
VERSLUYS, M.-J. (2017): Visual Style and Constructing Identity in the Hellenistic World: Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316494035
WALLACE, S. (2016): “Greek culture in Afghanistan and India. Old evidence and new discoveries”, Greece and Rome 63.2: 205–226. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0017383516000073
WIEDMANN, F. (2009): Les successeurs d‘Alexandre en Asia centrale et leur héritage culturel : Essai, Paris. https://doi.org/10.4000/syria.1082
WENGHOFER, R. (2018): “Rethinking the Relationship between Hellenistic Baktria and the Seleukid Empire”, in K. Erickson (ed.), The Seleukid Empire 281-222 BC. War Within the Family, Cardiff: 151-171. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvb93898.11
WÜNSCH, J. (2022): Großmacht gegen lokale Machthaber. Die Herrschaftspraxis der Seleukiden an den Rändern ihres Reiches, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1515/hzhz-2025-1064
Artículos más leídos del mismo autor/a
- Marco Ferrario, Cherchez la femme: Poder y agencia femenina en Bactria en los albores de l , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 3 (2020)
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de Manning, Armed Force in the Teispid-Achaemenid Empire. Past Approaches, Future Prospects, Stuttgart, Steiner Verlag, 2021, 437 pp. [ISBN 9783515127752]. , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 4 (2021): Karanos 4
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de Mairs (ed.), The Graeco Bactrian and Indo-Greek World, London,. Routledge, 2020, 712 pp. [ISBN 9781138090699]. , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 4 (2021): Karanos 4
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de von Reden [in collaboration with Mamta Dwivedi, Lara Fabian,Kathrin Leese-Messing,Lauren Morrisand, Eli J. S. Weaverdyck], Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 1: Contexts, Berlin–New York, De Gruyter, 2020, xv-758 pp. [ISBN 978311060451-1]. , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 4 (2021): Karanos 4
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de Degen, Alexander III. Zwischen Ost und West. Indigene Traditionen und Herrschaftsinszenierung im makedonischen Weltimperium (2022) , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 5 (2022): Karanos 5
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de Julian Wünsch, Großmacht gegen lokale Machthaber. Die Herrschaftspraxis der Seleukiden an den Rändern ihres Reiches, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2022 , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 6 (2023): Karanos 6
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de M. Hoo, Eurasian Localisms. Towards a translocal approach to Hellenism and inbetweennes in central Eurasia, third to first centuries BCE, Steiner Verlag (2022) , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 7 (2024): Karanos 7
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de M. Blömer, S. Riedel, M. John Versluys, E. Winter (eds.), Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods. Commagene in its Local, Regional, and Global Hellenistic Context, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag (2021) , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 8 (2025): Karanos 8
- Marco Ferrario, Reseña de Sitta von Reden (ed. in collaboration with Lara Fabian and Eli J. S. Weaverdyck), Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 2: Local, Regional, and Imperial Economies (2021) , Karanos. Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies: Vol. 8 (2025): Karanos 8