Εμφανίζονται 6 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Πληροφορίες για τον τόπο στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΑΦΓΑΝΙΣΤΑΝ Χώρα ΝΟΤΙΑ-ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΗ ΑΣΙΑ" .
ΒΑΚΤΡΙΑΝΗ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΝΟΤΙΑ-ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΗ ΑΣΙΑ
Bactriana (he Baktriane, Strab. xi. p. 511, &c.; Steph. B.; Curt.
vi. 6, vii. 4, &c.; Ptol. vi. 11. § 1; Plin. vi. 16, &c.), an extensive province,
according to Strabo (xi. p. 516) the principal part of Ariana, which was separated
from Sogdiana on the N. and NE. by the Oxus, from Aria on the S. by the chain
of the Paropamnisus, and on the W. from Margiana by a desert region. It was a
country very various in character, as has been well shown by Curtius (vi. 7),
whose description is fully corroborated by Burnes (Bokhara, vol. i. p. 245), who
found it much as the Roman historian had remarked. It was for the most part a
mountainous district, containing, however, occasional steppes and tracts of sand;
it was thickly peopled, and along the many small streams by which it was intersected
the land appears to have been well watered, and consequently highly cultivated
and very fertile. Its exact limits cannot be settled, but it is, however, generally
agreed that, after leaving the Paropamisan mountains, we come to Bactria; though
it is not clear how far the mountain land extends. Prof. Wilson thinks its original
limits W. may have been at Khsulm, where the higher mountains end; though, politically,
the power of Bactria extended, as Strabo has remarked, over the N. portion of
the Paropamisan range. Eastward its limits are quite uncertain; but, probably,
the modern Kunduz and Badakhshan, adjoining the ancient Scythian tribes, and the
part conterminous with the Indians, were under Bactrian rule.
Both the land and its people were known indifferently by the name
of Bactria and Bactriana, Bactri and Bactriani. Strabo (xi. p. 715) has tes Bakgrias
mere, and ten Baktrianen; Arrian (iii. 11. 3), Baktrioi hippeis; Herodotus (ix.
113), nomon ton Baktrion, and (iii. 13) Baktrianoi, who, he states, formed the
ninth satrapy of Dareius. In iv. 204 he alludes to a village tes Baktrianoi, and
Arrian (iii. 29) uses the same periphrasis. Pliny (vi. 16) has Bactri, and, in
vi. 6, Bactrianam regionem.
The principal mountain range of Bactria was the Paropamrnisus or Hindu
Kush. Its plains appear, from the accounts of Curtius and of modern travellers,
to be intersected by lofty ridges and spurs, which proceed N. and NE. from the
main chain. Its chief river was the Oxus (now Gihon or Amu-Darja), which was also
the northern limit of Bactriana Proper. Into this great river several small streams
flowed, the exact determinations of which cannot be made out from the classical
narratives. Ptolemy (vi. 11. § 2) speaks of five rivers which fall into the Oxus,
- the Ochus, Dargamanis, Zariaspes, Artamis, Dargoidus: of these the Artamis and
Dargamanis unite before they reach the Oxus. The river on which the capital Bactra
was situated is called Bactrus by ancient writers. (Strab. xi. p. 516; Aristot.
Meteor. i. 13; Curt. vii. 4, 31; Polyaen. vii. 11.) Prof. Wilson (Ariana, p. 162)
considers that the Artamis, which is said to unite itself with the Zariaspa, may
be that now called the Dakash. Ammianus (xxiii. 6) mentions the Artamis, Zariaspes,
and Dargamanis, which he calls Orgamenes. There appears to be some confusion in
the account which Ptolemy has left us of these rivers, as what he states cannot
be reconciled with the present streams in the country. No stream falls into the
Oxus or Gihon W. of the river of Balkh.
Prof. Wilson thinks the Dargamanis may be the present river of Ghori
or Kunduz, which Ptolemy makes fall into the Ochus instead of into the Oxus. Pliny
(vi. 16. 18) speaks of three other rivers, which he calls Mandrum, Gridinum, and
Icarus. Ritter (Erd-kunde, vol. ii. p. 500) conjectures that Icarus is a misreading
for Bactrus.
