The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a hereditary monarchy founded in the mid-3rd century BCE, probably by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I,
[1]
as a successor kingdom of the Seleucid Empire. It came to an end when it was conquered by nomadic peoples who were being pushed further west by the rising power of a unified Chinese empire.
[2]
Population and political organization
Under the Graeco-Bactrian rulers, new cities based on the Greek street plan, such as Sirkap, sprang up in Central Asia.
[3]
The Bactrian Greek city of Ai Khanoum, one of the best preserved, had an impressive administrative centre, gymnasium and theatre as well as Greek statuary.
[4]
The administrative centre at Ai Khanoum was Persian in style so was likely organized into different departments and scribes.
[5]
The regions of Bactria were ruled by officials from their administrative centres, such as Ai Khanoum, which may have had a population of between 25,000 and 50,000 people. But if these regional officials were initially directly loyal to the central monarchy at the capital Bactra, by 126 BCE the Chinese chronicler Zhang Qian could claim that Bactria had ’no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities’.
[6]
The Greco-Bactrian army was based on the same model as that of the Macedonian-Seleucids, with innovations in tactics based on exposure to nomadic horsemen.
[7]
The Bactrian Greeks were equipped in the Macedonian style adopted by their Seleucid forebears. They wore a muscled breastplate made of metal scales and their legs were protected by strips of leather.
[8]
The flowering of Greek culture in Central Asia in this period produced distinctly Hellenistic artwork, statuary and coinage and had a profound influence on the culture of central Asia for centuries to come.
[9]
[10]
[1]: (Holt 1999, 51, 63) Holt, Frank Lee. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X4JIUZNR
[2]: (Bernard 2012, 42-52) Bernard, Paul. 2012. “Ai Khanum: A Greek Colony in Post-Alexandrian Central Asia, or How to Be Greek in an Oriental Milieu.” In Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road, edited by Joan Aruz and Elisabetta Valtz Fino, 42-53. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/K38GFI79
[3]: (Higham 2004, 344) Higham, Charles. 2004. Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. New York: Facts On File. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JBEBEPPM
[4]: (Docherty 2008, 64-65) Docherty, Paddy. 2008. The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion. New York: Union Square Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IW3IVGT7
[5]: (Mori 2015, 93) Mori, Anatole. 2015. “Literature in the Hellenistic World.” In A Companion to Greek Literature, edited by Martin Hose and David Schenker, 89-111. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IBRAVRD7
[6]: (Mairs 2014, 154) Mairs, Rachel. 2014. The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language, and Identity in Greek Central Asia. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/3ENDA26P
[7]: (Holt 1999, 118) Holt, Frank Lee. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X4JIUZNR
[8]: (Docherty 2008, 64-66) Docherty, Paddy. 2008. The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion. New York: Union Square Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IW3IVGT7
[9]: (Holt 1999, 136) Holt, Frank Lee. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X4JIUZNR
[10]: (Bernard 1994) Bernard, P. 1994. “The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia.” In History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B.C. to A.D. 250, edited by János Harmatta, B. N. Puri, and G. F. Etemadi, 96-126. Paris: UNESCO. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HIB5JTCU
| alliance with [---] |
| Greek |
| Sakas |
| [4,500,000 to 5,000,000] km2 |
| continuity |
| UNCLEAR: [continuity] |
| unitary state |
| [25,000 to 50,000] people |
| [600,000 to 800,000] km2 | 200 BCE |
| 2,200,000 km2 | 180 BCE |
| [1,500,000 to 2,000,000] people | 200 BCE |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| present |
| absent |
| Year Range | Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (af_greco_bactrian_k) was in: |
|---|---|
| (248 BCE 130 BCE) | Sogdiana |
Beginning as a successor kingdom of the Seleucid Empire and ending in its conquest by nomadic peoples.
"Diodotus renounced the Seleucid emperor Antiochus II in 256 BC and declared himself king after hearing that his ally Andragoras, the Seleucid satrap of the province of Partahia (Parthia) had just done the same."
[1]
In the mid-2nd century BCE: "the Sakas from the Tarim Basin moved to Sogdia and then conquered the Greater Bactria and put an end to Greek rule in this region."
