The Indo-Greek ’kingdom’ was created after the Greco-Bactrians invaded northern India from 180 BCE. It consisted of a number of dynastic polities that ruled from regional capitals and formed a single entity only to the extent their rulers were able to collaborate. More than 30 kings are known, who were often in conflict with each other.
[1]
Bopearachchi suggests the period was founded by two kings, Demetrius I and Agathocles, who ruled around 185 BCE, but Jakobsson (2009) believes that a later king known as Menander was "instrumental in the creation of the era."
[2]
The lack of consistent or reliable sources from either Western or Chinese sources means that much of what we know is speculative and reliant on numismatic evidence.
[3]
It is likely the rulers, who simultaneously produced their own coinage, ruled different parts of the Indo-Greek polity and employed their own administrators.
[4]
Governance of the Indo-Greek region was for the most part through personal kingship and organization extended only to the limits of a particular king’s power.
[5]
After 145 BCE, Successive nomadic invasions by Scythians and other nomads isolated the Indo-Greeks from the wider Hellenic world. By the beginning of the first century CE, the Greco-Bactrian state was extinguished as an independent entity.
[1]
Of the legacy of the civilization, the Greek alphabet survived until the Islamic conquest as the script of the Bactrian language, and the conversion of a Indo-Greek King to Buddhism became a part of the zeitgeist of the Indian collective historical memory.
[1]
[1]: (Bernard 2012, 42-52) Paul Bernard. ’Ai Khanum: A Greek Colony in Post-Alexandrian Central Asia, or How to Be Greek in an Oriental Milieu.’ in Elisabetta Valtz Fino. Joan Aruz. ed. 2012. Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations Along the Silk Road. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York.
[2]: (Jakobsson 2009) Jakobsson, Jens. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2. pp. 505-510.
[3]: (Guillaume 1986, 1-16) Olivier Guillaume. 1986. "An Analysis of the Modes of Reconstruction of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek History." Studies in History 2, no. 1
[4]: (Jakobsson 2009. 505-510) Jens Jakobsson. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2.
[5]: (Jakobsson 2009, 505-510) Jens Jakobsson, Jens. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2.
| unknown |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| absent |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| absent |
| present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| Year Range | Indo-Greek Kingdom (pk_indo_greek_k) was in: |
|---|---|
| (145 BCE 96 BCE) | Kachi Plain |
Demetrius built a new capital at Sirkap, and transferred the population from ’old Taxila’ to ’new Taxila’ (Sirkap). [1]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press: 1951, p.137.; https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_II%20silk%20road_the%20greek%20kingdoms%20of%20central%20asia.pdf p. 124
An independent offshoot of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, eventually conquered by nomads.
"O. Bopearachchi, who has produced what probably remains the most reliable Bactrian chronology (see Table I) ... suggests two kings who may have ruled around 185 B.C.E., Demetrius I and Agathocles, as potential founders. Reluctantly, he dismisses the important Menander as too late for this date."
[1]
However, Jakobsson (2009) believes "the exact date 186/5 B.C.E. may not be so important, and that a later king, such as Menander, may well have been instrumental in the creation of the era."
[1]
The expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into northern India from 180 BCE established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which was a number of various dynastic polities traditionally associated with a number of regional capitals. These dynastic polities were ruled by more than 30 kings, often in conflict with each other. The Greco-Bactrians were originally a Greek colony under the Seleucid Syrian Kingdom of Selecus I. At the beginning of 250 BCE, the Greco-Bactrian state became independent and occupied the former Persian provinces of Bactria and Sogdiana. The expansion of the Greco-Bactrians led to the political dominance of a portion of India by the Greek invaders. Successive nomadic invasions by Scythians and other nomads isolated the Indo-Greeks from the wider Hellenic world after 145 BCE. By the beginning of the first century CE, the Greco-Bactrian state was extinguished as an independent entity. However, the Greek alphabet survived until the Islamic conquest as the script of the Bactrian language, and the conversion of a Indo-Greek King to Buddhism became a part of the zeitgeist of the Indian collective historical memory.
[2]
[1]: (Jakobsson 2009) Jakobsson, Jens. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2. pp. 505-510.
[2]: Fino, Elisabetta Valtz, ed. Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations Along the Silk Road. Buy this book, 2012. pp. 42-52, 152
The two and a half centuries between Diodotus I and the last Indo-Greek king Strato II (10 CE) the names of more than thirty kings have been in recorded the region. Power seems to have been collaborative. The lack of consistent or reliable sources from either Western or Chinese sources means that any answer is largely speculative. As with so much with central Asian history, this is largely as a result of a reliance on numismatic evidence.
[1]
Numismatic evidence suggests kingship was collaborative but there are few reliable sources to provide details.
