The Greeks in Bactria and India c21.19

c21.19

Stephanus’ notice of the town Arachosia and the Massagetae is therefore absolutely right. But his further identification of the town Arachosia with Kophen cannot be right, for Kophen cannot be separated from the Kophen (Kabul) river; what the identification does show is that there was some connection between the town Arachosia and Kophen, and this is shown again by Pliny VI, 94, who makes the Kophen a river of Arachosia, though he places on it a town with an Indian name.² Returning to the bematists’ route from Seistan to the Paropamisadae via Ghazni, there is no doubt that Ortospana, as universally believed, is Kabul,³ this being its Iranian name;⁴ and as the town Kophen has to be connected both with the town Arachosia and the Kophen river there is no place which it can be except Kabul, for there is no other place of importance on the route Seistan—Arachosia (Demetrias)—Ghazni (Alexandria)—Kabul (Ortospana)—τρίοδος (Alexandria) whose Greek name is missing.⁵ Kophen therefore is Ortospana.