The Lost Thousand Cities of Greek Bactria [18:05]

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0:00 · In the second, 3rd or fourth century, a
0:04 · Roman historian named Justin cut down
0:07 · the universal history of Pompeus Trogus,
0:10 · a contemporary of Augustus from six
0:13 · books to one.
0:16 · Justin's epitome of the Philippic
0:18 · history of Pompeus Trogus is all that
0:20 · survives of this once massive work. We
0:23 · are fortunate that Justin chose to
0:25 · preserve the section of Alexander the
0:27 · Great, although not all of it because
0:30 · despite being separated chronologically
0:33 · by up to 7 or 800 years, if the latest
0:36 · date for Justin is taken, the epitome is
0:40 · one of our major sources for Alexander
0:42 · the Great and the conquest of the
0:44 · Persian Empire. Part of what survives is
0:47 · Pompeus Trogus' description of what
0:49 · archaeologists sometimes refer to as the
0:52 · Hellenistic Far East, but which to
0:55 · Romans and to Greeks was Bactria, the
0:59 · land of a thousand cities. In 330 BC,
1:03 · the armies of Alexander marched into
1:05 · Bactria and for 3 years they fought to
1:08 · conquer and subdue the region. In the
1:11 · aftermath of the war and the marriage of
1:13 · Alexander to Roxanne, the daughter of
1:16 · Axiartes, one of the most powerful
1:19 · Bactrian governors, Alexander settled
1:22 · soldiers and founded cities in Bactria
1:25 · with at least 10,000 infantry and 3,500
1:28 · cavalry being left behind. These cities
1:31 · were not however explicitly new features
1:34 · of the Bactrian landscape bringing dense
1:37 · population centers to a region which had
1:39 · not known anything like it beforehand.
1:42 · Urbanism on the contrary already had a
1:45 · long history in Bactria although its
1:47 · exact history is not known. Alexander
1:51 · then founded cities in a land already
1:53 · dotted with towns and cities of their
1:55 · own. And when combined, Bactria appears
1:59 · well deserving of its moniker as the
2:01 · land of a thousand cities. Many of them
2:04 · now, however, lay in ruins, and the
2:08 · locations have all but vanished from
2:10 · maps. Urbanism in Bactria goes back at a
2:14 · minimum to approximately 2300 BC with
2:18 · the development of the Bactria Margiana
2:20 · archaeological complex otherwise known
2:23 · as Bmac or the Oxis civilization named
2:27 · after the Oxis River, a Bronze Age
2:29 · archaeological culture based around
2:31 · intensive irrigation and the
2:33 · construction of urban centers, some of
2:35 · which appear to have had populations
2:38 · approaching 20 or 30,000 people. Between
2:41 · the decline of the Bimac around 1600 BC
2:44 · at the very latest and the conquest of
2:47 · Bactria by the Persian Empire in the 6th
2:49 · century, urban centers continued to
2:51 · exist, although nothing much is known of
2:53 · them for certain. The Persian period
2:55 · appears to have overseen a general
2:57 · flourishing of towns centered around
2:59 · intensive irrigation and the
3:01 · exploitation of local water resources,
3:04 · the key component of settled life in the
3:06 · region. In modern Usbekistsan, there are
3:08 · currently 25 known sites associated with
3:11 · the Persian era. And in Afghanistan,
3:13 · there are nine sites, including a
3:16 · Persian layer of the gigantic Balahhasar
3:18 · fortress. 33 other sites are known whose
3:22 · occupation appears to end at the start
3:23 · of the Greek period in 330 BC. Evidence
3:27 · perhaps of the devastation brought by
3:29 · Alexander's armies. We do not know if
3:32 · this level of urbanization was already
3:34 · present prior to Bactria's incorporation
3:36 · into the Persian Empire or if the
3:39 · Persians established urban centers and
3:41 · it led to a general resurgence in the
3:42 · region. But what is very clear is that
3:46 · the armies of Alexander did not enter a
3:48 · sparsely populated country.
3:51 · Bactria by this time was very wealthy
3:53 · and probably a major political and
3:56 · military center for the Persian Empire.