[2]
[1]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
[2]: (Samad 2011, 88) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.
Under the leadership of Diodotus the kingdom asserted its independence from Seleucid ruled. and was independent from 256 BCE until its fall to nomdic invaders in 125 BCE.
[1]
"Diodotus renounced the Seleucid emperor Antiochus II in 256 BC and declared himself king after hearing that his ally Andragoras, the Seleucid satrap of the province of Partahia (Parthia) had just done the same."
[2]
[1]: Holt, Frank L. Lost World of the Golden King, p. xv
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
In the mid-2nd century BCE "the Sakas from the Tarim Basin moved to Sogdia and then conquered the Greater Bactria and put an end to Greek rule in this region." [1]
[1]: (Samad 2011, 88) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.
km squared. In this period the figure should not include Parthian held territory. "Very soon, however, Andragoras was toppled by the Parthian chieftain Arsaces, who established the Parthian Empire in Iran, which undermined Bactrian control of overland trade along the Silk Road and effectively cut off Greeks in Bactria from the Greek world in the Mediterranean." [1]
[1]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
The lack of consistent or reliable sources from either Western or Chinese written accounts means that any answer is largely speculative, though the limited evidence we do have seems to indicate a monarchical government. As with so much with central Asian history, this is largely as a result of a reliance on numismatic evidence, and a faint glimmer of archaeology and epigraphy. [1] [2]
[1]: Guillaume, Olivier. "An Analysis of the Modes of Reconstruction of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek History." Studies in History 2, no. 1 (1986): 1-16.
[2]: Holt, Frank L. Lost World of the Golden King, University of California Press, 2012, pp. 211-220
{Greek; Bactrian} The Seleucids brought the use of Greek into the region when they turned Bactria into a satrap; Bactrian was in use in this period (indeed until the 8th century BCE). [1]
[1]: West, Barbara. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania.( Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp. 75; 245-247.
{Greek; Bactrian} The Seleucids brought the use of Greek into the region when they turned Bactria into a satrap; Bactrian was in use in this period (indeed until the 8th century BCE). [1]
[1]: West, Barbara. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania.( Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp. 75; 245-247.
[25,000-50,000] - reasoning below ET
Ai Khanoum was a substantial and sophisticated city: there was a "sprawling" palace complex, theatre, temple, gymnasium, arsenal, storehouses, cemetery, a wall, fortifications and multiple areas for habitation.
[1]
The people imported olive oil and visited "a Greek theatre like that of Delphi and larger than the one at Babylon."
[2]
The city held "an elite residential district with 50 or more mansions"
[3]
and among the segregated Greek/non-Greek population could be found "every occupation and trade one would find in a prosperous town in Greece itself."
[3]
The theatre had a seating capacity of 6,000; although this might not "represent the size of the population living in the city."
[4]
The gymnasium was remarkable for being "the largest in the Greek world."
[5]
The population at Ai Khanoum may be much larger than the theatre’s 6,000 capacity. The region was surrounded by irrigated lands had a military base and diverse cultural life. The 6,000 may provide a lower limit for an estimate. The loose correlation between the seating-capacity of any settlement’s largest theatre and its peak population size might assist an improved estimate. The largest Greek cities had theatres with seating-capacity of up to 17,000. If Ai Khanoum’s theatre was one third of the size, then its population might be that much less than the population of the largest Greek city (100k?).
For an upper limit for the population at Ai Khanoum we could look at Samarkand in 300 BCE which may have had 100,000.
[6]
(No estimate for 200 BCE, however Samarkand still in existence at this time). Although Samarkand may not have had this population level in 200 BCE 100,000 might be considered to be near the upper limit of what could be expected for Ai Khanoum, which is in the same region, 100 years later. The seating-capacity of the theatre at Ai Khanoum, however, would suggest a population much lower than this.
Ai Khanum is one of the only cities to have been discovered. The shape of the town was triangular, extending for two km in a north-south direction, one and a half km from east-west. It is located along the left bank of the Amu Darya at its confluence with the Kokcha River. The city was protected by large towers, a moat and an acropolis, as well as a large palace complex. Accurate estimates of its population are impossible because of the amount of looting on the site.