The Greek rulers of Bactriana, according to Strabo (xi. p. 517), divided
it into satrapies, of which two, Aspionia and Turiva, were subsequently taken
from Eucratides, king of Bactria, by the Parthians. Ptolemy (vi. 11. § 6) gives
a list of the different tribes which inhabited the country. The names, however,
like those in Pliny (vi. 16), are very obscure, and are scarcely mentioned elsewhere:
there are, however, some which are clearly of Indian descent, or at least connected
with that country. Thus the Khomari represents the Kumaras, a tribe of Rajputs
called Raj-ku-mars, still existing in India. The Tokhari are the Thakurs, another
warlike tribe; the Varni are for Varna, a tribe or caste. The satrapy in Strabo
called Turiva, is probably the same as that in Polybius (x. 46) called Tagouria.
(See Strab. xi. p. 514, and Polyb. v. 44, for a tribe named Tapyri, near Hyrcania;
Ptol. vi. 2. § 6, for one in Media, and vi. 10. § 2, for another in Margiana.)
It is possible that in Ghaur or Ghorian, one of the dependencies of Herat (Ariana,
p. 162), are preserved some indications of the Taguria of Polybius. Ptolemy also
(vi. 11. § 7) gives a list of towns, most of which are unknown to us. Some, however,
are met with in other writers, with the forms of their names slightly modified.
The chief town was Bactra or Zariaspa. Besides this were, Eucratidia (Strab. xi.
p. 516; Ptol. vi. 11. § 8; Steph. B.), named after the Bactrian king Eucratides;
Menapia (Amm. Marc. xxiii. 6, Menapila); Drepsa (Amm. Marc. xxiii. 6; Adrapsa
and Darapsa, Strab. xi. p. 516; Drapsaca, Arrian, iii. 39), probably the present
Anderab, in the NE. part of the province, towards Sogdiana: it was one of the
first cities taken by Alexander after passing the mountain, and its position depends
upon where this passage was effected. Alexandreia (according to Steph. B. the
eleventh town of that name), probably in the neighbourhood of Khulm, where Ibn
Haukal places an Islkanderiah. The Maracanda of Ptolemy is the modern Samarcand,
and is situated beyond the boundaries of Bactriana in Sogdiana. Arrian (iii. 29)
speaks of a town called Aornus, which he designates as one of the principal cities
of Bactria.
Strabo (xi. p. 516), following Onesicritus, remarks that the manners
of the people of Bactriana differed little from those of the Sogdians in their
neighbourhood; the old men, while yet alive, being abandoned to the dogs, who
were thence called Buriers of the Dead; and the city itself being filled with
human bones, though the suburbs were free. He adds that Alexander abolished this
custom of exposure. Prof. Wilson suggests that, in this story, we have a relic
of the practice prevalent among the followers of Zoroaster, of exposing bodies
after death to spontaneous decomposition in the air. (See Anquetil Du Perron,
Zend-Avesta, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 332.)
The province of Bactriana, with its principal town Bactra, was very
early known in ancient history, and connected more or less with fables that had
an Indian origin or connection. Thus Euripides (Bacch. 15) makes it one of the
places to which Bacchus wandered. Diodorus (ii. 6), following Ctesias, makes Ninus
march with a vast army into Bactriana, and attack its capital Bactra, which, however,
being defended by its king Oxyartes, he was unable to take till Semiramis came
to his aid. (Justin., i. 2, calls the king Zoroaster.) Again, Diodorus (ii. 26)
speaks of the revolt of the Bactriani from Sardanapalus, and of the march of a
large force to assist Arbaces in his destruction of the city of Ninus (Nineveh).
Ctesias (ap. Phot. Cod. lxxii. 2) states that Cyrus made war on the Bactrians,
and that the first engagement was a drawn battle; but that, when they heard that
Astyages had become the father of Cyrus (on Cyrus's marrying Amytis, the daughter
of Astyages), they gave themselves up willingly to Cyrus, who subsequently, on
his death-bed, made his younger son, Tanyoxarces, satrap of the Bactrians, Choramnians
(Chorasmians), Parthians, and Carmanians (lxxii. 8). Dareius, too, gave a village
of Bactriana to the prisoners taken at Barca in Africa, to which the captives
gave the same name. Herodotus adds, that it existed in his own time. (Herod. iv.
204.) During the Persian war we have frequent notices of the power of this province.
(Herod. iii. 92, vii. 64, 86, &c.; see also Aeschyl. Pers. 306, 718, 732.) It
formed, as we have stated, the twelfth satrapy of Dareius, and paid an annual
tribute of 360 talents. In the army of Xerxes the warriors from this country are
placed beside the Sacae and the Caspii, they wear the same head-dress as the Medes,
and carry bows and short spears (vii. 64). Hystaspes, the son of Dareius and Atossa,
the daughter of Cyrus, was the general of the Bactriani and Sacae. (Cf. also Aeschyl.
