The Greeks in Bactria and India c9.s2.44

c9.s2.44

One other Greek who is earlier than the Parthian period must be noticed here, the grammarian Herodicus of Babylon;⁴ in his case this means Babylon and not Seleuceia (pp. 252 sq.). He migrated to Greece, and took part in the controversy between Aristarchus of Samothrace at Alexandria and Crates of Mallus at Pergamum; this dates him to the reign of Ptolemy VI Philometor, and that in turn shows that he must have been one of the settlers of Antiochus IV when that king refounded Babylon as a Greek city; he can hardly therefore be claimed as a Greek of the Middle East, but in his well-known epigram⁵ he said that he had two homes, Hellas and Babylon, which is further evidence that the Greek culture-sphere embraced Babylonia. His other writings were perhaps no great matter, but his epigram may have had the honour of being quoted in a poem attributed to Virgil,⁶ and it contains a most recondite allusion which will be of use in a later chapter (p. 253).