3:59 · Evidenced by the mighty Bactrian Satraps
4:01 · who supported Bessis, the usurper to the
4:04 · Persian throne after the death of Darius
4:06 · III and which supplied many soldiers to
4:09 · the Persian armies. Despite Alexander's
4:12 · devastation and the evident abandonment
4:14 · of Persian era sites, the prosperity of
4:17 · Bactria as a whole does not seem to have
4:19 · been overly affected. Our picture begins
4:22 · to change after Alexander's death when
4:25 · his empire was split among his
4:27 · successors and Bactria was incorporated
4:29 · into the Saluced Empire between 311 BC
4:34 · when Salucos the first occupied Babylon
4:36 · and founded the Saluced state and
4:39 · sometime in the 240s BC when Bactria
4:42 · declared its independence. The Salucids
4:45 · actively built up cities and military
4:47 · infrastructure. Perhaps not entirely
4:49 · surprising because Bactria was a
4:51 · frontier zone which faced nomads to the
4:53 · north and the Morian Empire in India to
4:56 · the south. The Saluced Empire functioned
4:58 · as a series of urbanized zones linked
5:00 · together via heavily militarized
5:02 · highways and roads with kingship being
5:05 · itinerary in nature. The Saluced kings
5:08 · depended heavily on local governors
5:10 · based in these urbanized regions in
5:12 · order to procure resources to feed their
5:14 · armies. But they attempted to create an
5:17 · ideology which although based on Persian
5:19 · and Greek foundations actually did away
5:22 · with Alexander the Great instead placing
5:25 · Salucos as both the herald of a new age
5:28 · and of a new calendar the use of which
5:31 · survived in the region for centuries.
5:33 · The military heartland of this new state
5:35 · was Iran and Bactria. And it is from
5:38 · those two regions that many soldiers and
5:40 · war elephants were recruited into
5:42 · Saluced armies. We do not know for
5:45 · certain if Alexander had mints
5:46 · constructed in Bactria after it was
5:48 · conquered, but the Saluced Empire,
5:50 · particularly under Salucas's son,
5:52 · Antiochus I did indeed establish mints
5:55 · in several cities, notably in Bactra.
5:58 · Antiochus founded at least three cities
6:01 · in Salucan Bactria. And although we
6:03 · don't know for certain if Greek
6:04 · colonists were brought into the region
6:06 · during Antiochus' reign, Greek
6:08 · architectural patterns began to be
6:10 · utilized. There is unfortunately a great
6:13 · deal about this particular era of the
6:15 · Saluced history that we don't know for
6:17 · certain due to what's called the 20-year
6:20 · gap. An era of approximately two decades
6:23 · when for the reign of Antiochus I
6:26 · bacteria appears to essentially lack
6:28 · sources. Despite that, we do know
6:31 · urbanization continued to flourish with
6:34 · 40 sites dating to the Salucan period in
6:36 · Afghanistan being known and a number of
6:39 · them being military installations like
6:41 · the fortress of Uzzandara and several of
6:44 · the famous Alexandrias like Alexandria
6:46 · Escate and Alexandria and Margiana being
6:50 · refounded as Antioch and Skyia and
6:53 · Antioch in Margiana respectively. The
6:56 · most important city, however, is the
6:58 · city of Ihanum. For a very long time,
7:02 · scholars of Greek Bactria spoke of
7:04 · something called the Bactrian Mirage,
7:07 · referring to limited references to the
7:09 · region in surviving textual sources and
7:11 · some sparse coin finds, but beyond which
7:14 · there appeared to be almost nothing
7:15 · surviving in the present day of this
7:17 · once prosperous, powerful land. We do
7:20 · not know the original name of Ihanum.
7:22 · Its current title is Usuzbck and it was
7:25 · almost discovered twice. First in 1838
7:28 · and then in 1926,
7:31 · but in the early 1960s, the king of
7:33 · Afghanistan, Muhammad Zahir Sha, spotted
7:37 · the outlines of what looked to be a city
7:39 · while on a hunting trip, and he brought
7:41 · in French archaeologists to excavate the
7:43 · city. What they found between 1964 and
7:47 · 1978 when excavations were halted due to
7:50 · a civil war was the first real solid
7:54 · evidence of a Greekstyle city in Bactria
7:57 · and essentially it shattered the
7:59 · Bactrian Mirage with walls reaching over
8:02 · 20 m in height and a citadel at one end
8:05 · of the city. Ian would have dominated
8:08 · the local landscape. It appears to have
8:10 · been rebuilt several times and in its
8:12 · final form, the main street stretched
8:14 · for over a kilometer and linked a
8:17 · Greekstyle amphitheater, an open air
8:19 · gymnasium, a palace, and several massive
8:22 · gates set into the walls. Perhaps most
8:26 · interesting of all was a temple based on
8:28 · Neareastern architecture, but housing a
8:31 · statue of the Greek god Zeus. Due to the
8:34 · lack of instantaneous communication and
8:36 · in spite of the universal ideology that
8:38 · was promoted by the Salucids and the
8:40 · standardization of coins, weights and
8:43 · measures which brought economic
8:45 · prosperity to the state, power relations
8:48 · between the ruling dynasty and the local
8:50 · potentates had to be constantly
8:53 · renegotiated with one of the end results
8:55 · here being the growth of warlordism
8:57 · along the frontiers of the Saluced
8:59 · Empire, notably in Bactria, coupled with
9:02 · a series of civil wars and power
9:04 · struggles which nearly brought the
9:06 · Salucans down. Bactria at some point
9:10 · declared independence.
