The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.106

c10.s1.106

But though this must always be a possible view, I doubt if it be the true one. In 1935 Professor F. W. Thomas discovered in these Kharoshthi documents from the Khotan district two occurrences of the word παρεμβολή, camp.⁵ This word cannot well have been brought by Indian traders, but points to Greek military occupation, just as -chester (castra) in English points to Roman military occupation; one recalls the παρεμβολαί near Barygaza (p. 148), and it is possible that παρεμβολή survived in India as a place-name,⁶ like Chester. It may be therefore that all these Greek words in the Khotan country are a deposit from Euthydemus’ conquest. The time-gap is considerable, but hardly a real objection; putting -chester aside, it has been pointed out that old names of coins may survive for a very long time, and a case has been cited of the use of ’Αττικαὶ (δραχμαί) in Egypt three and a half centuries after the last Attic drachma had been coined and over six centuries since the last drachma on anything which could be called the Attic standard had been struck in Egypt.⁷ One cannot assert that these Greek words do date from Euthydemus’ conquest; but of the two possibilities this view seems to me at present the more probable one.