The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.9

c26.s1.9

The loss of Bactria was especially grievous. This province, the rich plain watered by the Oxus (Amū Daryā) after its issue from the mountains, had been occupied by civilized men from time immemorial. The country, which was said to contain a thousand towns,² always had been regarded, during the time of the Achaemenian kings, as the premier satrapy, and reserved as an appanage for a prince of the blood. When Alexander shattered the Persian power and seated himself upon the throne of the Great King, he continued to bestow his royal favour upon the Bactrians, who in return readily assimilated the elements of Hellenic civilization. Two years after his death, at the final partition of the empire in 321 B. C., Bactria fell to the share of Seleukos Nikator, and continued to be one of the most valuable possessions of his son and grandson.