The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.320

c10.s1.320

The nomads had been accustomed to put the settled lands to tribute on a plan of their own: they granted immunity from casual raids on terms that they might plunder unhindered at stated times,⁴ much as (it is said) pilgrims to Mecca used to engage a sheikh to protect them against unlicensed marauders on terms that he himself should plunder them decently at the end. Naturally the Greek kings would stop this; but raids must have been a perpetual danger, and it was to meet the risk of these that Antiochus I had surrounded the oasis of Merv with a wall 187 miles long.⁵ This wall may not have been the only one. At a later time large tracts of country round Bokhara, Samarcand, and Balkh (Bactra) were enclosed by similar vast walls;¹ it is likely enough that this may go back to the Greek period.