The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.150

c10.s2.150

To return to Apollodotus. Whether he went beyond Madhyamikā cannot be said. It is conceivable that he was aiming at Ajmer, the Eragassa Metropolis of Ptolemy, to secure the Ujjain-Mathurā route; at Madhyamikā he was more than half-way thither on the road from Ujjain, his coins have been found near Ajmer,³ and Cunningham, who knew India well, thought that any conqueror in that part of the country *must* try to take Ajmer.⁴ But in fact nothing is known about Rajputana except that the Greeks called the Aravalli mountains ‘The vengeance of Heaven’ (p. 253); Apollodotus at Madhyamikā may only have been clearing his flank of an inconvenient garrison of Pushyamitra’s, in preparation for the final move. For the final move must have been meant to be that Apollodotus from Ujjain and Menander from Pātaliputra should join hands along the great road and complete the circuit of Northern India. Between them lay Pushyamitra’s home kingdom of Vidiśā, where they might expect some serious fighting. But, so far as is known, it was never attempted; though they held Vidiśā as it were between the jaws of pincers, the pincers had no strength to close. Whatever fighting the Greek leaders had had or had not had, the wastage of their armies in garrisons and settlements must have been severe; for the time being both had shot their bolt. Doubtless Demetrius would presently have reinforced them with fresh troops for the final stage; he cannot yet have been fifty when he crossed the Hindu Kush, and there seemed plenty of time.