9:12 · It's not known for certain when this
9:14 · was. What is known is that the governor
9:16 · of Bactria, Theodotos I issued silver
9:20 · coins ostensibly in the name of
9:22 · Antiochus II, but with his own image on
9:26 · one side of the coin and on the other
9:28 · rather than the seated Apollo featured
9:30 · on most saluced coins was an image of
9:34 · Zeus. In 247 BC, there appears to have
9:37 · been some sort of a rebellion in the
9:39 · region of Partha and the Parni, a tribe
9:42 · of nomadic warriors led by the king
9:44 · Orsakis, entered the province and
9:47 · expelled the rebellious governor,
9:48 · Andragorus.
9:50 · After this, Diodotus' son Diodto II
9:54 · began to present himself as a king and
9:57 · thus independent. But both Diodotos II
10:01 · and Arsakis were incorporated into the
10:03 · Salucan power structure in either 223 or
10:06 · 222 BC. Diodotos II was overthrown by a
10:11 · usurper named Ethidimos and Bactria was
10:14 · from that point on functionally
10:17 · independent. Independent Bactria faced
10:20 · dangers right away. First in the form of
10:22 · an attempt to reconquer the region by
10:24 · the Saluced King Antiochus III and then
10:27 · in the form of a civil war. The
10:30 · usurppation of Euthodmos is probably not
10:33 · an isolated event. The succession of
10:36 · Antiochus III was disputed and there
10:38 · were also rebellions in other parts of
10:40 · the Saluced Empire as well as a bloody
10:43 · war against the Tomies. In 209 BC,
10:46 · Antiochus III and his armies entered
10:48 · Bactria and they defeated a Bactrian
10:51 · army. It is with this that the cities of
10:54 · Bactria begin to take an interesting
10:56 · turn. Peace was declared between
10:58 · Euthodmos and Antiochus in 206 BC. After
11:01 · Antiochus failed to capture Batra, where
11:04 · Ethodimos had been based, Euthodimos was
11:07 · incorporated into the Salucan system as
11:09 · a governor who put down the rebellion of
11:10 · Diodo and his son. And in the aftermath
11:14 · of this piece, and in the aftermath of
11:17 · this peace, Ian became the major urban
11:20 · center that archaeologists typically
11:22 · know it as. That is to say, no longer as
11:25 · a military site, but a city in the
11:28 · proper sense. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom,
11:31 · ruled first by Euthodmos and his son
11:33 · Demetrius, fought wars of expansion and
11:36 · advanced the borders of Bactria south
11:38 · into India. A series of usurpations,
11:41 · civil conflicts, and expansionary wars
11:43 · did not halt the continued urbanization
11:45 · of Bactria. However, irrigation works
11:48 · appear to increase by 10 to 15% during
11:51 · the late 3rd and the early 2nd century
11:53 · BC in eastern Bactria, and a series of
11:57 · small forts were established along fors
11:59 · and passes. Outside of that, many of the
12:01 · existing sites seem to have continued to
12:03 · be inhabited, and a distinct Greek level
12:06 · is often lacking. The two exceptions are
12:09 · the site of Teepe Zaruron where a
12:12 · Corinthian and an ionic column have been
12:14 · discovered and the prehellenistic
12:16 · fortress known as Dilbergente
12:18 · which has a distinct Henistic era level
12:22 · along the northern border of Bactria.
12:24 · The archaeology tells us that there was
12:26 · a much more distinct Henistic presence
12:29 · with levels dating to that time being
12:31 · excavated in many towns and Pers sites
12:34 · being reoccupied. In particular, both
12:36 · salucid and Greco-Bactrian layers have
12:39 · been found at fortresses located near
12:41 · modern Durbent and at a fortress located
12:44 · at Camp Pierep in Usbekiststan.
12:46 · Greco-Bactrian construction during this
12:48 · time appears to have had primarily a
12:51 · military function along the northern
12:53 · zone. But then in the 2n century BC,
12:58 · disaster struck. Even by the standards
13:00 · of classical and ancient history,
13:04 · attempting to establish a narrative
13:06 · blowby-blow history of what happens next
13:08 · in Bactria is extraordinarily difficult.
13:12 · and what is called the nomadic intergnum
13:15 · saw the movement of the Yuzi and likely
13:18 · other nomadic groups as well into first
13:21 · the west and then the south of Bactria
13:24 · and then from there into India. First
13:27 · came the Saka who defeated Bactria's
13:29 · armies and destroyed several major
13:31 · cities including Ihanum. Then came the
13:35 · Yuzi, who defeated the Saka and
13:37 · established the Kushan Empire, a state
13:40 · whose beginning and ending, to say
13:42 · nothing of the date of its kings, have
13:44 · been constantly fiddled with and moved
13:46 · around for decades. Although Ianum and
13:49 · other major cities have been destroyed,
13:52 · the Kusan appear to have left most of
13:54 · them alone. And during the period of
13:57 · that empire, there is a very clear
13:59 · difference in the nature of urban sites.
