The Greeks in Bactria and India c8.5

c8.5

But every story has a background, and the background to mine is the Middle East; it has seemed advisable therefore to add to the book an introductory part, Chapters I and II, which shall sketch certain aspects of that background and will, I hope, make it easier to see the connections between the story of the Farther East and that of the Seleucids. This introductory part has not, and is not meant to have, any claim to completeness, except perhaps as regards the account of the Greek literature in Chapter II. It is not an account of the Seleucid realm; it is a sketch only, designed to bring out certain points which bear upon facts utilised later, and may be a help to the understanding of them; these points are, chiefly, the Seleucid administrative divisions, the nature of the Seleucid settlement, the Greek literature of the Middle East (which is important on the question of our sources), and the relations between Greeks and Asiatics.