The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.164

c10.s4.164

The next name to notice is Salagissa, somewhere east of the Sutlej, which is clearly Selgessos, the alternative name given by Strabo (XII, 569) for the well-known Sagalassos in Pisidia; Salagissa should therefore be a military colony of Pisidian mercenaries, who in the usual way (p. 10) had named the place after their old home. Most of the Anatolian peoples regularly occur as mercenaries,⁶ but in the centuries between Alcetas and Labienus, who both raised large forces of Pisidians, this people does not seem to be named very often.⁷ But no one will suppose that for three centuries the most warlike race in Asia Minor⁸ was not fully utilised, and I have wondered whether the perplexing number of ‘Mysians’ in the armies and settlements of the period—the actual Mysians of Olympus cannot have been too numerous—may not mean that ‘Mysian’ was military *argot* for any Anatolian Highlander, as sailors to-day call any sailor from northern Europe a ‘Dutchman’.