The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.156

c10.s1.156

Demetrius certainly never conquered Carmania, but Gedrosia presents a problem, for though it is not in Justin’s list it is possible that he held the eastern part; but if so it was probably not annexed till after the conquest of Sind. For among the peculiar notices relating to Gedrosia which we possess (p. 260), one says that Patalene was in Gedrosia¹ and another that the Gedrosians performed the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles,² which implies some important urban centre; and the only way to make sense of these notices is to suppose that eastern Gedrosia³ had been annexed to the satrapy of Patalene (p. 233) and was governed not from Demetrias in Arachosia but from Demetrias in Sind (p. 142). If so, this was done for the sake of the spice trade. For barren as much of Gedrosia was, it produced one of the things which all Greeks coveted—spices;⁴ and the Bactrian coins found in Baluchistan⁵ for the period prior to its annexation by Mithridates I of Parthia—coins of Demetrius, of his brother Antimachus, of his sons Euthydemus II and Pantaleon, of his conqueror Eucratides—may attest a trade in the export of spices to Bactria and the West.