The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s5.145

c10.s5.145

The identification of the Parsii gives one very important chronological indication. The real beginning of the Saca invasion of Parthia can be dated to 129 (apparently the first body crossed the frontier in 130),² and the bulk of the invaders were Massagetae and Sacaraucae; the Sacaraucae followed the Merv-Herat road, but the Massagetae might have advanced on a broad front farther to the west, as they always did when raiding.³ Apollodorus’ mention of the Parsii links up, as is common sense, this invasion of Parthia with the conquest of Bactria; it was one and the same upheaval of the steppes, set in motion by the advent of the Yueh-chi, and therefore, as between the limits of 141 and 128 for that conquest, it must fall about 130; the date usually taken, *c.* 135, arrived at by splitting the difference between 141 and 128, is too early.