Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/242

COIN OP THE INDO -GREEK KING Ml.SAM'l.U. 204 INDO- GREEK AND INDO - PARTHIAN DYNASTIES Menander was celebrated as a just ruler, and when he died was honoured with magnificent obsequies. He is supposed to have been a convert to Buddhism, and has been immortalized under the name of Milinda in a celebrated dialogue entitled " The Questions of Milinda/' which is one of the most notable books in Buddhist literature. Heliokles, the son of Eukratides, who had obtained Bactria as his share of his father's extensive dominion, was the last king of Greek race to rule the territories to the north of the Hindu Kush. While the Greek princes and princelings were struggling second century B.C. one w ith the other in obscure wars which history has not condescended to record, a deluge was preparing in the steppes of Mongolia, which was destined to sweep them all away into nothingness. A horde of nomads, named the Yueh-chi, whose movements will be more particularly described in the next chapter, were driven out of northwestern China in the year 165 B. c., and compelled to migrate west- wards by the route to the north of the deserts. Some years later, about 160 B. c., they encountered another horde, the Sakas or Se, who seem to have occupied the territories lying to the north (or, possibly, to the south) of the Alexander Mountains, between the Chu and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) Rivers, as already mentioned. The Sakas, accompanied by cognate tribes, were forced to move in a southerly direction, and in course