The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.287

c10.s2.287

In this connection must be noticed the new Taxila¹ which Demetrius built on Sirkap to be his capital and to which he transferred the population of Old Taxila (p. 137). It was a strange foundation to be made by a Greek king, for what Demetrius built was not a Greek city but an Indian one, and an Indian city it remained; there is no indication that it ever became a Greek *polis* or bore Demetrius’ name. The ground plan was fairly regular, so far as the lie of the ground permitted, and may show Hellenistic influence;² one large and well-planned house has been uncovered,³ and apparently some bare walls of other houses;⁴ but ‘there is nothing typically Greek about the buildings, nor are there any remains of temples altars public monuments or statues such as the Greek fancy ordinarily delighted in’.⁵ The city had not even that indispensable feature of a Greek city, a stone wall; it had only the mud wall of an Indian town, and a stone wall was first built by the Sacas.⁶ No trace was found of a distinctive Greek quarter, or of a palace; the ‘palace’ may just have been a large house, like the Attalid ‘palace’ at Pergamum. Even more noteworthy, there was no indication of a citadel, though Susa and Babylon have shown that Greeks liked to keep the citadel in their own hands; apparently it cannot be said if there was a citadel at Sirkap at all,⁷ though later the Parthians may have fortified an area within the wall, as was their custom. The transference of the population of Old Taxila, even to their University and their gods, seems to have been so complete that there was no real break in the continuity of the city’s life, especially if it be the case that the Indian city coinage continued to be struck throughout the reign of Demetrius (p. 161). If there was no Greek quarter, Greek and Indian must have lived side by side; one may recall Demetrius’ sons treating the Greek and Indian communities in another town as on a level (p. 160). Above all, the mud wall and the absence of a citadel show that the Greeks had no fear of an Indian attack, whether from without or within; they were among friends.