Pers. 732, for the belief of the Greeks that Bactriana was a province subject
to the Persian empire.) Herodotus (ix. 113) mentions the attempt of Masistes to
raise a revolt against Xerxes, but that it did not prove successful, as Xerxes
intercepted him before he reached Bactriana. On the murder of Xerxes, and the
succession of Artaxerxes I. Longimanus to the throne, the Bactrians and their
satrap, Artapanus, revolted again (Ctesias, ap. Phot. Cod. lxxii. 31), and Artaxerxes
was unable in the first battle to reduce them to their allegiance; somewhat later,
however, the Bactrians were defeated, and compelled to submit, the historian stating
that, during the action, the wind blew in their faces, which was the cause of
their overthrow.
During the wars of Alexander the Great in Asia we have constant mention
of Bactriana, and of its cavalry, for which it was, and is still, celebrated.
At the battle of Gaugamela, the Bactrian horse fought on the side of Dareius (Arrian,
iii. 2. § 3, and iii. 13. § 3), forming his escort to the number of 1000, under
their chief Nabarzanes, on his subsequent flight from that field towards Transoxiana.
(Arrian, iii. 21. § § 1, 4.) When, a little later, Alexander gave chase to Bessus,
who had proclaimed himself king after the murder of Dareius, he went to Aornus
and Bactra (Arr. iii. 29. § 1), which he took (see also Alex. Itin. ap. ed. Didot),
and, crossing the Oxus, the NE. boundary of Bactria (Curt. vii. 4), proceeded
as far as Maracanda. It appears that, after the invasion and subjugation of Sogdiana,
he returned to Bactra, where he subsequently passed a winter, as he advanced thence,
in the spring, to attack India. (Arrian, iv. 22.) Several different satraps are
mentioned at this period: Bessus, who murdered Dareius, Artabazus (Arr. iii. 29.
§ 1), and Amyntas (Arr. iv. 17. § 3), who were both appointed by Alexander himself,
and Stasanor of Soli, in Cyprus, who held that rank probably a little later (ap.
Arr. Succ. Alex. No. 36, ed. Didot). Diodorus calls Stasanor, Philippus, who,
according to Arrian, was governor of Parthia (ap. Phot. xxvii.), and assigns to
him the provinces of Aria and Drangiana. Justin (iii. 1) terms the satrap of the
Bactrians, Amyntas. On the return of Seleucus from India, between B.C. 312 and
B.C. 302, he appears to have reduced Bactria to a state of dependence on his Persian
empire; a conclusion which is confirmed by the multitude of coins of Seleucus
and Antiochus which have been found at Balkh and Bokhara. In the reign of the
third of the Seleucid princes, Antiochus Theus, Theodotus (or, as his name appears
on his coins, Diodotus) threw off the Greek yoke, and proclaimed himself king
(Justin, xli. 4; Prol. Trog. Pompeii, xli.), probably about B.C. 256. He was succeeded
by several kings, whose names and titles appear on their coins, with Greek legends;
the fabric and the types of the coins themselves being in imitation of those of
the Seleucidae, till we come to Eucratides, whose reign commenced about B.C. 181,
and who was contemporary with Mithradates (Justin. xli. 6); though, from the extent
of the conquests of Mithradates in the direction of India, it is probable that
the Parthian king survived the Bactrian ruler for several years. The reign of
Eucratides must have been long and prosperous, as is evinced by the great abundance
of his coins which are found in Bactriana. Strabo (xvi. p. 685) states, that he
was lord of 1000 cities; and that his sway extended over some part of India (Justin,
xli. 6) is also confirmed by his coins, the smaller and most abundant specimens
of which bear duplicate legends, with the name and title of the king on the obverse
in Greek, and on the reverse in Bactrian Pali. Eucratides was followed by several
kings, whose coins have been preserved, but who are little known in history till
we come to Menander about B.C. 126. Strabo (xi. p. 515) and Plutarch (de Rep.
Ger. p. 821) call him king of Bactriana: it has, however, been doubted whether
he was ever actually a king of Bactria. Prof. Wilson (Ariana, p. 281) thinks he
ruled over an extensive district between the Paropamisus mountains and the sea,
a view which is supported by the statement of the author of the Periplus (p. 27,
ed. Huds.), that, in his time (the end of the first century B.C.), the drachms
of Menander were still current at Barygaza (Baroach, on the coast of Guzerat),
and by the fact that they are at present discovered in great numbers in the neighbourhood
of Kabul, in the Hazara, mountains, and even as far E. as the banks of the Jumna.