[7]
[1]: (Holt 1999, Map p.42) Holt, F L. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. University of California Press
[2]: (Holt 1999, 43) Holt, F L. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. University of California Press
[3]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
[4]: (Sherwin-White and Kuhrt 1993) Sherwin-White S M and Kuhrt A. 1993. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire. University of California Press
[5]: (Boyce and Grenet 1993, 158) Boyce M and Grenet F. 1991. Handbuch der Orientalistik: Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten. A History of Zoroastrianism. Volume III. E.J. Brill. Leiden.
[6]: (Modelski 2003, 55) Modelski, G. 2003. World Cities -3000 to -2000. Faros 2000.
[7]: Bernard, P. ’Ar Khanoum en Afghanistan hier (1964-1978) et aujourd’hui (2001): un site en pmi- Perspectives d’avenir’, CRAI, pp. 971 1029. (2001)
squared kilometers.
squared kilometers.
Evidence of irrigation and the flourishing trade network seems to indicate a growth of population in the region controlled by the Indo-Greek Kingdom. However, this is largely speculative based on the current archaeological record. The description of Bactria as ’the land of a thousand cities’ does seem to imply a relatively dense population. So far, only two of these have seen extensive excavation.
[1]
There is also evidence that Bactria was fertile and extensively irrigated.
[2]
McEvedy and Jones
[3]
200 BCE: Russian Turkestan: 1,000,000; Afghanistan 1,750,000. Highest density of population likely to be in the Greco-Bactrian region which contained cities.
126 BCE the Chinese chronicler Zhang Qian estimated "some 1,000,000 or more persons."
[4]
[1]: Fino, Elisabetta Valtz, ed. Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations Along the Silk Road. Buy this book, 2012.
[2]: Gardin, J.C, The Development of Eastern Bactria in Pre-Classical Times, Purattava (10): 8-13 (1981)
[3]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 155+163)
[4]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
There has been very little excavation of verified Greek settlements, with the major work based on a handful of Bactrian Greek sites. From what limited work that has been undertaken, The Greek polis was the administrative, ritualized, and monumental heartland of the territory, but not the dominant population centre and represented a new construction. Below this new urban space was the existing infrastructure of towns and villages of the indigenous Bactrians.
[1]
For the most recent survey of archaeological sites, see the survey found below.
[2]
Appian: “Seleucus founded sixteen Antiochs, nine Seleucias, five Laodiceas, three Apameas, and one Stratonicea (in total , thirty-four new cities”.
[1]
1. Greek Polis
2. Surrounding towns3. Villages
[1]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed. The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. pp. 156-157
[2]: Mairs, R. (2013) ‘The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Supplement 1,’ Hellenistic Far East Bibliography, www.bactria.org, 17 February 2013
There seems to have been a fusion of Greek polytheism and Buddhist practices in at least some areas of the Indo-Greek Kingdom. There is no good evidence on whether this was made into a formalized practice, or the structure of religious practice.
There was a "Mesopotamian-style temple" in Ai Khanoum so at least one level can be inferred.
[1]
"On the north side of the Oxus (present-day Amu Darya) River a few miles north of the Tajikistan/Afghanistan border and a day’s ride west of Ai Khanoum, archaeologists have found a smaller, but no less interesting, 3rd - 2nd century BC Hellenistic-era site: a temple structure known locally as Takht-i-Sangin.
The site appeared to be a combination Greek temple and Zoroastian fire temple, reflecting the dual traditions that existed in Bactria during the Hellenistic era."
[2]
[1]: (Mori 2015, 93) Mori, A. in Hose M and Schenker D. 2015. A Companion to Greek Literature. John Wiley & Sons.
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
The ranks below are based on the organization of the Seleucid army. These ranks were not permanent, and command of individual units shifted with the campaign or battle. Civic volunteers and mercenaries would have also operated outside the structure indicated below.
