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Some individuals and events mentioned in this chapter:
Alexander the Great
The Encyclopedia Britannica entry
Bessus
Bessus, also known by his throne name of Artaxerxes V; died summer 329 BC, was
a Persian satrap of the eastern Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, as well as the
self-proclaimed King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 330 to 329 BC. A
member of the ruling Achaemenid dynasty, Bessus came to power shortly after
killing the legitimate Achaemenid ruler Darius III (r. 336–330 BC), and
subsequently attempted to hold the eastern part of the empire against the
Macedonian king Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC). His realm quickly
started to fall apart, including Bactria, which was the main center. Fleeing
into Sogdia, he was arrested by his own officers, who handed him over to
Alexander, who had him executed at Ecbatana.
Satibarzanes
Satibarzanes (died 330 BC), a Persian, was satrap of Aria under Darius III,
king of Persia. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great, marching through the borders of
Aria on his way from Hyrcania against the Parthians, was met at a city named
Susia by Satibarzanes, who made submission to him, and was rewarded for it by
the restoration of his satrapy. In order to prevent the commission of any
hostilities against the Arians by the Macedonian troops which were following
from the west, Alexander left behind with Satibarzanes forty horse-dartmen,
under the command of Anaxippus. These, however, together with their commander,
were soon after murdered by the satrap, who excited the Arians to rebellion,
and gathered his forces together at the city of Artacoana.
Spitamenes
Spitamenes (370 BC – 328 BC) was a Sogdian warlord and the leader of the
uprising in Sogdiana and Bactria against Alexander the Great, King of Macedon,
in 329 BC. He has been credited by modern historians as one of the most
tenacious adversaries of Alexander. The decisive point came in December 328 BC
when Spitamenes was defeated by Alexander's general Coenus at the Battle of
Gabai. Spitamenes was killed by some treacherous nomadic tribes' leaders and
they sent his head to Alexander, suing for peace. Spitamenes had a daughter,
Apama, who was married to one of Alexander's most important generals and an
eventual Diadochi, Seleucus I Nicator (February 324 BC). The couple had a son,
Antiochus I Soter, a future ruler of the Seleucid Empire.
Soghdiana
Sogdia or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization in present-day
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a
province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of
Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder
of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler
Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the
Seleucid Empire, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Kushan Empire, Hephthalite Empire, and
Sasanian Empire.
Hindu KushThe Hindu Kush
is an 800-kilometre-long (500 mi) mountain range in Central and South Asia to
the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan
into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan.
Drangiana
Drangiana or Zarangiana - Drangiane; was a historical region and administrative
division of the Achaemenid Empire. This region comprises territory around Hamun
Lake, wetlands in endorheic Sistan Basin on the Iran-Afghan border, and its
primary watershed Helmand river in what is nowadays southwestern region of
Afghanistan.
Balkh Balkh was historically
an ancient place of religions, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and one of the
wealthiest and largest cities of Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history.
The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa and to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra,
giving its name to Bactria (Greeks called the city also Zariaspa).
Bactria
Bactria or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia. Bactria proper was
north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and south of the Oxus river (modern Amu
Darya), covering Afghanistan. More broadly, Bactria was the area which was
located north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Tian Shan,
covering modern-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well, with the Amu Darya
flowing west through the centre.
Gedrosia
Gedrosia is the Hellenized name of the part of coastal Balochistan that roughly
corresponds to today's Makran. In books about Alexander the Great and his
successors, the area referred to as Gedrosia runs from the Indus River to the
north-eastern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. It is directly to the south of the
countries of Bactria, Arachosia and Drangiana, to the east of the country of
Carmania and due west of the Indus River which formed a natural boundary
between it and Western India. The native name of Gedrosia might have been
Gwadar as there are two towns by that name and a bay (Gwadar Bay) in central
Makran. It, along with Saurashtra, was an important part of the Maurya Empire
of ancient India.
Arachosia|
Arachosia is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy that existed in the
eastern parts of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian and
Indo-Scythian empires. It was centred around the valley of the Arghandab River
in modern-day southern Afghanistan, although its influence extended as far east
as the Indus River. The Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River, was
known as the Arachotós during this period. The Greek-language term
"Arachosia" corresponds to the Aryan land of Harauti, which was
situated around modern-day Helmand. The capital of Arachosia was
Alexandropolis, an ancient city that is now known as Kandahar.
Sistan
Sistan, known in ancient times as Sakastan,( the land of the Saka"), is a
historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran (Sistan and
Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan (Nimruz, Helmand, Kandahar).
Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand River, the largest river
in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that forms part of the border
between the two countries.
Khawak Pass
Thd pass over the Hindu Kush north of Kabul
Battle of
Jaxartes - There is a diagram in the book.
The Battle of Jaxartes was a battle fought in 329 BC by Alexander the Great and
his Hellenic (Greek) army against the Saka at the River Jaxartes, now known as
the Syr Darya River. The site of the battle straddles the modern borders of
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, just south-west of the
ancient city of Tashkent (the modern capital of Uzbekistan) and north-east of
Khujand (a city in Tajikistan).
Maracanda
The ancient name for Samarkand, Along with Bukhara, Samarkand is one of the
oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia, prospering from its location on the
trade route between China and Europe. There is no direct evidence of when it
was founded. Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the
city's founding to the 8th–7th centuries BCE. Archaeological excavations
conducted within the city limits (Syob and midtown) as well as suburban areas
(Hojamazgil, Sazag'on) unearthed 40,000-year-old evidence of human activity,
dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. A group of Mesolithic (12th–7th
millennia BCE) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of
Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om canals, supplying
the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries
BCE (early Iron Age). From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main
centres of Sogdian civilization. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of
Persia, the city had become the capital of the Sogdian satrapy
Afrasiyab
Afrasiyab an ancient site of Northern Samarkand, present day Uzbekistan, that
was occupied from c. 500 BC to 1220 AD prior to the Mongol invasion in the 13th
century. The oldest layers date from the middle of the first millennium BC.
