The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.54

c10.s7.54

Something must now be said about trade. Trade between India and the West did not start in the reign of Augustus;⁴ a considerable trade had been going on since the Greek conquest, and though it is only now and then that details can be obtained, the main fact is unquestionable. Certain things have already been noticed; the new outburst of prosperity at Seleuceia, which coincided almost exactly in date with the great period of Greek rule in India from Demetrius’ conquest to the death of Menander, is the most notable (p. 261), but almost equally so are the enormous quantities of Indian ivory and spices exhibited by Antiochus IV in his triumph at Daphne in 166.¹ Parthia grew wealthy on the land trade which poured through her, and towards the end of the second century B.C. Chang-k’ien, or rather perhaps Ssu-ma Ch’ien (p. 281), referred to the long distances both by land and water which the merchants of that empire (i.e. Parthian subjects, whatever their nationality) were accustomed to travel.² Even towards the end of Seleucid rule in Syria, when politically the kings appear to us to have been little but leaders of mercenaries and northern Syria to have been in a state not far removed from anarchy, trade between Syria and the East still went on, as is attested by the number of late Seleucid coins found in the hoards from Mandali,³ east of the Tigris, and from Teheran;⁴ but the commercial revival already noticed under the last Greek rulers Hippostratus and Hermaeus was connected with the establishment by Rome in 64 B.C. of settled rule in Syria, for Crassus’ invasion of Parthia in 53 was too local and transitory to disturb the main trade route from Seleuceia to Syria for more than a year or two.