[1]
1. King
2. Senior officers of the army: Strategoi3. Officers: Hipparchoi/Hegemones4. lower level?5. Individual soldier
[1]: Bar-Kochva, Bezalel. The Seleucid army: Organization and tactics in the great campaigns. Vol. 28. Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp. 91-93
Ai Khanoum had "a Persian-style administrative center" so earlier on multiple levels (departments and scribes) can be inferred from this apparatus.
[1]
Fewer levels later on. By 126 BCE, according to the the Chinese chronicler Zhang Qian: "Daxia (Bactria) is located ... south of the Gui (Oxus) river. Its people cultivate the land and have cities and houses. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. ... The capital is called the city of Lanshi (Bactra) and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold." "
[2]
Based on the structure in place in the Seleucid empires, and assumed to have been adopted once the Satrap of Bactria became independent.
[3]
1. King
2. Topio overseen by the dioikites3. Epistates4. Panchayat (council of elders.)
[4]
Seleucus and his successors had maintained the policy of Alexander in appointing a satrap to oversee a province. Below this level, the hyparchy, roughly translated as prefecture. Below the level of Satrap the local elites who supported of the ruler were ranked as varying level of ’friends’ based on favor or eunoia. Loyalty was enhanced further by the granting of vast land holding, villages, slaves and other wealth. Below this level was the topoi. This hierarchical group was overseen by officials called dioikites or oikonomos.
[5]
[1]: (Mori 2015, 93) Mori, A. in Hose M and Schenker D. 2015. A Companion to Greek Literature. John Wiley & Sons.
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
[3]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed. The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
[4]: "History gives no information...about the lower levers of administration under Menander and his fellow Greek kinds in India", George Woodcock, The Greeks in India (1966), pp. 106-107
[5]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed.The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
Ai Khanoum had "a Persian-style administrative center" so earlier on multiple levels (departments and scribes) can be inferred from this apparatus.
[1]
Fewer levels later on. By 126 BCE, according to the the Chinese chronicler Zhang Qian: "Daxia (Bactria) is located ... south of the Gui (Oxus) river. Its people cultivate the land and have cities and houses. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. ... The capital is called the city of Lanshi (Bactra) and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold." "
[2]
Based on the structure in place in the Seleucid empires, and assumed to have been adopted once the Satrap of Bactria became independent.
[3]
1. King
2. Topio overseen by the dioikites3. Epistates4. Panchayat (council of elders.)
[4]
Seleucus and his successors had maintained the policy of Alexander in appointing a satrap to oversee a province. Below this level, the hyparchy, roughly translated as prefecture. Below the level of Satrap the local elites who supported of the ruler were ranked as varying level of ’friends’ based on favor or eunoia. Loyalty was enhanced further by the granting of vast land holding, villages, slaves and other wealth. Below this level was the topoi. This hierarchical group was overseen by officials called dioikites or oikonomos.
[5]
[1]: (Mori 2015, 93) Mori, A. in Hose M and Schenker D. 2015. A Companion to Greek Literature. John Wiley & Sons.
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
[3]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed. The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
[4]: "History gives no information...about the lower levers of administration under Menander and his fellow Greek kinds in India", George Woodcock, The Greeks in India (1966), pp. 106-107
[5]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed.The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
The soldier settler was awarded land and a hereditary obligation to serve in the army under a system known as Kleros. The size of the land grant varied with the rank of the soldier-settler, called a kleruch. [1]
[1]: Holt, Frank L. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Vol. 32. University of California Pr, 1999. pp. 118-119
Evidence of a street layout with the speculation of specialized governmental buildings in at least some Greco-Bactrian Cities [1]
[1]: Mairs, R. "The’Temple with Indented Niches’ at Ai Khanoum: Ethnic and Civic Identity in Hellenistic Bactria.”." Cults, Creeds and Contests in the Greek City After the Classical Age.