14:02 · In eastern Bactria, we know of 133
14:05 · Henistic sites. And of those 133 sites,
14:10 · 116 of them show clear signs of Kusan
14:13 · period occupation, but only 59 of them
14:16 · were occupied for the entirety of the
14:18 · Kusan Empire. The city of Bactria was
14:21 · expanded and reconstructed and religious
14:24 · sanctuaries began to crop up all over
14:26 · Kushan Bactria including the sanctuary
14:29 · of Sir Kotal from which we have an
14:31 · inscription containing the genealogy of
14:33 · the greatest Kushan king Kiska the
14:36 · Great. It's not entirely clear when
14:39 · exactly Kaneska lived and the Sir Kotal
14:42 · inscription gives a possible start to
14:44 · his reign somewhere between 78 and 127.
14:49 · But many specialists now lean towards
14:51 · 127.
14:52 · However, what he is best known for is
14:55 · patronizing Buddhism and he presided
14:58 · over a Buddhist council held in Kashmir
15:01 · and officially changed the language of
15:03 · the Kusan Empire from Greek to Bactrian.
15:06 · In northern Bactria, the overall number
15:09 · of sites expanded drastically. Probably
15:12 · most important for the Kusan period, a
15:15 · small Greco-Bactrian military site was
15:17 · reconstructed.
15:19 · The citadel of this site doubled in size
15:22 · and a new wall enclosed significantly
15:24 · more territory, expanding the site from
15:27 · a military outpost to a city on par with
15:29 · the ruined Ihanum. This is the
15:32 · archaeological site of Turz defended by
15:35 · 13 towers and an extensive wall. Within
15:38 · the city is a platform and the remain of
15:40 · a structure which includes a Buddha
15:43 · leading archaeologists to interpret this
15:45 · as a Buddhist temple. But much of the
15:47 · surviving architecture is Greek in
15:50 · style. The Kusons evidently incorporated
15:53 · Greek art into their construction. And
15:56 · one of the best pieces of surviving
15:57 · Kushan era Greek artwork are the
16:00 · Kalchayan frescos which adorn a palace
16:03 · at the site of Kalchayanne located in
16:05 · modern-day Usuzbekiststan
16:07 · which includes scenes depicting Heracles
16:10 · and the Olympian gods. As another
16:12 · example, the village of Hada contains a
16:14 · Kushan era temple which is dedicated to
16:17 · the Buddha but whose artwork contained
16:20 · an image of Atlas, the Greek Titan
16:22 · holding up the sky. The Greeks were
16:25 · never a large population in Bactria
16:27 · despite the enormous influence they
16:28 · exerted on its culture, including the
16:31 · employment of Greco-Bactrian artists to
16:33 · create what we think is the first human
16:35 · depiction of the Buddha. And after the
16:38 · power of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was
16:40 · shattered, the small population was
16:43 · dependent upon Kusan patronage.
16:46 · But with the disintegration of the
16:47 · Kushan Empire in the late 370s when it
16:50 · was conquered by the Cisanians, Guptas
16:52 · and various groups from the step
16:54 · including first the Alcons and then the
16:56 · Heftalites they faded into the mist of
16:59 · time.
17:01 · Some of the cities of Bactria are
17:03 · inhabited to this day such as Balk known
17:06 · at one time as Bactra. Other cities
17:09 · continued to flourish and became
17:11 · impressive mercantile centers such as
17:13 · Samarkand whose history stretches back at
17:16 · least to the 7th century BC and which
17:19 · became the capital of Sogdia Bactria's
17:22 · neighboring province. Its ancient walls
17:24 · dating to the time of Alexander can
17:27 · still be visited today.
17:29 · Many of the other cities and towns,
17:31 · however, were destroyed or abandoned and
17:33 · never reoccupied
17:35 · after the end of the Greco-Bactrian
17:37 · period. Their ruins attest to a once
17:40 · thriving landscape, a kingdom at one and
17:43 · the same time part of the Hellenistic
17:45 · world and uniquely distinct. You can
17:48 · still visit these ruins today. Gigantic
17:51 · stretches of brick and stone spread
17:53 · across the central Asian landscape,
17:55 · washed in the light of the setting sun.
17:58 · And you too can trace the paths where
18:01 · the ghost of Alexander and his armies
18:04 · once walked.

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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00	·	In the second, 3rd or fourth century, a
0:04	·	Roman historian named Justin cut down
0:07	·	the universal history of Pompeus Trogus,
0:10	·	a contemporary of Augustus from six
0:13	·	books to one.
