The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.111

c10.s2.111

The next notice of Apollodotus is in the anonymous Periplus Maris Erythraei (referred to throughout as the Periplus), in connection with the great seaport of Barygaza (Broach) in Gujerat, on the east coast of the Gulf of Cambaye facing Kathiawar. The merchant who wrote the Periplus in the middle of the first century A.D.⁴ is not always clear about the interior of India, which he did not know; but for the things he personally knew and had seen—the coast and the ports—he is good authority. He says that in the country about Barygaza there were still mementos of Alexander’s expedition—old shrines, foundations of permanent camps (or barracks), and very great wells.⁵ Alexander of course was never near Barygaza. Some of the Alexander-stories belong to Islam; but it has often been suspected that some are reminiscences of the Greeks, and this one, from its date, is certain: the objects referred to are mementos of the Greek (Apollodotus’) conquest and of the subsequent Greek occupation. The camps are interesting, as showing that the troops were camped outside, and not in, a city, but more interesting are the wells. Few countries could exist without knowing how to dig wells; what the Periplus means is that Greek engineers could dig deeper wells than the people of India could. One recalls that Alexander had a well-digging expert with his army,¹ and that when the Chinese attacked Ir-shi in Ferghana in 101 B.C. the citadel was saved by a ‘man from Ts’in’ who knew how to dig (deep) wells (see pp. 310 sq.).