May have been present earlier on but likely inferred absent by 126 BCE when the Chinese chronicler Zhang Qian visited and wasn’t very impressed: "Daxia (Bactria) is located ... south of the Gui (Oxus) river. Its people cultivate the land and have cities and houses. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. ... The capital is called the city of Lanshi (Bactra) and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold." " [1]
[1]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
The evidence is unclear. The Bactrian Greeks were on a cultural frontier between Iranian and Indian territories, but seemed to have maintained a proud and enduring identity. Whether this was extended to a full time bureaucracy is unknown at this point. The Seleucid empire did have full time bureaucrats. It is therefore inferred that some element of this system was preserved after independence.
[1]
[2]
The city of Ai Khanoum, of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, had "a Persian-style administrative center"
[3]
so departments and scribes can be inferred from such an apparatus.
[1]: Mairs, Rachel. "The Hellenistic Far East: From the Oikoumene to the Community." Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narratives, Practices, and Images (2012).
[2]: Rougemont, Georges. "Hellenism in Central Asia and the North-West of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent: The Epigraphic Evidence." Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18, no. 1 (2012): 175-182.
[3]: (Mori 2015, 93) Mori, A. in Hose M and Schenker D. 2015. A Companion to Greek Literature. John Wiley & Sons.
The Achaemenids had an examination system [1] which they might have inherited. However, a couple hundred years had now passed since the conquest of the Achaemenids by the Greeks and throughout this period there was a decrease in the level of bureaucratic sophistication so by this time we could infer absent.
[1]: (Farazmand 2001, 56) Farazmand, Ali in Farazmand, Ali ed. 2001. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. CRC Press.
inferred present under Seleucids. may have been present at start then lost.
present under Seleucids. may have been present at start then lost.
The Greek legal code seems to have been in practice in the other Greek successor states. [1] In terms of the details of how this would have been administered, we have little information for the entire region. Surviving legal documents come from a much later date.
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 63
inferred present under Seleucids. may have been present at start then lost.
The wealth of the greeks and the number of cities were based on extensive irrigation and a wetter climate. These were based on the maintenance of Persian networks and expansion under the greeks. [1]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 101-105
There was a main street at Ai Khanoum. [1] town roads. [2] The Persian road network had served as an example of the importance of a large scale transport infrastructure, a network maintained by the Greek successor Kingdoms.
[1]: (Holt 1999, 42) Holt, F L. 1999. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. University of California Press
[2]: Higham, Charles, Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations, Facts of File,2009 p. 344
There was a coast on the Caspian sea which would have been useful for traders - was there a port here?
transportation canal = inferred absent for this region. irrigation canals would likely have been present.
Greek, BactrianFound in inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet in the form of graffiti and funerary inscriptions. Greek alphabet used "for writing the Bactarian language." [1] The Bactrian Greeks maintained an uncorrupted greek written language tradition. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet is attested from graffiti, funerary inscriptions, and Delphic pronouncements. To date, a Greek inscription has been found in a cave at Qara Kamar in northern Bactria, on the frontier of modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There is also a large collection of graffiti on storage vases, a dedication of two brothers to the gods Hermes and Herakles found in a gymnasium. Furthermore, researchers have also found a six-line fragment in elegiac distichs on a funerary epigram. [2]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 101-103.
In the temples, palace library.
"The ’archival library’ in the palace of Ai Khanoum" [1] would have contained all sorts of literature. The Greek cultural world endured beyond the collapse of the successor states. Lexicography, astrological diaries, market prices and records also existed within the wider Greek world. Evidence from inscriptions indicate interaction with the wider literary traditions. This was especially true in regards to the Seleucids and later Arsacid literary traditions. [2] Even the chronology of the period is in question by some scholars. [3]
[1]: (Staikos 2004) Staikos, K. 2004. The History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Minos to Cleopatra. Hes & de Graaf Publishers.
[2]: Sherwin-White, Susan M. From Samarkhand to Sardis: a new approach to the Seleucid empire. Vol. 13. University of California Pr, 1993.
[3]: Seldeslachts, Erik. "The end of the road for the Indo-Greeks?." Iranica antiqua 39, no. 0 (2005): 249-296.
"The ’archival library’ in the palace of Ai Khanoum"
[1]
would have contained all sorts of literature. "In the library, archaeologists have found remnants of texts by Sophocles imported from Greece."
