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396
great people, and below them the Mary kaioi, and the Skordai, and the Ouarnoi (Varnoi), and still below those the Sabadioi, and the Oreisitoi, and the A mareis.
7. The towns of Baktrianê towards the river Ôxos are the following:
Kharakharta
Zari(a)spa or Kharispa
Khoana......... Sourogana
Phratou
111°
115°
117°
....... 117° 30' .119° 8. And near the other rivers these:Alikhorda......... 107° 106° 30'
109° 30 111° 20° 112°
......
Khomara. Kouriandra
Kauaris Astakana..
Ebousmonanassa or Tosmo
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
nanassa
Menapia Eukratidia
Baktra, the king's residence
(Balkh) Estobara
Marakanda (Samarkand) Marakodra
****** **.....
..
44° 44°
42°
40° 30' 39° 20'
108° 30' 113°
115°
43° 30' 43° 30'
42° 10'
43°
42° 20'
41° 20' 41° 20' 42°
116°
41°
109° 30' 45° 20' 112° 39° 15' 115° 20′ 39° 20′
******* ..........
The boundaries of Baktra or Baktriana varied at different periods of history, and were never perhaps at any time fixed with much precision. According to Strabo it was the principal part of Ariana, and was separated from Sogdiana on the east and north-east by the Oxus, from Areia on the south by the chain of Paropanieos, and on the west from Margiana by a desert region. A description of Baktriana, which Burnes, in his work on Bokhara, corroborates as very accurate, is given by Curtius (lib. VII, c. iv) and is to this effect: "The nature of the Baktrian territory is varied, and presents striking contrasts. In one place it is well-wooded, and bears vines which yield grapes of great size and sweetness. The soil is rich and well-watered-and where such a genial soil is found corn is grown, while lands with an inferior soil are used for the pasturage of cattle. To this fertile tract succeeds another much more. extensive, which is nothing but a wild waste of sand parched with drought, alike without inhabitant and without herbage. The winds, moreover, which blow hither from the Pontic Sea, sweep before them the sand that covers the plain, and this, when it gathers into heaps, looks, when seen from a distance, like a collection of great hills; whereby all traces of the road that for.
[DECEMBER, 1884.
merly existed are completely obliterated. Those, therefore, who cross these plains, watch the stars by night as sailors do at sea, and direct their course by their guidance. In fact they almost see better under the shadow of night than in the glare of sunshine. They are, consequently, unable to find their way in the day-time, since there is no track visible which they can follow, for the brightness of the luminaries above is shrouded in darkness. Should now the wind which rises from the sea overtake them, the sands with which it is laden would completely overwhelm them. Nevertheless in all the more favoured localities the number of men and of horses that are there generated is exceedingly great. Baktra itself, the capital city of that region, is situated under mount Paropanisos. The river Bactrus passes by its walls: and gave the city and the region their name." This description is in agreement with the general character of the country from Balkh to Bokhara, in which oases of the most productive soil alternate with wastes of sand.
Baktra figures very early in history. Its capital indeed, Baktra (now Balkh) is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Baktrian Walls is one of the places which Euripides (Bakkhai, 1. 15) represents Dionysos to have visited in the course. of his eastern peregrinations. Ninus, as we learn through Ktêsias, marched into Baktriana with a vast army and, with the assistance of Semiramis, took its capital. In the time of Darius it was a satrapy, of the Persian empire and paid a tribute of 360 talents. Alexander the Great, when marching in pursuit of Bessus, passed through Baktria and, crossing the Oxus, proceeded as far as Marakanda (Samarkand). Having subjugated the regions lying in that direction, he returned to Baktra and there spent the winter before starting to invade India. Some years after the conquerer's death Seleukos reduced Baktria, and annexed it to his other dominions. It was wrested, however,. from the hands of the third prince of his line about the year 256 B.C. or perhaps later, by Antiokhos Theos or Theodotos, who made Baktria an inde-. pendent kingdom. His successors were ambitious and enterprising, and appear to have extended their authority along the downward course of the Indus even to the ocean, and southward along the coast as far as the mouth of the Narmada. The names of these kings have been recovered from their coins found in great numbers both in India and in Afghanistan. This Gracko-Baktrian empire, after having subsisted for about two centuries and a half, was finally overthrown by the invasion of different hordes of the Sakai, named, as Strabo informs us, the Asioi, Pasianoi,
