Pouvoir et religion dans la Bactriane hellénistique. Recherches sur la politique religieuse des rois séleucides et gréco-bactriens

Abstract

This article studies the religious politics carried out in Bactria by the Seleucid kings and their Greco-Bactrian successors. Their monetary iconography shows that they chose to place themselves under the protection of certain tutelary deities, Greek as well as Indian or Iranian – the significance of the latter ones increasing progressively within the royal pantheons. The kings also maintained privileged relationships with important sanctuaries such as those of Takht-i Sangin and Aï Khanoum, whose chronology may be revised. These were at the heart of an ideology which underlined the kings’ extraordinary prestige and presented them as being equal to gods, in particular through the way of royal epithets that lead to suppose that cults were instituted in their honour.