The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.34

c10.s4.34

We possess in Ptolemy some fragments of what must once have been a complete list of the provinces into which the Greek empire in India was divided.⁶ These fragments have never been noticed, since it was not possible to identify them till the -ηνn names in the Seleucid empire and its Succession states had been examined, and this was not done till 1929.¹ This matter has already been fully explained,² and it may be taken that, east of the Euphrates, names in -ηνn and -ιανη, the forms which provide a touchstone, are practically never used for anything but the Seleucid eparchies or the satrapal (i.e. primary) provinces of some kingdom which had either possessed the Seleucid organisation or was copying that organisation, whether at first or at second hand. In particular, the usage of Ptolemy himself with respect to the -ηνn names is both strict and consistent; and if therefore he locates a group of -ηνn names in India, a country where Greek had never before been used, it does not seem open to doubt that they are the provinces of a Greek kingdom (see further p. 240), especially as for Indian districts which were never ruled by Greeks he uses a different form of ending in -κη, as Larike, Anariake, Prasiake.³