It may be remarked, that the features of the monarch on his coins are strikingly
Indian. Menander was succeeded by several princes, of whom we have no certain
records except their coins; till at length the empire founded by the Greeks in
Bactria was overthrown by Scythian tribes, an event of which we have certain knowledge
from Chinese authorities, though the period at which it took place is not so certain.
Indeed, the advance of the Scythians was for many years arrested by the Parthians.
About B.C. 90 they were probably on the Paropamisus, and towards the end of the
first century A.D. they had spread to the mouth of the Indus, where Ptolemy (vii.
1. § 62) and the author of the Periplus place them. These Scythian tribes are
probably correctly called by the Greeks and Hindus, the Sacas. In Strabo (xi.
p. 511) they bear the names of Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli; in Trogus
Pompeius, Asiani and Sarancae; they extended their conquests W. and S., and established
themselves in a district called, after them, Sacastene (or Sakasthan, the land
of the Sakas ), probably, as Prof. Wilson observes, the modern Sejestan or Seistan.
(Ariana, p. 302.) On their subsequent attempt to invade India, they were repulsed
by Vikramaditya, king of Ujayin B.C. 56, from which period the well-known Indian
Saca aera is derived. (Colebrooke, Ind. Algebra, p. 43.) The coins of the kings,
who followed under the various names of Hermaeus, Mayes, Azes, Palirisus, &c.,
bear testimony to their barbaric origin: their legends are, for a while, clear
and legible, the forms of the Greek letters bearing great resemblance to those
of the Parthian princes; till, at length, on the introduction of some Parthian
rulers, Vonones, Undopherres, &c., the Greek words are evidently engraven by a
people to whom that language was not familiarly known.
Next to the Saca princes, but probably of the sane race with their
predecessors, come a people, whom it has been agreed to call Indo-Scythian, whose
seat of power must have been the banks of the Kbul river, as their coins are discovered
in great numbers between Kabul and Jelalabad. The date of the commencement of
their sway has not been determined, but Prof. Wilson and Lassen incline to place
the two most important of their kings, Kadphises and Kanerkes, at the end of the
first and the beginning of the second century A.D. Greek legends are still preserved
on the obverses of the coins, and the principal names of the princes may generally
be deciphered; but words of genuine Indian origin, as Rao for Rajah, are found
written in Greek characters: on those of Kanerkes the words Nanaia or Nana Rao
occur, which it has been conjectured represent the Anaitis or Anakid of the Persians,
the Artemis of the Greeks, and who has been identified with Anaia or Nanaea, the
tutelary goddess of Armenia. (Avdall, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. v. p. 266; see
also Maccab. ii. c. 1, v. 13, where Nanaea appears as the goddess of Elymais,
in whose temple Antiochus was slain.) With the Indo-Scythic princes of Kabul,
the classical history of Bactriana may be considered to terminate. On the successful
establishment of the Sassanian empire in Persia, the rule of its princes appears
to have extended over Bactriana to the Indus, along the banks of which their coins
are found constantly. They, in their turn, were succeeded by the Muhammedan governors
of the eighth and subsequent centuries. (Wilson, Ariana; Bayer, Hist. Reg. Graec.
Bactr. Petrop. 1738, 4to.; Lassen, Geschichte d. Gr. u. Indo-Scyth. Kon. in Bactr.;
Raoul-Rochette, Medailles des Rois d. l. Bactr., in Journ. d. Sav. 1834; Jacquet,
Med. Bactr., J.Asiat. Feb. 1836; C. O. Muller, Indo-Griekh. Munz., Gott. Gel.
Anzg. 1838, Nos. 21--27.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A province of the Persian Empire, bounded on the south by Mount Paropamisus, which separated it from Ariana; on the east by the northern branch of the same range, which divided it from the Sacae; on the northeast by the Oxus, which separated it from Sogdiana; and on the west by Margiana. It was included in the conquests of Alexander, and formed a part of the kingdom of the Seleucidae until B.C. 255, when Theodotus, its governor, revolted from Autiochus II., and founded the Greek kingdom of Bactria, which lasted till B.C. 134 or 125, when it was overthrown by the Parthians.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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