Hellenism In the East: Indo-Greeks & The Thousand Cities of Bactria

in the 3rd century BC Antiochus ii the king of the Seleucid Empire one of the successor states to Alexander the Great ruled over one of the largest and most powerful states in the world from his power base at Antioch in modern-day south-central Turkey Antiochus ruled over a huge state encompassing a vast geographical landmass just a century earlier the young king of macedonia Alexander had set out from his home and at the head of a mighty battle-hardened Greek army and conquered much of the known world carving out the largest empire the world had ever known from the ashes of the Achaemenid Persian States upon his death in 3 to 3 BC his realm remained largely Hellenized but split into several factions divided amongst his generals most notably Seleucia s-- in Syria and / Ptolemy in Egypt whose descendants fairly quickly began to war amongst themselves in around to 46 BC two of the satraps of the eastern most cellular provinces and rougarous of parthia and died auditors of Bactria both broke away and declared their independence parthia which consisted of much of modern-day Iraq and was ruled over by a native Iranian satiric stood between the vast realm of the Celje sits in Syria and bactria which in turn encompassed much of modern-day Afghanistan and areas of Pakistan and was ruled by Greek monarchs who still worshipped the pantheon of Greek gods it was a bold decision by day auditors whose realm was now completely cut off by the rest of the Greek world by they're mostly Iranian parthia and in turn it must have been a crushing blow to the Seleucids who were powerless to act heavily embroiled in a brutal war against the Ptolemaic Egypt died auditors undoubtedly had his reasons however the new greco-bactrian kingdom was highly urbanized widely considered to be one of the richest kingdoms in the world it was known by the historian Justin as the extremely prosperous Empire of the thousand cities of Bactria very little evidence remains the early life of day auditors besides that he was the satrap or governor of the celeea SCID provinces of Bactria sogdiana and likely the surrounding provinces as well like all of the ruling elites of Bactria we know that he wrote in Greek spoke Greek and presented himself in official documents and coinage as a Greek we can surmise that he was probably descended from a prestigious family who had set themselves up in Bactria at some point after Alexander's conquest of the area just over 100 years before he likely ruled over a population native to the area who were gradually becoming more and more Hellenized over time after subduing the local populations of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan Alexander built hundreds of cities in the Fertile river valleys he found there in the East many of which he named after himself and in time these cities grew rich and prosperous due to trade and the close proximity to India by the time died auditors came to rule over Bactria sogdiana and the easternmost Greek provinces from his provincial capital AB ACTRA origin had ruled over the majority of people living between the borders of Greece and India for nearly a century in addition to this curious state of affairs the old homelands in Greece and Asia Minor had since reverted back to being ruled again by various warring city-states which in reality had little to do with the East instead the major powers of the day would potala Mayock egypt to the south and Seleucia to the east now ruled by the descendants of Alexander's generals situated on the rich trade routes between east and west Bactria was an immensely wealthy part of the cell estate empire by the time the auditors came to work nevertheless he lightly resented the centralized rule who was subjected to from halfway across the world especially when Bactria was one of the most prosperous parts of the empire and he increasingly sought to dictate his own destiny likewise and dragged arrests of parthia sought to proclaim his own independence in the to probably formed an alliance to do so season the best opportunity that arose in the form of a brutal war between Egypt and Seleucia in 247 BC Ptolemaic Egypt captured the Seleucid capital at Antioch during the cataclysmic conflict known as the Syrian wars in the immediate aftermath a number of the Seleucid provinces declared their independence they Auditors his realm was so far away that at first he didn't really have to do much to declare himself independent between his realm and the Seleucids they vast swathe of lands to be conquered first specifically the realm of and regress of parthia although parthia was still friendly for now and trade continued a lower - slightly reduced raids overland and increasingly by sea mostly with egypt this decision effectively cut off bacteria from the rest of the Greek world nevertheless there was always the risk of the resurgence of celeea said power to contend with which did in fact occur just under a decade later in 239 BC when the new king cell uses the second attempted to reclaim his easternmost lands parthia also became a threat when the parney people nomadic tribes none likely from modern-day Turkmenistan led by our psyches pushed southwards and overthrew and regards proclaiming themselves as kings of the region and founding the state which would later go on to be one of the greatest enemies of Rome faced by the new unknown quantity of Parthia on his doorstep in the known enemy of Seleucia further beyond the auditors utilized masterful diplomacy to align himself with Seleucia against our turkeys his newly formed state by auditors his successor notice the second were later in turn to the exact opposite and align himself with our Serkis against the Seleucids in order to forestall the reconquest of both of their kingdoms biologist ii was in turn overthrown by one of his own subjects a magnesium greek named youth Adiemus in around 225 BC who began to rule over his own dynasty in the region again the Seleucids attempted to reclaim bacteria in around 210 this time under Antiochus the third defeating ten thousand horsemen in open battle and besieging the capital at back to earth for three weeks before Antiochus finally accepted youth ed immerse and allied himself to him possibly recognising his skill in defeating numerous invasions from nomadic warriors and acting as a defense from invasion for his own lands the greco-bactrian kingdom was certainly very powerful and throughout his existence was engaged in territorial expansion to the east and to the west most notably so from the reign of youth Adamas onwards when the threat from Seleucia dissipated they became masters of at least a small part of india to the east the supposedly more tribes being subdued by them than by alexander himself this eastward expansion even splintered into its own independent state from alarm to 180 BC which we know today is the indo-greek kingdom the greco-bactrian forged trade contacts with the Han Empire in China fought off waves of nomadic invasions from the steppe lands to the north and prospered for hundreds of years until finally two centuries of continual rule both kingdoms were finally stamped out of existence by nomadic tribes by around ten ad Afghanistan today is still littered with the remnants of this unusual end clave of Greek culture which had prospered largely cut off from the rest of the Greek world for Central's as the last vestige of Hellenism in the east [Music] [Music]

Channel: History Time

Views: 138,854

Keywords: iMovie, indo greeks, greco bactrians, greeks, hellenism, seleucids, greek, history, alexander the great, bactria, thousand cities of bactria, antiochus, diodotus, historytime, history time, indo greek kingdom

Id: aAb7wF5bEnM

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2017