The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.217

c10.s1.217

But the wealth of Bactria lay in, and not below, its soil. Certainly in the Middle Ages there were three famous mine-fields in north-eastern Iran; but I do not know whether the ruby mines of Badakshan were being worked in the Greek period,⁴ though they were under the Yueh-chi; and though the turquoise mines of Khorasan were presumably worked they were anyhow in Parthia, not in Bactria.⁵ The lapis lazuli mines⁶ in Sogdiana (Yamghan), which were of great antiquity, were at work, for Darius I, as his invaluable inscription from the Apadāna at Susa shows, had got lapis from Sogdiana for that building,⁷ and as the Greeks continued to work them⁸ they were doubtless a source of income; the same inscription may show that Sogdiana produced carnelian, much used for seals. Badakshan to-day produces some copper and iron, and may always have done so; but Bactria in Greek times was seemingly poor in precious metals. In Arab times there were rich mines of silver at Anderab and also mines in Wakhan,¹ but it seems improbable that they were worked or much worked in the Greek period, for there are signs that Euthydemus was short of silver; many of his tetradrachms were struck upon old coins already in circulation,² and he attempted at the end of his life to import nickel from China. East of the Hindu Kush, however, the silver mines on the Panjshir river,³ which were to supply the mint at Alexandria-Kapisa, were doubtless working to some extent—one of the things which made that city such a desirable acquisition.