The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.173

c10.s1.173

The Paropamisadae, to-day part of Afghanistan, has sometimes been politically part of India, but throughout the Macedonian period it had been considered to belong to Iran, even though Indian or semi-Indian races might extend north and west of the Kunar river; the mixture of races is reflected in the fact that the satrapy had no racial name like Media or Bactria, but was only known to Greeks as ‘the Paropamisadae’, the peoples of the Paropamisus or Hindu Kush; if it had an official name it is lost. Alexander had appointed a succession of Iranian satraps to the country—Proexes, Tyriaspes, Oxyartes;² Eratosthenes had expressly distinguished it from India;³ a number of the old local names are said to be Iranian;⁴ and it had received the regular organisation of a Seleucid satrapy, the division into eparchies.⁵ Most of the eparchy names can be recovered. Pliny (VI, 92) gives the name Kapisene, with Kapisa as its capital; it included the Panjshir valley and Kafiristan, or part of it. Stephanus gives the name Opiane⁶ with its capital Alexandria;