Posted on 02/01/2007 2:37:09 PM PST by blam
The bling from "Alexander's Rag Time Band"
amazing..
4 syllables.. the "N" a "th", the "H" as vowel "E", and what appears to be a null or zero as an "N".. ( And of course, the "A" at beginning and end..
Getting back to the "null", a circle with a slash through the middle..
Although used in a phonetic setting, I wonder how this relates to mathematics and the use of the zero in historical terms..
Was it already recognized at the time of Alexander??
Was it still an Indian concept ?? Hindu ??
Just curious...
The city name Iskandariyya means Alexander was there........
Seems that while zero was sort of used in that period, it wouldn't be until 5th or 6th century that it would be used in the modern context..
Guess my great insight was not so revelatory after all..
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That's just the lower-case form of the Greek letter, 'theta'.
And read it the other way, right to left.
Just finishing up "The Virtues of War", a novel about Alexander's exploits, by Steven Pressfield. Fascinating read.
Alexander overran the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BCE and marched into present-day Afghanistan with an army of 50,000. His scribes do not record the names of the rulers of the Gandhara or Kamboja; rather, they locate a dozen small political units in those territories. This rules out the possibility of Gandhara and/or Kamboja having been great kingdoms in the late 4th century BCE. In 326 BCE, most of the dozen-odd political units of the former Gandhara/Kamboja fell to Alexander's forces.
Alexander invited all the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara to submit to his authority. Ambhi, ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes (Jhelum), complied. After confirming him in his satrapy, Alexander marched against the Kamboja highlanders of the Kunar and Swat valleys (known in Greek texts as Aspasios and Assakenois and in Indian texts as Ashvayana and Ashvakayana) who had refused to submit to him. The Ashvayan, Ashvakayan, Kamboja and allied Saka clans offered tough resistance to the invader and even the Ashvakayan women took up arms, preferring "a glorious death to a life of dishonor".
In a letter to his mother, Alexander described his encounters with these trans-Indus tribes:
"I am involved in the land of a leonine and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a well of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander”.
Alexander then marched east to the Hydaspes, where Porus, ruler of the kingdom between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and the Akesines (Chenab) refused to submit to him. The two armies fought the Battle of the Hydaspes River outside the town of Nikaia (near the modern city of Jhelum). Porus's army was defeated and when Alexander inquired of Porus, "How should I treat you?", the brave Porus reputedly shot back, "The way a king treats another king." Alexander was struck by his spirit. He not only returned the conquered kingdom to Porus, but added the land lying between the Akesines (Chenab) and the Hydraotis (Ravi).
Alexander's army crossed the Hydraotis and marched east to the Hesidros (Beas), but there his troops refused to march further east, and Alexander turned back, following the Jhelum and the Indus to the Arabian Sea, and sailing to Babylon.
Indo-Greek kingdom
Alexander established two cities in the Punjab, where he settled people from his multi-national armies, which included a majority of Greeks and Macedonians. These Indo-Greek cities and their associated kingdoms thrived long after Alexander's departure. After Alexander's death, the eastern portion of his empire (from present-day Syria to Punjab) was inherited by Seleucus I Nicator, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty. However, this empire was disrupted by the ascendancy of the Bactrians. The Bactrian king Demetrius I added the Punjab to his Kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. Many of the Indo-Greeks were Buddhists. The best known of the Indo-Greek kings was Menander I, known in India as Milinda, who established an independent kingdom centered at Taxila around 160 BCE. He later moved his capital to Sagala (modern Sialkot).
Thanks..
Makes more sense now..
Obviously, it's all greek to me, and dyslexic besides..
ping to photo in post #2
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