The Greeks in Bactria and India c28.29

c28.29

The dominant theory to-day is that of the late E. J. Rapson in 1922;¹ both Sir John Marshall and Dr Sten Konow have abandoned their own late datings in its favour. It makes the Era *c.* 150 B.C.; what he says is that it ‘may possibly mark the establishment of the new kingdom in Seistan after its incorporation into the empire by Mithridates I’ and is ‘probably of Parthian origin’. This makes the Taxila copperplate *c.* 72 B.C., and is very close to the dating arrived at in this Appendix. But, though I agree that the Era marks the date of the establishment of a new kingdom in Seistan, I cannot myself accept a Parthian origin for an Era used by a Saca king, apart from the fact that an inscription now calls a date in that Era ‘Saka’;² so I must attempt both to date the Era and to find an occasion when it could have been established by Sacas.