The Greeks in Bactria and India c33.18

c33.18

Before going on I must notice one thing about Ptolemy, as it is alluded to in my text (p. 286). I have described his method of work elsewhere (p. 231); he knew nothing about Central Asia himself, but he meant to get in all his (or Marinus’) notes, and he has given five notices of the Tochari, belonging to different times and places and with different spellings—Thagouroi in Kan-su, Takoraioi north of Imaos, Tagouraioi near Lake Issyk Kul, Tachoroi in Sogdiana, Tocharoi in Bactria—without suspecting that he is recording the odyssey of one and the same people. It is very characteristic; but the point is that this odyssey is that of the Yueh-chi as given by the Chinese sources (Chap. VII), and it makes the identification of Tochari and Yueh-chi certain.