Today, it is a hilly grass mound located near the Bibi Khanaum Mosque.
Excavations uncovered the now famous Afrasiab frescoes exposed in the Afrasiab
Museum of Samarkand, located next to the archaeological site. (I visited the
site in 1964 and gave the archeologist Kodak film)
Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of
Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan (Nangarhar Province). It connects the
town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by traversing part of
the Spin Ghar mountains. Since it was part of the ancient Silk Road, it has
been a vital trade route between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent and a
strategic military choke point for various states that controlled it. Following
Asian Highway 1 (AH1), the summit of the pass at Landi Kotal is five kilometres
(three miles) inside Pakistan, descending 460 m (1,510 ft) to Jamrud, about 30
km (19 mi) from the Afghan border. The inhabitants of the area are
predominantly from the Afridi and Shinwari tribes of Pashtuns.
Assakenian
The Asvaka, also known as the Ashvakan, Asvakayana, or Asvayana and sometimes
Latinised as Assacenii, Assacani, or Aspasioi, were a people who lived in what
is now eastern Afghanistan and the Peshawar Valley in present-day Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The region in which they lived was also called Asvaka.
According to some scholars, the name Asvakan or Aspasioi is preserved in the
modern ethnonym Afghan (historically used for Pashtuns; also used in
Afghanistan), and the tribal name Esapzai (whose Arabized form is Yusufzai).
The ethnonym Afghan (Pashto/Persian) has been used historically to refer to a
member of the Pashtuns. Ancient Greek historians who documented the exploits of
Alexander the Great refer to the Aspasioi and Assakenoi tribes among his
opponents. The historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar has said that these words are
probably corruptions of Asvak.a It is possible that the corruption of the names
occurred due to regional differences in pronunciation. Rama Shankar Tripathi
thinks it possible that the Assakenoi were either allied to or a branch of the
Aspasioi. The Greeks recorded the two groups as inhabiting different areas,
with the Aspasioi in either the Alishang or Kunar Valley and the Assakenoi in
the Swat Valley.
Swat princely
state
The Swat region has been inhabited for more than two thousand years and was
known in ancient times as Udyana. The location of Swat made it an important
stopping point for many invaders, including Alexander the Great and Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazni. In the second century BCE, Swat formed part of the Buddhist
civilisation of Gandhara. The Yousafzai State of Swat locally called as Dera
Yusufzai) was a kingdom established in 1849 that was ruled by chiefs known as
Akhunds. It was then recognized as a princely state in alliance with the
British Indian Empire between 1926 and 1947, after which the Akhwand acceded to
the newly independent state of Pakistan. Swat continued to exist as an
autonomous region until it was dissolved in 1969, and incorporated into Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Province (formerly called NWFP). The area it covered is now divided
between the present-day districts of Swat, Dir, Buner and Shangla.
Swat District
See also Gandhara. In 305 BCE, the Mauryan Emperor conquered the wider region
from the Greeks, and probably established control of Swat, until their control
of the region ceased around 187 BCE. It was during the rule of the Mauryan
emperor Ashoka that Buddhism was introduced into Swat, and some of the earliest
stupas built in the region. Following collapse of Mauryan rule, Swat came under
control of the Greco-Bactrians, and briefly the Scythians of the Central Asian
Steppe.
Aornos
Aornos was the Ancient Greek name for the site of Alexander the Great's last
siege, (IT WAS NOT his last siege) which took place on April 326 BC, at a
mountain site located in modern Pakistan. Aornos offered the last threat to
Alexander's supply line, which stretched, dangerously vulnerable, over the
Hindu Kush back to Balkh, though Arrian (although disbelieving himself of this
story) credits Alexander's desire to outdo his kinsman Heracles, who allegedly
had proved unable to take a fort that the Macedonians called Aornos (according
to Arrian and Diodorus; Aornis according to Curtius; elsewhere Aornus): meaning
"birdless" in Greek. According to one theory, the name is a
corruption of an Indo-Iranian word, such as *awarana "fortified
place". According to Arrian, the rock had a flat summit well-supplied with
natural springs and wide enough to grow crops: it could not be starved into
submission. Neighboring tribesmen who surrendered to Alexander offered to lead
him to the best point of access.
Sir Aurel Stein Archeologist
and explorer in northwest India and Central Asia who located Aoros on Pir Sar
mountain. He published his findings in On Alexander's Track to the
Indus.
Taxila
Taxila was an important city of Ancient India, situated at the pivotal junction
of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia, on the eastern shore of the Indus
river. Its origins go back to c. 600 BCE. Some ruins at Taxila date to the time
of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, followed successively by the
Mauryan Empire, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, and Kushan Empire periods. During
his invasion of the Indus Valley, Alexander the Great was able to gain control
of Taxila in 326 BCE without a battle, as the city was surrendered by its
ruler, king Omphis (Ambhi). Greek historians accompanying Alexander described
Taxila as "wealthy, prosperous, and well governed". Arrian writes
that Alexander was welcomed by the citizens of the city, and he offered
sacrifices and celebrated a gymnastic and equestrian contest there.
Battle of the
Hydaspes
Alxander's defeate of Porus
Indian
campaign of Alexander the Great The article is comprenensive.
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