Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Greek state of the Hellenistic period[1][2][3] located in the Bactrian region of Central Asia. Along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom in the Indian subcontinent, it was the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world. The kingdom was founded c. 256 BC by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I and lasted until its fall c. 120 BC. It was ruled by the Diodotid dynasty, Euthydemid dynasty, and the Eucratid dynasty.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom covered much of present-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and some parts of Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Iran. An extension further east, with military campaigns and settlements, may have reached the borders of the Qin State in 230 BC.[4][5] Its cities were among the largest and richest of antiquity; indeed, Bactria was known as the "land of a thousand cities."[6][7][8]
The Princeton Dictionary states:
- [Bactria] was an active center of Buddhism in the centuries immediately preceding and following the onset of the Common Era. A Greco-Bactrian kingdom was established by Diodotus I around 250 BCE. The Greek rulers received Buddhist emissaries from Asoka and the Mahavamsa describes the monk Mahādharmarakṣita as ordaining Greeks as monks. Buddhism would flourish under later Greek kings, most notably Menander, the putative interlocutor of the Milindapañha. Buddhist texts written in cursive Greek have been discovered in Afghanistan. Clement of Alexandria seems to mention Buddhists among the Bactrians during the second century CE, when, in describing the gymnosophists, he writes, “Some of the Indians obey the precepts of Boutta; whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honors.”[9]
Notes
- ↑ The Ancient Greco-Bactrian kingdom and Hellenistic Afghanistan Brewminate, Archived 2021-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. - Matthew A. McIntosh
- ↑ Cribb, Joe (2005). "The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, its coinage and its collapse". Afghanistan Ancien Carrefour Entre Lʼest et Lʼouest: 1 – via Academia.
- ↑ Mairs, Rachel (2016). "Bactrian or Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom". The Encyclopedia of Empire: 1–4.
- ↑ Lucas, Christopoulos. Dionysian Rituals and the Golden Zeus of China. Sino-Platonic Papers 326.
- ↑ Strabo, Geography 11.11.1
- ↑ Doumanis, Nicholas. (16 Dec 2009) A History of Greece Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1137013675 p 64
- ↑ Baumer, Christoph. (11 Dec 2012) The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors Archived 2022-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Vol. 1 I.B. Tauris, ISBN 978-1780760605 p 289
- ↑ Kaushik Roy. ( 28 July 2015) Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia Archived 2022-11-19 at the Wayback Machine.. Routledge, ISBN 978-1317321279
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Bactria
Further reading
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Wikipedia