[2]
[1]: (Staikos 2004) Staikos, K. 2004. The History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Minos to Cleopatra. Hes & de Graaf Publishers.
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
The silver, bronze and nickel coins in circulation and issued by the Greco-Bactrian kings. [1] [2] Attic Greek standard coinage. [3]
[1]: Yarshater, CHI Ehasan. The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3 (1, 2) the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge (University Press), 1983. pp. 240-241
[2]: Sidky, H. The Greek Kingdom of Bactria: From Alexander to Eucratides the Great. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000., pp.191-199.
[3]: (Colledge 1984, 25) Colledge M A R in Ling, R ed. 1984. The Cambridge Ancient History: Plates to Volume VII, Part 1 : the Hellenistic World to the Coming of the Romans. Cambridge University Press.
e.g. silver coin from Athens. Fixed silver coinage based on Athenian standards also introduced to aid trade with the West. [1] [2]
[1]: Yarshater, CHI Ehasan. The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3 (1, 2) the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge (University Press), 1983. pp. 240-241
[2]: Sidky, H. The Greek Kingdom of Bactria: From Alexander to Eucratides the Great. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000, p.135.
The currency of the Bactrian Greeks is one of the only means of providing a chronological history of the polity. Although initially issuing coinage under the auspices of the authority of the Seleucid King, rulers in Bactria quickly issued their own gold coins from the mint in Ai Khanoum. The Bactrian Kings also minted silver, bronze and nickel coins. There have also been limited discoveries of in the northern steppes that have been used to establish the boundaries of the polity by some scholars. [1] [2]
[1]: Yarshater, CHI Ehasan. The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3 (1, 2) the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge (University Press), 1983. pp. 240-241
[2]: Sidky, H. The Greek Kingdom of Bactria: From Alexander to Eucratides the Great. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000., pp.191-199.
The following two quotes from Tarn suggest that the Greeks retained at least part of the postal system set up by the Persians.
“There remains one country yet to notice, Ferghana (Ta-yuan), which had formed part of the kingdom of Euthydemus (p. 83 and App. 10). It was the first ‘western country’ which Chang-k’ien reached after escaping from the Hiung-nu; he found a settled agricultural land like Bactria with ‘walled towns’ and ‘postal roads’”
[1]
“the hyparchy[…] was again subdivided into fortified posts called stathmoi—originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system”
[2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list
[2]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list
The following two quotes from Tarn suggest that the Greeks retained at least part of the postal system set up by the Persians.
“There remains one country yet to notice, Ferghana (Ta-yuan), which had formed part of the kingdom of Euthydemus (p. 83 and App. 10). It was the first ‘western country’ which Chang-k’ien reached after escaping from the Hiung-nu; he found a settled agricultural land like Bactria with ‘walled towns’ and ‘postal roads’”
[1]
“the hyparchy[…] was again subdivided into fortified posts called stathmoi—originally post stations on the main roads, the Seleucids having taken over the Persian postal system”
[2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list
[2]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 2. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/tarn/titleCreatorYear/items/SQY9X379/item-list
Used during the spread of walled villages. A development considered very important in this period. [1] [2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 1951. p.124-5
[2]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
Mud wall at the city of Taxila. [1] Ai Khanoum "There was also a "lower city" protected by a fearsome defensive wall (with ramparts more than 30 feet high and twenty to twenty-six feet thick)". [2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press: 1951, p.124-5. Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: (www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-06enl.html)
Excavation of Bala Hisar, an archaeological mound near Charsada in northwest Pakistan, revealed a "deep defensive ditch, the foundations of a postern gateway, and a bridge." According to the Greek historian Arrian, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Hephaistion, besieged this city (called Pushkalavati) in 327 BCE whose inhabitants eventually surrendered to Alexander. [1]
[1]: (Higham 2004, 72-73) Charles F W Higham. 2004. Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Facts On File, Inc. New York.
