The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.37

c26.s1.37

The Sakas, accompanied by cognate tribes, were forced to move in a southerly direction, and in course of time entered India from the north, possibly by more roads than one. The flood of barbarian invasion spread also to the west, and burst upon the Parthian kingdom and Bactria in the period between 140 and 120 B. C. The Parthian king, Phraates II, the immediate successor of Mithradates I, was killed in battle with the nomads about 127 B. C.; and some four years later, Artabanus I, who followed him on the Parthian throne, met the same fate. The Hellenistic monarchy, which must have been weakened already by the growth of the Parthian or Persian power, was then finally extinguished. The last Graeco-Bactrian king was Heliokles, with whom Greek rule to the north of the Hindū Kush disappeared for ever.³