CHAPTER   IV

GREEK AND SEMI-GREEK DYNASTIES OF
THE  PANJAB

"The grete Emetreus, the king of Inde."

Knight's Tale, 2156.

The ancient city of Baktra (Bdkhtri or Bdkhdhi
in old Persian, the modern Balkh), like Con¬
stantinople or Alexandria, v^as destined by its
geographical position to play a leading part in
the history of the v^orld. On the land^^ard side,
it was the key to India. At its gates converged
almost all the great trade-routes of central Asia.
First, there v^ere the famous " three roads to
Baktria^," running through Afghanistan and con¬
verging at Balkh. Then there was the road
through Kashgar to the Stone Tower of Sarikol,
by which the silk-traders brought their goods.
Lastly, there were the two great highways to the
West, the waterway of the Oxus, and the caravan
road through Parthia to Antioch.

Balkh had been, for countless years, a Skythian
settlement  before  the  coming  of  the   Iranians.

1 Tj €19 BttKTpiavT^v Tpioho<;.   Strabo, XV. 2. 8.    See Bunbury,
Hist. Anc. Geog. pp. 486-7.