At this time in Central Asia if high-quality steel was used it would have been imported. The following sources suggest later dates for fine steel. However, note that northern India (a location repeatedly associated with fine steel) as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa. [1] Reference for high quality of the steel (no beginning date provided): “In the context of this work, it is important to note that crucible steel of fine quality was made at Herat, in Bukhara and in northern India.” [2] Reference for high quality of the steel (this one dates from 900 CE): "Further east from Merv along the Silk Road is a region praised for its iron and steel production by Greek, Islamic, and Chinese writers. The Sogdian state of Ustrushana, a mountainous region east of Samarkand, and the Ferghana basin ... material related to the medieval iron and steel industry has been uncovered here. Most relevant ... is a workshop excavated at a city-site of the +9th-13th centuries in Feghana, at Eski Achsy, Uzbekistan. ..” Crucible fragments ”The excavators consider that the process used here was direct production of steel from ore, just as He Tangkun argues for the Luoyang crucibles. It is quite possible, however, that they were (also) used in co-fusion steel production as suggested by the Merv excavators." [3] Fine steel swords may have been produced at an earlier time than 900 CE with the technology coming from northern India or from this region via Persia: In Tibet c700 CE "steel swords were certainly available through trade with Sogdia and Fergana ... and many steel blades are known from Central Asia from the late first millennium until the arrival of Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century." [4] "The Sogdian cities of Samarqand and Bukhara probably also manufactured iron and steel weapons that were exported to Tibet. We know that by the early eighth century, the Sogdians, having probably borrowed the technology from the Sasanians, were manufacturing mail armor and offered suits of the material as gifts to the Tang court in 718. ... The Sasasnians may themselves have developed knowledge of steelmaking from contacts with northern India." [5] "The principal centres for the manufacture of steel weapons in Central Asia were Khwarazm, Ferghana and northern India.” [2]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press.
[2]: (Hill 2000, 270) D R Hill. Physics and mechanics. Civil and hydraulic engineering. Industrial processes and manufacturing, and craft activities. C E Bosworth. M S Asimov. eds. 2000. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. UNESCO. Paris.
[3]: (Wagner and Needham 2008, 265) Donald B Wagner. Joseph Needham. 2008. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[4]: (Clarke 2006, 22) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven.
[5]: (Clarke 2006, 21) John Clarke. A History of Ironworking in Tibet: Centers of Production, Styles, and Techniques. Donald J LaRocca. ed. 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. Yale University Press. New Haven.
Weapon of the Americas, extremely unlikely to be present here
"He holds the typical Greek short sword of stretched rhombic shape(xiphos) in his right hand and protects himself with a large oval shield". [1]
[1]: (Nikorov and Savchuck 1992: 50) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/MRU4Z6TT/q/Savchuk.
The area they occupied was the natural habitat of the Indian Elephant, and supplied other areas with the animal.
Inferred as the Bactrian Greeks were equipped in the tradition of the Macedonians. ’ [1] The Indo-Greeks wore the muscled breastplate typical of Greek armament and made of metal scales and stripped with leather. The pasturage and access to the steppe horses provided sturdy mounts. There is also evidence that the horses were armored in iron in the central Asian fashion, at least in the initial period when the Indo-Greeks had access to the Bactrian Greek trade networks. [2] The degree that innovations from either the East or the West affected the equipment of the armies of the Indo-greeks is unknown. [3]
[1]: Sekunda, Nick. The army of Alexander the Great.
[2]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp.64
[3]: N. Sekunda: Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-145 BC. Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army under Antiochus IV Epiphanes., Stockport: Montvert, 1994.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass. [1] There is also some limited archaeological evidence. [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: Nikonorov, Valeri P., and Serge A. Savchuk. "New Data on Ancient Bactrian Body-Armour (In the Light of Finds from Kampyr Tepe)." Iran (1992): 49-54.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather. [1] For a wider view of equipment of the period, see the Osprey works on typical equipage. [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, pp. 168-169
[2]: Sekunda, Nick, and Nicholas Sekunda. The Ancient Greeks. Vol. 7. Osprey Publishing Company, 1986.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather. [1] There is also some limited archaeological evidence. [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: Nikonorov, Valeri P., and Serge A. Savchuk. "New Data on Ancient Bactrian Body-Armour (In the Light of Finds from Kampyr Tepe)." Iran (1992): 49-54.