Talk:King Philoxenus

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[edit] Meaning

His name means "friend of foreigners", doesn't it? Can we ascertain some meaning from it or is it as meaningless as the "George Washington" in GW Bush?

An interesting thought! We simply don't know whether the Indo-Greek kings took coronation names which indicated aspects of their policies. The even later king Hippostratos has a name meaning "horse-ruler" and that is quite auguring for a ruler trying to rein in mounted nomad tribes. Then again, Hippostratus was probably a prince by birth whereas we know of no ancestors of Philoxenus. One could possibly - but it's a wild shot - associate the "foreign friends" in the latter name with the same nomads.

By the way, "George Washington" is IMHO not a meaningless name. The Bush family could - very roughly, but still - be compared to some kind of dynasts, and the name clearly shows that his father was an ambitious man who wanted to connect his son's name with his lineage as well as the patriotic past. --Sponsianus 19:32, 9 August 2005 (UTC)