Major Tod's Account of Greek, PartJiian, mid Hindu Medals. 317 



terms with him ; and, for the price of 500 elephants, to leave him in un- 

 disturbed possession, and even to recognize his sovereignty. 



The other provinces, first mentioned, remained attached to the Syro- 

 Macedonian kingdom, until the third prhice in descent from the founder ; 

 when Bactria, from a dependency of the SeleucidiE, was erected into a 

 kingdom, by the revolt of Theodotus, the governor from Antiochus* Theos, 

 while this monarch was engaged in a war with Ptolemy Philadelphus, king 

 of Egypt. 



That event occurred in the 58th t year of the Seleucidse, the first of the 

 Bactrian era, and %5Q years before Christ. This minor Greek monarchy 

 lasted 122 years, when it was overthrown by an irruption of the same Getic, 

 Jit, or Scythic tribes,t which destroyed Cyrus and his host. They were 

 the people of that country where Alexander was wounded§, and where he 

 built the most northern of his Alexandrias, on the site of Cyropolis ; a spot, 

 perhaps, now answering to Kojend, on the Jaxartes, which river is the Sirr, 

 or Sihun, of the Persians ; also called Araxes and Orxantes, || by the Greek 

 geographers ; most probably the Arverna of the Hindu Purans, the Silis of 

 the " Carte des marches d' Alexandre :"^ that word is of Sanscrit origin, 

 implying a mountain** stream, from having its fountains in the grand range 

 of the Himalaya. 



It is scarcely feasible to assign precise limits to the Bactrian kingdom, 

 for Bactria itself was soon overstept ; and what might be termed the 

 Bactrian kingdom at the period of the revolt, comprehended Sogdia as well 

 as the province of Bactria, which had the Oxus, or Jihiin.tt as its northern 

 boundary. The kingdom of Theodotus, therefore, included all Trans- 

 oxiana, or the Do-ab of the Oxus and Jaxartes, or Mawer-ul-Nehr of the 

 Persians ; and to the south, the Parapamisan range. To the west it was 

 kept in check by its alternate rival and ally, the Arsacidae of Parthia; 



* Anc. Univ. Hist., vol. iii. page 846. 

 t Historiae Regni Graecorura Bactriani, page 38. — Bayer. 

 % The Asi, or Aspii, the Tochari, and Getic Sacse. 

 § Arrian, cliap. iii. 



II Arrian, book iii, quoting Aristobolus. 

 % St. Croix. 



** Silisi, a mountain stream ; from Sil, a roclc. Hence Saila, the personified appellation of 

 Hemachal : wlience Saili, his daughter, one of tlie names of the river goddess, Ganga. 



tt One of tlie rivers of Paradise, according to Marco Polo Sec Marsden's Edition. 



2 T 2 



