Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/382

 364 BACTBIANA. m rpa^ Stepli. B.; Bactra, Curt Tii. 4; Plin. tL 15; Virg. Georg. ii. 138 ; Bactrum, Plin. vL 16), was one of the diief towns, if not the capital, of the pro- vince of Bactiiana. It was one of the oldest cides in the world; and the medem JSoZM, which is be- lieved to occupy its site (Bnmes, Bokhdra^ vol. i. p. 237), is still called bj the Orientals 0mm' ttUbeldd, or " the mother of cities." There has been some doubt, both in ancient and modem times, with re- gard to Uie name. Stmbo (zi. p. 513) and Plinj (vi 16) evidently considered that Bactra and Ziu riaspa were one and the same. Arrian (iv. 7, 22) distinguishes between the two, though he does not definitely state their relative positions. Pliny (/. c.) adds that the appellation of Bactnun was derived from the river on which the town was situated; though this view, too, has been questioned. [Bao TRUS.] Cnrtius (vii. 4) places it on the Bactrus, in a phun below the Paropamisan range. Ptolemy (vi. 11. § 9) merely states that it was on the banks of a river, without giving any name to the stream. Alexander the Great appears to have passed the winter cf b. C. 328 — 327 there, on his return from Scgdiana, as, early in the following spring, he com- menced his invasion of the Panjib. (Arrian, iv. 22 ; Diod. xvii. 83; Curt. vii. 5, 10.) Bumes speaks in the highest terms of the accuracy of the Boman his- torian. ^ The language of the most graphic writer," says he, "could not delineate this countiy with greater exactness than Quintus Curtius has done." {Bokhara^ vol. i.p. 245.) At present, Balkh is about 6 miles from the mountains, and the river does not actually pass its walls. Heeren {AaiaL Nat. vol. iL p. 29) has dwelt at considerable length on the natural and commercial advantages of the position of Bactra and of its neighbourhood ; and has shown that, from very early times, it was one of the great commercial entrepdts of Eastern Asia. (Bumes, Bokhdra, vols, i. and ii.; Wilson, AHanaf Heeren, AnaL NaL vol. ii.) [V.] BACTRIA'NA (^ Bojrrpiai^, Strab. xi. p. 511, &c.; Steph. B.; Curt. vi. 6, vii. 4, &c; Ptol. vi. 11. § l;^Plin. vL 16, &c.), an extensive province, ac- cording to Strabo (xi. p. 516) the principal part of Ariana, which was separated from Sogdiana on the N. and NE. by the Oxus, from Aria on the S. by the chain of the Paropamisus, and on the W. from Margiana by a desert region. It was a countiy very various in character, as has been well shown by Cur- tius (vi.7), whose description is fully corroborated by Bumes {Bokh&raj vol. i. p. 245), who found it much as the Boman historian had remarked. It was for the most part a mountainous district, containing, however, occasional steppes and tracts c^ sand ; it was thickly peopled, and sJong the many small streams by which it was intersected the land appears to have been well watered, and consequently highly cultivated and very fertile. Its exact limits cannot be settled, but it is, however, generally agreed that, after leav* ing the Paropamisan mountains, we come to Bactria; though it is not clear how &r the mountain land ex- tends. Prof. Wilson (p. 160) thinks its original limits W. may have been at Khtdm, where the h^her mountains end; though, politically, the power of Bactria extended, as Strabo has remarked, over the N. portion of the Paropamisan range. Eastward its limits an quite uncertain; but, probably, the modem Kundug and Badakhshant adjoining the ancient Scythian tribes, and the part conterminous with the Indians, were under Bactrian rule. Both the land and its people were known indif- BACTBIANA. ferently by the name of Bactria and Bactriana, Ba^ tri and Bactriani. Strabo (xi. p. 715) has r^r Bdicrpictt /ifpTif and 'H^y Baicrpiat^v; Arrian (iii. 11.3), BdKTfHoi jinrcif ; Herodotus (ix. 113), yojihr rhy BaierpioVj and (iii. 13) Baicrpidyoij who, he states, formed the ninth satrapy of Darius. In iv. 204 he alludes to a village rrjs Bditrptris x&p^Sj and Arrian (iii. 29) uses the same periphrasis. Pliny (vL 16) has Bactri, and, in vi 6, Bactrianam re- gionem. The principal mountain range of Bactria was the Paropamisus or Hindu Ktuh, Its plains appear, from the accounts of Curtius and of modem travellers, to be intersected by lofty ridges and spurs, which proceed N. and NE. frxnn the main chain. Its chief river was the Oxus (now Gikon or Amu-Ikarja which was also the northern limit of Bactiiana Proper. Into this great river several small streams flowed, the exact determinations of which cannot be made out from the classical narratives. Ptolemy (vi. 11. §2) speaks of five rivers which fall into the Oxus, — the Ochus, Dargamanis, Zariaspes, Artamia, Dargoidus : of these the Artamis and Daigamanis unite before they reach the Oxus. The river on which the capital Bactra was situated is called Bao- trus by ancient writers. (Strab. xi. p. 516 ; Aristot. Meteor, i. 13; Curt. vii. 4, 31; Polyaen. vii 11.) Prof. Wilson (^Arianay p. 162) considers that the Artamis, which is said to unite itself with the Za* riaspa, may be that now called the Dakaah. Am- mianus (xxiii 6) mentions the Artamis, Zariaspes, and Dargamanis, which he calls Orgamenes. There appears to be some confusion in the aasount which Ptolemy has left us of these rivers, as what he states cannot be reoondled with the present streams in the country. No stream falls into the Oxus or Gihon W. of the river of Balkh, Prof. Wilson {L c.) thinks the Dargamanis may be the present river of Ghori or Ktmcbu^ which Ptolemy makes fidl into the Ochus instead of into the Oxus. Pliny (vi 16. 18) speaks of three other rivers, which he calls Mandrum, Gridinum, and Icarus. Bitter {Erd-hmdef vol. ii. p. 500) ooo- jectures that Icams is a misreading for Bactrus. The Greek mlers of Bactriana, acconUng to Strabo (xi. p. 517), divided it into satrapies, of which two, Aspionia and Turiva, were subsequently taken from Eucratides, king of Bactria, by the Parthians. Ptolemy (vi. 11. § 6) gives a list of the different tribes which inhabited the country. The names, however, like those in Pliny (vi. 16), are very ob- scure, and are scarcely mentioned elsewhere: there are, however, some which are clearly of Indian de- scent, or at least connected with that country. Thus the Khomari represents the Kumdnu, a tribe of BaJ- puts called Baj-ku-mars, still existing in India. The Tokhari are the ThakurSj another warlike tribe; the Vami aro for Varna, " a tribe or caste." The satrapy in Strabo called Turiva, is probably the same as that in Poly bins (x. 46) called Tceyoupia, (See Strab. xi. p. 514, and Polyb. v. 44, for a tribe named Tapyri, near Hyrcania; Ptol. vi 2. § 6, for one in Media, and vi. 10. § 2, for another in Mai^giana.) It is possible that in Ghaur or Ghorian^ one of the de- pendencies £/[ Herat (^Ariana, p. 162), are preserved some indications of the Taguria of Polybius. Pto- lemy also (vi. 11. § 7) gives a list of towns, most of which are unknown to us. Some, however, are met with in other writers, with the forms of their names slightly modified. The chief town was Bactra or Zariaspa. [Bactra.] Besides this were, £ucra«*