The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.138

c12.138

So far, the existence of a Greek Questions of Menander has been deduced as an astronomer deduces the existence of an invisible body in the heavens, from its disturbance of other bodies; but there is one fact still to come which I think goes far towards providing direct evidence. Pseudo-Aristeas begins as the Milinda begins, with an introduction which sets the scene. In the introduction to Pseudo-Aristeas four Friends of Ptolemy II play a part—Demetrius the librarian, Aristeas, and Archias and Sosibius the ἀρχισωματοφύλακες; and the principal part is given to Demetrius. In the introduction to the Milinda four Friends of Menander play a part—Demetrius and three others whom I have discussed; and the principal part is given to Demetrius. Coincidences do occur, but one must not reckon upon their occurrence; the natural explanation is that one of these schemes was borrowed from the other. But certainly neither the Questions of Ptolemy II nor Pseudo-Aristeas would be known in India; they are not likely to have circulated much beyond the circle of hellenised Jews, and in the Hellenistic period Jews are not heard of farther east than Susa (p. 29). And certainly the Pali Milinda was not read in the West, besides being probably too late. But a copy of a Greek Questions of Menander, written in India soon after Menander’s death (which was between 150 and 145), could have reached the library at Alexandria via Babylonia, the great clearing-house between East and West, and reached it in plenty of time for Pseudo-Aristeas c. 100 B.C. to read it; he was obviously interested in kings’ questions, and would have read it had he found it. It looks as if it were the Greek Questions of Menander which gave him the idea of resurrecting Demetrius the librarian (who was Demetrius of Phalerum, dead before the time of Ptolemy II) so that he might have a Demetrius to play the principal part in his own scene-setting. There is of course no difficulty about a Greek work being written in Menander’s kingdom; we have already (Chap. VI) met with conclusive indications of at least two Greek poems written there.