The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.60

c10.s7.60

These facts suggest that what was important to the Greeks of Bactria and India was trade with the Seleucid empire through Seleuceia, for there do not appear to be any corresponding facts with regard to Egypt. This trade was essentially a trade with Seleuceia, which passed the goods on overland to Syria and the Phoenician ports; the great city which had taken the place of Babylon was clearing-house and middleman by whatever route goods came from the Far East, whether by the main land road which ran Bactra-Hecatompylos-Ecbatana-Seleuceia, or by the southern land route through Seistan to the Gulf of Ormuz (App. 12) and so up the Persian Gulf, or directly by sea from Barygaza and Demetrias-Patala to the Gulf of Ormuz (App. 12). More will be known about the trade between India and Seleuceia if the Greek centre and mart on that Gulf, Harmozia-Omana, the ‘harbour of the Macedonians’, be ever located and excavated; its merchants were certainly important as middlemen, for Seleucid coins have rarely been found in India, and those apparently only certain pieces of Antiochus I and II.⁵