Person · Taxila king · Pakistan
Ambhi of Taxila
Also known as Ambhi, Omphis, Taxiles, Ambhiraja
The ruler of Taxila, called Omphis or Taxiles in the Greek sources, who submitted to Alexander in 326 BCE, supplied him with elephants, cavalry and supplies, and was confirmed as satrap of his own kingdom. His alliance is what made the march to the Jhelum possible at all.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 33.746, 72.829
Worth knowing
He had his own quarrel with Porus, which is the ordinary reason Indian rulers allied with invaders, and the Greeks routinely called him Taxiles after his city rather than by his name. He was still in place when Alexander left, and Chandragupta Maurya absorbed the kingdom within a generation.
About the place
Placed at Taxila, the city he ruled and where he received Alexander in 326 BCE.
Connections (1)
- Court associationAlexander of Macedon
Ambhi of Taxila submitted before Alexander crossed the Indus, supplied him with elephants, five thousand troops and provisions, and was confirmed as satrap of his own territory. His motive was his quarrel with Porus across the Jhelum. Without this alliance there is no march to the Hydaspes, and the Greek sources call him Taxiles after the city rather than by his own name.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ambhi”. Arrian, Anabasis, book V; Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni, book VIII; A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire (1988).
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