Heraios
Early 1st century CE Kushan ruler
title: "Heraios" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["kushan-monarchs", "1st-century-monarchs-in-asia"] description: "Early 1st century CE Kushan ruler" topic_path: "general/kushan-monarchs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraios" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Early 1st century CE Kushan ruler ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox royalty"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Heraios |
| image | Heraios coin.jpg |
| caption | Silver tetradrachm of Kushan king Heraios. |
| Obv: Bust of Heraios, with Greek royal headband. | |
| Rev: Horse-mounted King, crowned with a wreath by the Greek goddess of victory Nike. Greek legend: ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΥΟΤΟΣ ΗΛΟΥ - ΣΑΝΑΒ - ΚΟϷϷΑΝΟΥ "The Tyrant Heraios, Sanav (meaning unknown), of the Kushans". | |
| succession | Kushan ruler |
| reign | c. 1 –30 CE |
| coronation | 1 BCE |
| full name | Heraios Kadphises |
| predecessor | Sapadbizes |
| successor | Kujula Kadphises |
| issue | Kujula Kadphises, |
| dynasty | Kushan |
| birth_date | 23 BCE |
| birth_place | Taskhand |
| death_date | 30 CE |
| death_place | Srinagar ? |
| place of burial | |
| :: |
| name = Heraios | image = Heraios coin.jpg | caption = Silver tetradrachm of Kushan king Heraios. Obv: Bust of Heraios, with Greek royal headband. Rev: Horse-mounted King, crowned with a wreath by the Greek goddess of victory Nike. Greek legend: ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΥΟΤΟΣ ΗΛΟΥ - ΣΑΝΑΒ - ΚΟϷϷΑΝΟΥ "The Tyrant Heraios, Sanav (meaning unknown), of the Kushans". | succession = Kushan ruler | reign = c. 1 –30 CE | coronation = 1 BCE | full name = Heraios Kadphises | predecessor = Sapadbizes | successor = Kujula Kadphises | queen = | spouse = | issue = Kujula Kadphises, Vima Takto | royal house = | dynasty = Kushan | father = | mother = | birth_date = 23 BCE | birth_place = Taskhand | death_date = 30 CE | death_place = Srinagar ? | date of burial = | place of burial = | Heraios (Bactrian: Ηλου Ēlou, sometimes Heraus, Heraos, Miaos) was apparently a king or clan chief of the Kushans (reign: c. 1 –30 CE), one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi, in Bactria, in the early 1st century CE.
Several scholars question his existence as a separate historical figure and suggest that "Heraios" may have been another name for his nominal successor Kujula Kadphises. For example, numismatist Joe Cribb points out the similarity of coins minted by Kujula to those of a Greco-Bactrian predecessor named Hermaios Soter (or Hermaeus Soter). Moreover, some portraits of Kujula resemble Hermaios, suggesting that Kujula may have initially reused the design of coins issued during the reign of Hermaios Soter.
The coins bearing the name Heraios were silver and made in the Hellenistic style, using the Greek script. The reverse shows the winged Greek goddess of victory Nike holding out a wreath, over Heraios mounted on a horse. He wears a tunic and has a large bow on the side. Some portraits show Heraios with a marked artificial skull deformation, a characteristic of several Kushan portraits and sculptures of the 1st century CE. On some of the Heraios coins, his name has sometimes been read as ΗΛΟΥ or ΗΙΛΟΥ, which has been transliterated as "Ilou". However other readings of the same texts include "Ηaou" and "Ηiaou".
File:Kushan Empire. Heraios. Circa CE 1- 30 to 50.jpg|Another coin type of Heraois, - 30/50 CE File:Koshanoy.jpg|The ethnonym "KOϷϷANO" (Koshshano, "Kushans") in Greek alphabet (with the addition of the letter Ϸ, "Sh") on a coin of Heraios. File:Tetradrachm Heraos NMAT H377-1.jpg|Tetradrachm, obverse: diademed Heraos right, 1st half of the 1st century CE. From Vakhsh, Tajikistan.
References
Sources
References
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=YTGRcVLMg6MC&pg=PA92 Ancient Coin Collecting VI: Non-Classical Cultures p.92 Wayne G. Sayles F+W Media, Inc, 1999]
- Cribb, Joe. (1993). "The Heraus Coins: Their Attribution to the Kushan King Kujula Kadphises, c. AD 30-80". Spink.
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