The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.127

c10.s1.127

Now Ptolemy in Iran never notices or reflects either the Bactrian or the Parthian reorganisation, but gives eparchy names everywhere as what they originally were, subdivisions of the old satrapies; his usage is consistent throughout. The Parthians took Merv in the reign of Mithridates II some time between his accession in 124 and 115,² as part of the liquidation of the great Saca invasion which began in 129; and as no place can be found for Ptolemy’s Greater Margiane after that date, its existence must lie somewhere between the reorganisation of Bactria by Diodotus or Euthydemus on the one hand and the Parthian conquest of Merv on the other, which means that Greater Margiane was either the kingdom of some Bactrian king or a short-lived Saca kingdom somewhere between 129 and 115. But the nomad or semi-nomad Sacas were hardly likely to have carried out a comprehensive reorganisation during their brief occupation of the country, though they possibly set up a transient kingdom in Traxiane (p. 295); it seems certain enough that Greater Margiane must belong to the Bactrian period, and, if so, no king comes in question but Antimachus.³ Besides, as will be seen (Chap. v), he must have ruled somewhere westward of Bactria itself, as he was one of the two sub-kings who bore the first brunt of Eucratides’ attack; and he cannot have been far away, as the coin-portrait for his tetradrachms was engraved by the artist *X* (p. 75), who must have worked in Bactra, and some of his money was seemingly coined in Bactra (App. 1). Ptolemy (VI, 10) includes in his Greater Margiane the Tapuri, that is the new satrapy of Tapuria, and Gouriane (p. 88 n. 3) between the lower Arius and Margus rivers. He also includes the Dahae, which *may* mean that Antimachus had, or claimed, rule over the southern part of the Caspian steppes.¹ Ptolemy makes the schematic boundary of his Greater Margiane touch the Caspian just north of Hyrcania; but it certainly did not reach the Caspian, or reach it to any purpose. This Greater Margiane was also known to one of Pliny’s sources.²