0:16	·	Justin's epitome of the Philippic
0:18	·	history of Pompeus Trogus is all that
0:20	·	survives of this once massive work. We
0:23	·	are fortunate that Justin chose to
0:25	·	preserve the section of Alexander the
0:27	·	Great, although not all of it because
0:30	·	despite being separated chronologically
0:33	·	by up to 7 or 800 years, if the latest
0:36	·	date for Justin is taken, the epitome is
0:40	·	one of our major sources for Alexander
0:42	·	the Great and the conquest of the
0:44	·	Persian Empire. Part of what survives is
0:47	·	Pompeus Trogus' description of what
0:49	·	archaeologists sometimes refer to as the
0:52	·	Hellenistic Far East, but which to
0:55	·	Romans and to Greeks was Bactria, the
0:59	·	land of a thousand cities. In 330 BC,
1:03	·	the armies of Alexander marched into
1:05	·	Bactria and for 3 years they fought to
1:08	·	conquer and subdue the region. In the
1:11	·	aftermath of the war and the marriage of
1:13	·	Alexander to Roxanne, the daughter of
1:16	·	Axiartes, one of the most powerful
1:19	·	Bactrian governors, Alexander settled
1:22	·	soldiers and founded cities in Bactria
1:25	·	with at least 10,000 infantry and 3,500
1:28	·	cavalry being left behind. These cities
1:31	·	were not however explicitly new features
1:34	·	of the Bactrian landscape bringing dense
1:37	·	population centers to a region which had
1:39	·	not known anything like it beforehand.
1:42	·	Urbanism on the contrary already had a
1:45	·	long history in Bactria although its
1:47	·	exact history is not known. Alexander
1:51	·	then founded cities in a land already
1:53	·	dotted with towns and cities of their
1:55	·	own. And when combined, Bactria appears
1:59	·	well deserving of its moniker as the
2:01	·	land of a thousand cities. Many of them
2:04	·	now, however, lay in ruins, and the
2:08	·	locations have all but vanished from
2:10	·	maps. Urbanism in Bactria goes back at a
2:14	·	minimum to approximately 2300 BC with
2:18	·	the development of the Bactria Margiana
2:20	·	archaeological complex otherwise known
2:23	·	as Bmac or the Oxis civilization named
2:27	·	after the Oxis River, a Bronze Age
2:29	·	archaeological culture based around
2:31	·	intensive irrigation and the
2:33	·	construction of urban centers, some of
2:35	·	which appear to have had populations
2:38	·	approaching 20 or 30,000 people. Between
2:41	·	the decline of the Bimac around 1600 BC
2:44	·	at the very latest and the conquest of
2:47	·	Bactria by the Persian Empire in the 6th
2:49	·	century, urban centers continued to
2:51	·	exist, although nothing much is known of
2:53	·	them for certain. The Persian period
2:55	·	appears to have overseen a general
2:57	·	flourishing of towns centered around
2:59	·	intensive irrigation and the
3:01	·	exploitation of local water resources,
3:04	·	the key component of settled life in the
3:06	·	region. In modern Usbekistsan, there are
3:08	·	currently 25 known sites associated with
3:11	·	the Persian era. And in Afghanistan,
3:13	·	there are nine sites, including a
3:16	·	Persian layer of the gigantic Balahhasar
3:18	·	fortress. 33 other sites are known whose
3:22	·	occupation appears to end at the start
3:23	·	of the Greek period in 330 BC. Evidence
3:27	·	perhaps of the devastation brought by
3:29	·	Alexander's armies. We do not know if
3:32	·	this level of urbanization was already
3:34	·	present prior to Bactria's incorporation
3:36	·	into the Persian Empire or if the
3:39	·	Persians established urban centers and
3:41	·	it led to a general resurgence in the
3:42	·	region. But what is very clear is that
3:46	·	the armies of Alexander did not enter a
3:48	·	sparsely populated country.
3:51	·	Bactria by this time was very wealthy
3:53	·	and probably a major political and
3:56	·	military center for the Persian Empire.
3:59	·	Evidenced by the mighty Bactrian Satraps
4:01	·	who supported Bessis, the usurper to the
4:04	·	Persian throne after the death of Darius
4:06	·	III and which supplied many soldiers to
4:09	·	the Persian armies. Despite Alexander's
4:12	·	devastation and the evident abandonment
4:14	·	of Persian era sites, the prosperity of
4:17	·	Bactria as a whole does not seem to have
4:19	·	been overly affected. Our picture begins
4:22	·	to change after Alexander's death when
4:25	·	his empire was split among his
4:27	·	successors and Bactria was incorporated
4:29	·	into the Saluced Empire between 311 BC
4:34	·	when Salucos the first occupied Babylon
4:36	·	and founded the Saluced state and
4:39	·	sometime in the 240s BC when Bactria
4:42	·	declared its independence. The Salucids
4:45	·	actively built up cities and military
4:47	·	infrastructure. Perhaps not entirely
4:49	·	surprising because Bactria was a
4:51	·	frontier zone which faced nomads to the
4:53	·	north and the Morian Empire in India to
4:56	·	the south. The Saluced Empire functioned
4:58	·	as a series of urbanized zones linked
5:00	·	together via heavily militarized
5:02	·	highways and roads with kingship being
5:05	·	itinerary in nature. The Saluced kings
5:08	·	depended heavily on local governors
5:10	·	based in these urbanized regions in
5:12	·	order to procure resources to feed their
5:14	·	armies. But they attempted to create an
5:17	·	ideology which although based on Persian
5:19	·	and Greek foundations actually did away
5:22	·	with Alexander the Great instead placing
5:25	·	Salucos as both the herald of a new age
5:28	·	and of a new calendar the use of which
5:31	·	survived in the region for centuries.
