and quickly declared independence from the Parthian Empire, minting coins in Drangiana where he assumed the Greek title of autokrator ("one who rules by himself"). Gondophares I has traditionally been given a later date; the reign of one king calling himself Gondophares has been established at 20 AD by the rock inscription he set up at Takht-i-Bahi near Mardan, Pakistan, in 46 AD., and he has also been connected with the third-century Acts of Thomas. Gondophares I took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab and Sindh region area from the Scythian king Azes. In reality, a number of vassal rulers seem to have switched allegiance from the Indo-Scythians to Gondophares I. His empire was vast, but was only a loose framework, which fragmented soon after his death. His capital was the Gandharan city of Taxila. Taxila is located in Punjab to the west of the present Islamabad. Chronology On the coins of Gondophares, the royal names are Iranian, but the other legends of the coins are in Greek and Kharoṣṭhī. Ernst Herzfeld maintained that the dynasty of Gondophares represented the House of Suren. The Biblical Magus "Gaspar" The name of Gondophares was translated in Armenian in "Gastaphar", and then in Western languages into "Gasbar[d], Gaspas, Caspus, Kaspar, גִזבָּר ". He may be the "Gasbar[d], Treasurer and King of Persia", who, according to apocryphal texts and eastern Christian tradition, was one of the three Biblical Magi who attended the birth of Christ. Through this interaction and association, Gaspar[d] was adopted by the Europeans (and in Western tradition) as a male first name. Connection with Saint Thomas and Apollonius of Tyana The apocryphical Acts of Thomas mentions one king Gudnaphar. This king has been associated with Gondophares I by scholars such as M. Reinaud, as it was not yet established that there were several kings with the same name. Since St. Thomas is said to have lived there in a specific time frame, this is often used to provide more specific chronology to an otherwise historiographically lacking time frame. Richard N. Frye, Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies at Harvard University, has noted that this ruler has been identified with a king called Caspar in the Christian tradition of the Apostle St Thomas and his visit to India. Recent numismatic research by R.C. Senior supports the notion that the king who best fits these references was Gondophares-Sases, the fourth king using the