The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s1.328

c10.s1.328

As however the invasion of India and the events to be recorded in Chapter v would be incomprehensible without a considerable Greek population, it must be supposed that, if there were few Greek cities, there were numerous military colonies: Alexander’s unnamed group of foundations in Bactria and Sogdiana must have been of this type.⁵ It has already been shown (Chap. 1) that the military colony and not the city, the *polis*, was the basis of the settlement of Asia beyond the Euphrates; but the military colony often defies detection, for normally it kept the native name of the village in which it started and might keep that name, as Isidore shows, even after it had grown into a city. In Parthia east of the Persian desert some of these names are known from Isidore, but his work naturally did not include Bactria, so his invaluable help is lacking. There can, however, be no doubt about the general outline: the Greek settlement of Bactria was carried out principally by means of military colonies, and some of these places grew into cities Greek side: (*a*) by Stephanus, *s.v.* *Αρμα*· *Αρματα*, *πόλις* *’Ινδική*, doubtless a confusion of Demetrias-Termedh with Demetrias in Sind; and (*b*) in the Peutinger Table, where Antioch Tharmata or Tarmata (*v. ll.* Tarinata, Tramata) is another confusion, possibly a conflation of Antioch-Merv and Demetrias-Termedh which has been misplaced (on Antioch Tharmata see K. Miller, *Itineraria Romana* 1916 cols. 795, 798; Tscherikower p. 111).