The Greeks in Bactria and India c9.s1.120

c9.s1.120

We have seen, in the steady evolution of military colonies into *poleis*, that under Seleucid rule the level of Asia, as regarded civic forms, tended to rise; and these non-Greek *poleis* show that the rising level was carrying with it a considerable number of Asiatics. Asia must have been affected by a sort of Greek *atmosphere*; nothing very tangible, perhaps, but an outlook on life which made many Asiatics desire the Greek *polis* form, whether merely because it was the fashion or because they thought it good in itself. To what extent Greek forms of city life may have become modified in the process cannot be said: on all analogy the probability would be that Asia took the form but not the spirit.