The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.131

c10.s4.131

I come now to Ptolemy’s list of the towns east of the Jhelum,³ in Menander’s home kingdom, which later was the kingdom of the Greek kings of the eastern group (Chap. VIII). It begins with Bucephala, Sāgala, and Iomousa, continues with a string of Indian and non-Indian names, and ends with Mathurā, to which a Greek phrase is attached. As Mathurā recovered independence somewhere about 100 B.C. (p. 324) the list must, at any rate in part, go back to the second century; this and the fact that Ptolemy has no other similar list suggest that the names of the Greek and Western towns and settlements came to him from a list in ‘Trogus’ source’, just as did the satrapy names; the Indian names, or some of them, might be Ptolemy’s own, from his usual materials. It is a commonplace that the whole list in Ptolemy is wrongly orientated, bringing Mathurā, whose position is certain (it is Muttra on the Jumna), down to near the Vindya mountains; but that is easily allowed for, and it does not affect the list itself, only the question of Ptolemy’s co-ordinates. The list shows that Alexandria Bucephala, contrary to the usual belief, stood on the east and not on the west bank of the Jhelum; there is in fact other evidence to this effect.¹ It should be feasible to locate and excavate the site of Bucephala; not only would that settle the century-old controversy as to whether Alexander crossed the Jhelum at Jhelum or Jalalpur, but Bucephala would be the likeliest site to give some idea of what a Greek city in India was like. In dealing with this list I will take Iomousa ('Ιώμουσα) first, as it throws light on the question of Sāgala.