The Greeks in Bactria and India c14.14

c14.14

Gouriane, a town in Margiane, is Ptolemy’s one mistake, if it be a mistake, for it appears from Polybius that the proper Greek name of the place was τὰ Γουρίανα.³ What probably happened is that the native name was something like Ghurian (a name existing to-day, but farther southward);⁴ Ptolemy’s source, an unlearned trader, turned it into Gouriane, not knowing any better, and Ptolemy, usually careful in this respect, overlooked it. Beside ’Οζήνη, there is a sort of parallel in Eratosthenes’ term Ariana for the Iranian plateau, which is not an -ανη name but only the Pahlavi āryān⁵ in Greek letters.