5:33	·	The military heartland of this new state
5:35	·	was Iran and Bactria. And it is from
5:38	·	those two regions that many soldiers and
5:40	·	war elephants were recruited into
5:42	·	Saluced armies. We do not know for
5:45	·	certain if Alexander had mints
5:46	·	constructed in Bactria after it was
5:48	·	conquered, but the Saluced Empire,
5:50	·	particularly under Salucas's son,
5:52	·	Antiochus I did indeed establish mints
5:55	·	in several cities, notably in Bactra.
5:58	·	Antiochus founded at least three cities
6:01	·	in Salucan Bactria. And although we
6:03	·	don't know for certain if Greek
6:04	·	colonists were brought into the region
6:06	·	during Antiochus' reign, Greek
6:08	·	architectural patterns began to be
6:10	·	utilized. There is unfortunately a great
6:13	·	deal about this particular era of the
6:15	·	Saluced history that we don't know for
6:17	·	certain due to what's called the 20-year
6:20	·	gap. An era of approximately two decades
6:23	·	when for the reign of Antiochus I
6:26	·	bacteria appears to essentially lack
6:28	·	sources. Despite that, we do know
6:31	·	urbanization continued to flourish with
6:34	·	40 sites dating to the Salucan period in
6:36	·	Afghanistan being known and a number of
6:39	·	them being military installations like
6:41	·	the fortress of Uzzandara and several of
6:44	·	the famous Alexandrias like Alexandria
6:46	·	Escate and Alexandria and Margiana being
6:50	·	refounded as Antioch and Skyia and
6:53	·	Antioch in Margiana respectively. The
6:56	·	most important city, however, is the
6:58	·	city of Ihanum. For a very long time,
7:02	·	scholars of Greek Bactria spoke of
7:04	·	something called the Bactrian Mirage,
7:07	·	referring to limited references to the
7:09	·	region in surviving textual sources and
7:11	·	some sparse coin finds, but beyond which
7:14	·	there appeared to be almost nothing
7:15	·	surviving in the present day of this
7:17	·	once prosperous, powerful land. We do
7:20	·	not know the original name of Ihanum.
7:22	·	Its current title is Usuzbck and it was
7:25	·	almost discovered twice. First in 1838
7:28	·	and then in 1926,
7:31	·	but in the early 1960s, the king of
7:33	·	Afghanistan, Muhammad Zahir Sha, spotted
7:37	·	the outlines of what looked to be a city
7:39	·	while on a hunting trip, and he brought
7:41	·	in French archaeologists to excavate the
7:43	·	city. What they found between 1964 and
7:47	·	1978 when excavations were halted due to
7:50	·	a civil war was the first real solid
7:54	·	evidence of a Greekstyle city in Bactria
7:57	·	and essentially it shattered the
7:59	·	Bactrian Mirage with walls reaching over
8:02	·	20 m in height and a citadel at one end
8:05	·	of the city. Ian would have dominated
8:08	·	the local landscape. It appears to have
8:10	·	been rebuilt several times and in its
8:12	·	final form, the main street stretched
8:14	·	for over a kilometer and linked a
8:17	·	Greekstyle amphitheater, an open air
8:19	·	gymnasium, a palace, and several massive
8:22	·	gates set into the walls. Perhaps most
8:26	·	interesting of all was a temple based on
8:28	·	Neareastern architecture, but housing a
8:31	·	statue of the Greek god Zeus. Due to the
8:34	·	lack of instantaneous communication and
8:36	·	in spite of the universal ideology that
8:38	·	was promoted by the Salucids and the
8:40	·	standardization of coins, weights and
8:43	·	measures which brought economic
8:45	·	prosperity to the state, power relations
8:48	·	between the ruling dynasty and the local
8:50	·	potentates had to be constantly
8:53	·	renegotiated with one of the end results
8:55	·	here being the growth of warlordism
8:57	·	along the frontiers of the Saluced
8:59	·	Empire, notably in Bactria, coupled with
9:02	·	a series of civil wars and power
9:04	·	struggles which nearly brought the
9:06	·	Salucans down. Bactria at some point
9:10	·	declared independence.
