The Greeks in Bactria and India c9.s2.96

c9.s2.96

The history we are considering was then completed shortly after 87 B.C.; and the *terminus post quem non* is a simple matter. Ptolemy’s (temporary) kingdom of ‘Indo-Scythia’ must be from ‘Trogus’ source’ (p. 233); it can be dated to about the generation from *c.* 110 to *c.* 80 B.C., and as the Sacas were in Taxila before but only shortly before *c.* 77, the latest date for the beginning of their advance up the Indus from Abiria would be *c.* 80.¹ But that advance was unknown to Ptolemy, *i.e.* to our historian; the *terminus post quem non* for the completion of his history is therefore *c.* 80 B.C. On the other hand, the Parsii had reached Kabul at some time prior to 87 B.C. and Ptolemy’s knowledge of their presence in the Paropamisadae (Chap. VIII), which *might* come from our historian, is consistent with the above dating. The limits of the lost history we have been considering are therefore now pretty well blocked out,² and the date of its completion is to be put round about 85 B.C.