The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.171

c10.s4.171

The conclusion is that the only military settlements of troops from the West made by Menander which can be identified are Daedala and Salagissa; there must have been others, but they would be concealed under native names in the usual way. But Ptolemy’s list induces one interesting reflection. It is usually thought that the number of Greeks who joined in the invasion of India cannot have been great, as there must have been a limit to what Bactria could provide. But if, even now, we can trace Greeks who came from a city in Parthia and from Crete, and with them Anatolians from Sagalassos (whom Indians would class under Yavanas), there may well have been many more Yavanas in the armies of Demetrius and his two lieutenants than we should suppose; we may have to reckon with a considerable number of men, adventurers or mercenaries, from the West. Greeks had exaggerated notions of the wealth of India, and distance and difficulty have never hindered the quest for El Dorado.³