The Greeks in Bactria and India c18.10

c18.10

is followed by the sentence εἶτ’ εἰς Ὀρτόσπανα ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκ Βάκτρων τρίοδον δισχιλίους. As his version and Pliny’s alike go back ultimately to the bematists’ account they must agree on the stages, and Ortospana-Kabul was nowhere near the τρίοδος; for as, of the three routes across the Hindu Kush, one followed the valley of the Ghorband river and another that of the Panjshir, the τρίοδος, as everyone has seen, can only be at or near the point of junction of the two rivers.¹ This being so, something has fallen out in the text of Strabo XI, 514 after Ὀρτόσπανα; the sentence should read εἶτ’ εἰς Ὀρτόσπανα [figure, εἶτ’] ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκ Βάκτρων τρίοδον.² The τρίοδος in Eratosthenes is the same stage as Alexandri oppidum in Pliny; Alexandria therefore stood at (or near) the τρίοδος, i.e. at or near the junction of the two rivers.