742 Lassen on the History traced [No. 104. 



people of equestrian habits in Turan. They appear the fore- 

 most in the series of invading hordes. 



The great inroad of these nations is noticed in two passages. 

 Prolog. Trog. Pompei xli . ^' Deinde quo repugnante Scythiae 

 gentes Sarancse et Asiani Bactra occupavere, et Sogdianos.'^ 

 Strabo xi. § 2. " MaXi(7ra ^\ yv^pifxoi ysyovaai t(ov vo/uLa^tJv oi 

 TOvq''FiWr)vag a(j>s\6/j.ivoi ttjv Bafcr/oiavrjv,' Afftoi, Kai llatriavot, 

 Kal To^apoi, KOL ^aKapavXoi, Kai opjULYidhreg airo ttjc irepaiag 

 Tov *la^apTOv, Trig Kara Safcac Kol So-ySiavouc, VV Karuyov 



aKai, ^ 



If I now maintain, notwithstanding this latter passage, that it 

 was not these Scythians, but the Parthians, who destroyed the 

 Grecian empire in Bactria, the reasons are quite evident. The 

 Scythians could not conquer it during the reign of Mithridates, 

 and when they took possession of Bactria, the country was no 

 longer under the dominion of the Greeks, but of the Parthians, 

 as the irruption of the Scythians happened at the death of Phra- 

 hates, about 126 b. c. 



Of the four nations mentioned by Strabo, we know nothing 

 of the Pasians ; the Sakaraules seem to have been a separated 

 tribe of the Saces ; the Tochares received their kings out of the 

 nation of the Asianes. (Trog. Pomp-prolog, xlii. " Additaeres 

 Scythicae, Reges Thocharorum Asiani, interitusque Sarducha- 

 rum.)^^ 



We have then more particularly to deal with two nations, 

 with the Saces and Tochares. 



The gradual progress of these nomads over eastern Iran, can 

 be traced in the Parthian history; having been taken into pay by 

 Phrahates against Antiochus of Sida, they arrived too late. As now 

 they received no compensation whatever, and they were led against 

 no foe, they commenced plundering the Parthian provinces, and 

 Phrahates fell in a battle against them, 126 b. c. (Justin xlii. 1.) 

 This year is the real date of the Scythian inroad. The next 

 king of the Parthians, Artaban, ii. (Arsaces viii) we find 

 again engaged with the Tochares, and dying of a wound receiv- 



* The following words icai tCov Aawv /c. r. X. does evidently not 

 further refer to this subject. 