9:12	·	It's not known for certain when this
9:14	·	was. What is known is that the governor
9:16	·	of Bactria, Theodotos I issued silver
9:20	·	coins ostensibly in the name of
9:22	·	Antiochus II, but with his own image on
9:26	·	one side of the coin and on the other
9:28	·	rather than the seated Apollo featured
9:30	·	on most saluced coins was an image of
9:34	·	Zeus. In 247 BC, there appears to have
9:37	·	been some sort of a rebellion in the
9:39	·	region of Partha and the Parni, a tribe
9:42	·	of nomadic warriors led by the king
9:44	·	Orsakis, entered the province and
9:47	·	expelled the rebellious governor,
9:48	·	Andragorus.
9:50	·	After this, Diodotus' son Diodto II
9:54	·	began to present himself as a king and
9:57	·	thus independent. But both Diodotos II
10:01	·	and Arsakis were incorporated into the
10:03	·	Salucan power structure in either 223 or
10:06	·	222 BC. Diodotos II was overthrown by a
10:11	·	usurper named Ethidimos and Bactria was
10:14	·	from that point on functionally
10:17	·	independent. Independent Bactria faced
10:20	·	dangers right away. First in the form of
10:22	·	an attempt to reconquer the region by
10:24	·	the Saluced King Antiochus III and then
10:27	·	in the form of a civil war. The
10:30	·	usurppation of Euthodmos is probably not
10:33	·	an isolated event. The succession of
10:36	·	Antiochus III was disputed and there
10:38	·	were also rebellions in other parts of
10:40	·	the Saluced Empire as well as a bloody
10:43	·	war against the Tomies. In 209 BC,
10:46	·	Antiochus III and his armies entered
10:48	·	Bactria and they defeated a Bactrian
10:51	·	army. It is with this that the cities of
10:54	·	Bactria begin to take an interesting
10:56	·	turn. Peace was declared between
10:58	·	Euthodmos and Antiochus in 206 BC. After
11:01	·	Antiochus failed to capture Batra, where
11:04	·	Ethodimos had been based, Euthodimos was
11:07	·	incorporated into the Salucan system as
11:09	·	a governor who put down the rebellion of
11:10	·	Diodo and his son. And in the aftermath
11:14	·	of this piece, and in the aftermath of
11:17	·	this peace, Ian became the major urban
11:20	·	center that archaeologists typically
11:22	·	know it as. That is to say, no longer as
11:25	·	a military site, but a city in the
11:28	·	proper sense. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom,
11:31	·	ruled first by Euthodmos and his son
11:33	·	Demetrius, fought wars of expansion and
11:36	·	advanced the borders of Bactria south
11:38	·	into India. A series of usurpations,
11:41	·	civil conflicts, and expansionary wars
11:43	·	did not halt the continued urbanization
11:45	·	of Bactria. However, irrigation works
11:48	·	appear to increase by 10 to 15% during
11:51	·	the late 3rd and the early 2nd century
11:53	·	BC in eastern Bactria, and a series of
11:57	·	small forts were established along fors
11:59	·	and passes. Outside of that, many of the
12:01	·	existing sites seem to have continued to
12:03	·	be inhabited, and a distinct Greek level
12:06	·	is often lacking. The two exceptions are
12:09	·	the site of Teepe Zaruron where a
12:12	·	Corinthian and an ionic column have been
12:14	·	discovered and the prehellenistic
12:16	·	fortress known as Dilbergente
12:18	·	which has a distinct Henistic era level
12:22	·	along the northern border of Bactria.
12:24	·	The archaeology tells us that there was
12:26	·	a much more distinct Henistic presence
12:29	·	with levels dating to that time being
12:31	·	excavated in many towns and Pers sites
12:34	·	being reoccupied. In particular, both
12:36	·	salucid and Greco-Bactrian layers have
12:39	·	been found at fortresses located near
12:41	·	modern Durbent and at a fortress located
12:44	·	at Camp Pierep in Usbekiststan.
12:46	·	Greco-Bactrian construction during this
12:48	·	time appears to have had primarily a
12:51	·	military function along the northern
12:53	·	zone. But then in the 2n century BC,
12:58	·	disaster struck. Even by the standards
13:00	·	of classical and ancient history,
13:04	·	attempting to establish a narrative
13:06	·	blowby-blow history of what happens next
13:08	·	in Bactria is extraordinarily difficult.
13:12	·	and what is called the nomadic intergnum
13:15	·	saw the movement of the Yuzi and likely
13:18	·	other nomadic groups as well into first
13:21	·	the west and then the south of Bactria
13:24	·	and then from there into India. First
13:27	·	came the Saka who defeated Bactria's
13:29	·	armies and destroyed several major
13:31	·	cities including Ihanum. Then came the
13:35	·	Yuzi, who defeated the Saka and
13:37	·	established the Kushan Empire, a state
13:40	·	whose beginning and ending, to say
13:42	·	nothing of the date of its kings, have
13:44	·	been constantly fiddled with and moved
13:46	·	around for decades. Although Ianum and
13:49	·	other major cities have been destroyed,
13:52	·	the Kusan appear to have left most of
13:54	·	them alone. And during the period of
13:57	·	that empire, there is a very clear
13:59	·	difference in the nature of urban sites.
