The Greeks in Bactria and India c9.s2.33

c9.s2.33

Susa brings us naturally to the Greek literature and learning of the Middle East;¹ science apart, it produced four serious writers of some importance, three of whom will be frequently referred to as sources in this book. The reproach has often been brought against the Seleucid empire that it produced little literature, which in one sense is true: when the Middle East began to produce writing which was worth while it was no longer Seleucid. What happened in Asia Minor and Syria under Seleucid rule happened in the Middle East also: all men of real importance migrated, as did Poseidonius of Apamea in Syria to Rhodes and Diogenes of Seleuceia to Athens, and most of the lesser men followed their example; two Stoics, Apollophanes of Antioch-Nisibis² and Apollodorus of Seleuceia,³ went to Athens to study under Ariston and Diogenes respectively; Agathocles of Seleuceia,⁴ called ‘the Babylonian’, lived at Cyzicus and wrote that city’s history; Euphranor of Seleuceia⁵ became a pupil and perhaps a successor of Timon the Sceptic. Only two men of any learning are known in the Seleucid period who did not move to some old Greek city: Apollophanes of Seleuceia,⁶ body-physician to Antiochus III, and a certain Diogenes of Seleuceia, a sort of Epicurean, probably identical with the voluminous writer of the same name who lived at Tarsus in the second century B.C. and who went from city to city improvising a lecture or a poem on any theme given him;⁷ he spent some time at the court of Alexander Balas, who collected philosophers and apparently found him amusing.¹ There had been much valuable scientific and geographical work done under the first two Seleucids, but of the known names Berossus was a Babylonian priest writing at the request of Antiochus I, and Megasthenes, Patrocles, and Demodamas were Greeks or Macedonians from the West who had no successors. The famous Stoic of the second century B.C., Diogenes of Seleuceia, called ‘the Babylonian’, became head of the Stoic school at Athens, and his reputation drew to that city many other Greeks from Asia²—Antipater and Archedemus from Tarsus, Boethus from Sidon, the before-mentioned Apollodorus from his own city of Seleuceia; among his pupils was Panaetius of Rhodes, who was to surpass his teacher. What is noticeable about this list, so far, is that even our very fragmentary tradition has remembered the names of six men from Seleuceia who were interested in learning in one way or another; the great city was not entirely given over to money-making, and one may recall that its councillors, even at a much later date, were chosen for wisdom as well as for wealth.³