The Greeks in Bactria and India c9.s1.48

c9.s1.48

The military colony at first had no name but that of the native village where it was founded, and many kept their native names throughout, even when they became *poleis*, as for example Nacrasa, where this is proved by inscriptions;⁷ this was the case with the *poleis* with native names given by Isidore in eastern Iran. But if most of the settlers came from one place they often renamed the colony themselves after their mother-city; the numerous colonies or cities in northern Syria and elsewhere with Greek or Macedonian place-names had all named themselves.⁸ Every Greek or Macedonian place-name in Asia implies a military colony at the start, and the same is true of Anatolian names in the East; the name Europus, Seleucus’ birthplace, has been thought to be an exception,¹ but there is no reason to suppose that it is, or that Seleucus ever founded poleis of that name. East of the Euphrates Greek and Macedonian place-names become more rare; Tanagra² and Maitona (Methone)³ in Persis, Thera, Rhoetea, and possibly Argos in Bactria-Sogdiana (p. 120), Arethusa, Larisa and Chalcis on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf,⁴ the two Cretan names in India (p. 250), are about all which chance has preserved. Other names besides place-names were also possible for a military colony. The names ending in -polis, like Alexandropolis, Dionysopolis, Macedonopolis, are almost certainly names assumed by the settlers themselves, either to claim that they went back to Alexander or to honour their god or themselves; and any place bearing a non-dynastic man’s name,⁵ like Docimeum, Zenodotium, Menedemium, Themisonium,⁶ was once a military colony which had named itself after the official who founded it. But unless there are inscriptions or coins, which one does not get east of the Euphrates, it is difficult to detect a military colony which retained its native name, and there were far more of such settlements in the East than are recorded. The mutations which a name might pass through can be illustrated from Nicanor’s two foundations already noticed (p. 7, n. 3). Doura at first had only the native name; Seleucus sent new Greek settlers, who in his honour renamed it Europus;⁷ subsequently some Seleucid allowed it to become a polis, which kept the name Europus; in Roman times the native name Doura came back, as native names usually did sooner or later. Orrhoë had only the native name till Seleucus sent fresh Macedonian settlers, who renamed it Edessa after their home town; then some Seleucid made it a *polis* and officially named it Antioch on the Kallirhoë; under the Roman empire the name Antioch vanished, and the Syriac Ōrhāi came back alongside the Roman name Edessa.