14:02	·	In eastern Bactria, we know of 133
14:05	·	Henistic sites. And of those 133 sites,
14:10	·	116 of them show clear signs of Kusan
14:13	·	period occupation, but only 59 of them
14:16	·	were occupied for the entirety of the
14:18	·	Kusan Empire. The city of Bactria was
14:21	·	expanded and reconstructed and religious
14:24	·	sanctuaries began to crop up all over
14:26	·	Kushan Bactria including the sanctuary
14:29	·	of Sir Kotal from which we have an
14:31	·	inscription containing the genealogy of
14:33	·	the greatest Kushan king Kiska the
14:36	·	Great. It's not entirely clear when
14:39	·	exactly Kaneska lived and the Sir Kotal
14:42	·	inscription gives a possible start to
14:44	·	his reign somewhere between 78 and 127.
14:49	·	But many specialists now lean towards
14:51	·	127.
14:52	·	However, what he is best known for is
14:55	·	patronizing Buddhism and he presided
14:58	·	over a Buddhist council held in Kashmir
15:01	·	and officially changed the language of
15:03	·	the Kusan Empire from Greek to Bactrian.
15:06	·	In northern Bactria, the overall number
15:09	·	of sites expanded drastically. Probably
15:12	·	most important for the Kusan period, a
15:15	·	small Greco-Bactrian military site was
15:17	·	reconstructed.
15:19	·	The citadel of this site doubled in size
15:22	·	and a new wall enclosed significantly
15:24	·	more territory, expanding the site from
15:27	·	a military outpost to a city on par with
15:29	·	the ruined Ihanum. This is the
15:32	·	archaeological site of Turz defended by
15:35	·	13 towers and an extensive wall. Within
15:38	·	the city is a platform and the remain of
15:40	·	a structure which includes a Buddha
15:43	·	leading archaeologists to interpret this
15:45	·	as a Buddhist temple. But much of the
15:47	·	surviving architecture is Greek in
15:50	·	style. The Kusons evidently incorporated
15:53	·	Greek art into their construction. And
15:56	·	one of the best pieces of surviving
15:57	·	Kushan era Greek artwork are the
16:00	·	Kalchayan frescos which adorn a palace
16:03	·	at the site of Kalchayanne located in
16:05	·	modern-day Usuzbekiststan
16:07	·	which includes scenes depicting Heracles
16:10	·	and the Olympian gods. As another
16:12	·	example, the village of Hada contains a
16:14	·	Kushan era temple which is dedicated to
16:17	·	the Buddha but whose artwork contained
16:20	·	an image of Atlas, the Greek Titan
16:22	·	holding up the sky. The Greeks were
16:25	·	never a large population in Bactria
16:27	·	despite the enormous influence they
16:28	·	exerted on its culture, including the
16:31	·	employment of Greco-Bactrian artists to
16:33	·	create what we think is the first human
16:35	·	depiction of the Buddha. And after the
16:38	·	power of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was
16:40	·	shattered, the small population was
16:43	·	dependent upon Kusan patronage.
16:46	·	But with the disintegration of the
16:47	·	Kushan Empire in the late 370s when it
16:50	·	was conquered by the Cisanians, Guptas
16:52	·	and various groups from the step
16:54	·	including first the Alcons and then the
16:56	·	Heftalites they faded into the mist of
16:59	·	time.
17:01	·	Some of the cities of Bactria are
17:03	·	inhabited to this day such as Balk known
17:06	·	at one time as Bactra. Other cities
17:09	·	continued to flourish and became
17:11	·	impressive mercantile centers such as
17:13	·	Samarkand whose history stretches back at
17:16	·	least to the 7th century BC and which
17:19	·	became the capital of Sogdia Bactria's
17:22	·	neighboring province. Its ancient walls
17:24	·	dating to the time of Alexander can
17:27	·	still be visited today.
17:29	·	Many of the other cities and towns,
17:31	·	however, were destroyed or abandoned and
17:33	·	never reoccupied
17:35	·	after the end of the Greco-Bactrian
17:37	·	period. Their ruins attest to a once
17:40	·	thriving landscape, a kingdom at one and
17:43	·	the same time part of the Hellenistic
17:45	·	world and uniquely distinct. You can
17:48	·	still visit these ruins today. Gigantic
17:51	·	stretches of brick and stone spread
17:53	·	across the central Asian landscape,
17:55	·	washed in the light of the setting sun.
17:58	·	And you too can trace the paths where
18:01	·	the ghost of Alexander and his armies
18:04	·	once walked.