The Greeks in Bactria and India c6: Preface
The Greeks in Bactria and India c6
- Language
- English
Preface
c6.1
I HAVE dreamt of this book for forty years; it is fortunate for me that I had no opportunity of taking it up earlier. No Greek historian has yet attempted to handle the subject as a connected whole or to put it in its right place as a lost chapter of Hellenistic history. What needs saying about the book itself and its plan is given in the Introduction, which is meant to be read first; but I may here anticipate two obvious criticisms. I am aware that it is very reprehensible to write a book where you have to depend in part on second-hand information, as I have to do on the Oriental side. But it is time that somebody with some knowledge of the Hellenistic world tried to get the more important Greek side into order, for one sees how often the Orientalist is hampered by not knowing what there is; and it is no use waiting for a scholar who shall have a proper and *critical* knowledge of both sides, or rather of all the sides, for he has not yet been born. And even in using a translation one need not entirely abandon one’s common sense. I am also aware that history should be written impersonally. But to write this book impersonally was not possible; much of it is spade-work, and it had to get written as best it could, other considerations being subordinated to an effort to make the bearings of the rather complex collection of little details clear to the reader. I hope that the numerous cross-references may be of use here, for often it has been necessary to refer forward for the evidence for some statement, sometimes even on a large scale; for example, Chapter VIII presupposes a knowledge of Appendix 16, and the attempt in Chapter II to get the outline of the lost work of the historian whom I have had to call ‘Trogus’ source’ presupposes a knowledge of the whole book.
c6.2
My manifold debts to the published work of others are acknowledged in the notes, but one thing calls for special mention—the brilliant chapters in volume I of the Cambridge History of India (1922) in which, for the first time, Sir George Macdonald and the late Professor E. J. Rapson got the subject into a shape which one could understand and which offered a basis for future progress. If, as I venture to hope, I have been able to take the matter further than they left it, it must largely be because I have had the privilege, in Bentley’s phrase, of standing on their shoulders.
c6.4
To acknowledge all my more personal obligations is almost impossible, for so many people have kindly helped me in one way or another; some are mentioned in the notes. I desire here to thank Monsieur Jean Babelon of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris for particulars of the Indo-Greek coins in the unpublished Hackin collection; Dr L. D. Barnett of the British Museum for the translation used in Appendix 4; Professor E. H. Minns for procuring and making for me a synopsis of the Russian study mentioned in Appendix 10; Mr J. Allan of the British Museum for a cast of the coin which is no. 7 on the Plate, and also for giving me a proof of the Introduction to his *Indian Coins* many months in advance of publication, which saved me a great deal of trouble; and also, for help of various kinds, Sir Aurel Stein, Professors H. W. Bailey, Fr. Cumont, E. Herzfeld, and F. W. Thomas, and Messrs E. J. Gadd, H. Mattingly, E. S. G. Robinson, and Sidney Smith, of the British Museum. To three of my friends I owe a very special debt. Professors H. M. Last and A. D. Nock each read a good deal of the book in MS. and gave me not only numerous references and suggestions but also (a thing which meant much more to me) some greatly needed encouragement at a critical time. Professor F. E. Adcock read most of the book in MS. and gave me the benefit of his great editorial knowledge, beside much other help; he also most generously undertook the thankless but beneficent task of reading a proof. I desire to thank the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press both for undertaking the publication of the book and also for permitting me to use again the beautiful reproductions of the Bactrian coin-portraits made for the Cambridge History of India, and to thank the staff of the Press for the way in which the publication has been carried out. Lastly, I would take this opportunity to pay a tribute of gratitude, long overdue, to my daughter, to whom this book is dedicated, and whose critical sense and clear judgment have been my unfailing help in everything I have written for many years.
c6.5
W. W. TARN
c6.6
MUIRTOWN HOUSE INVERNESS