[2]
It is likely the rulers, who simultaneously produced their own coinage, ruled different parts of the Indo-Greek polity and employed their own administrators. That few of the rulers who succeeded Menander "could easily be named as his relatives, and the Indo-Greek realms were scarcely united after his death"
[3]
suggests the Indo-Greek region was for the most part not a united state and organization extended only to the limits of a particular king’s power. "Hellenistic kingship was personal, not defined by exact borders."
[3]
[1]: Guillaume, Olivier. "An Analysis of the Modes of Reconstruction of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek History." Studies in History 2, no. 1 (1986): 1-16.
[2]: Guillaume, Olivier. 1986. "An Analysis of the Modes of Reconstruction of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek History." Studies in History 2, no. 1. p.1-16.
[3]: (Jakobsson 2009) Jakobsson, Jens. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2. pp. 505-510.
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]
[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]
[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]
[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]
[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]
[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty
squared kilometers.
Note on the rulership of the Kachi Plains:The duration of rule over the Kachi plain is uncertain. Strabo, quoting Apollodorus of Artemita, states that the Indo-Greek territory, "took possession, not only of Patalena, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom of Saraostus and Sigerdis"
[1]
(the provinces of Sindh and possibly Gujarat). However, "with archaeological methods, the Indo-Greek territory can however only be confirmed from the Kabul Valley to the eastern Punjab, so Greek presence outside was probably short-lived or less significant".
[2]
And Dr Tarn, "pleads for literal Greek rule over country extending from Kabul in a straight line nine hundred miles south to Broach...He speaks of the coastal provinces south of Patalene (Indus Delta) remaining Greek".
[3]
This would include the Kachi Plain but no dates are provided.
[3]: R.B.Whitehead, Notes on the Indo-Greeks (1940), pp. 4-5
people. Taxila. Estimate for 200 BCE. [1] Evidence of irrigation and the flourishing trade network seems to indicate a growth of population in the region controlled by the Indo-Greek Kingdom. However, this is largely speculative based on the current archaeological record.
[1]: (Chase-Dunn: pers. comm. 2011)
There has been very little excavation of verified Greek settlements, with only one Greek site directly excavated. If this one example typified the situation in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the Greek polis was the administrative, ritualized, and monumental heartland of the territory, but not the dominant population centre and represented a new construction. Below this newly urban space were the existing infrastructure of towns and villages.
[1]
1. Greek Polis
Peucelaotis (Shaikhan Dheri) measured 1.8 x 1.5 km.
[2]
2. Surrounding towns
3. Villages
[1]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed. The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. pp. 156-157
[2]: Dani, Ahmad Hasan et al. History of Civilizations of Central Asia Vol. 2: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Paris: Unesco, 1992., p.106.
The ranks below are based on the organization of the Seleucid army. These ranks were not permanent and command of individual units shifted with the campaign or battle. Civic volunteers and mercenaries would also have operated outside the structure indicated below.
[1]
1. King
2. Senior officers of the army: Strategoi
3. Officers: Hipparchoi/Hegemones
4. Common soldiers
[1]: Bar-Kochva, Bezalel. The Seleucid army: Organization and tactics in the great campaigns. Vol. 28. Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp. 91-93
Based on the structure in place in the Seleucid empires.
[1]
Seleucus and his successors had maintained the policy of Alexander in appointing a satrap to oversee a province. Below this level, the hyparchy was a subdivision. Below this level, the direct supporters of the ruler were the ’friends’based on favor or eunoia. The power was further strengthened by vast land holding, villages, slaves and other wealth. Below this level was the topoi and overseen by dioikites or oikonomos.
[2]
The Seleucid Empire did have full time bureaucrats, and this system in the Greco-Bactrians also seems to have existed. It is therefore inferred that some element of this system was preserved.
[3]
[4]
1. King
2. Topio overseen by the dioikites
[5]
(Note that under the Seleucids the title Dioketes denoted the individuals responsible for finances, royal land, revenue and expenditure and whom possibly also supervised royal mints and registry offices.
[6]
)
3. Epistates
[5]
Note: if it translates directly as the Ancient Greek term, an overseer or superintendent.
4. Scribes inferred
5. Panchayat (council of elders.)
[7]
[1]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed. The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
[2]: Daryaee, Touraj, ed.The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 158
[3]: Mairs, Rachel. 2012. "The Hellenistic Far East: From the Oikoumene to the Community." Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narratives, Practices, and Images.
[4]: Rougemont, Georges. 2012. "Hellenism in Central Asia and the North-West of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent: The Epigraphic Evidence." Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18, no. 1. p.175-182.
[5]: George Woodcock, The Greeks in India (1966), pp. 106-107
[6]: Aperghis, G. G. 2004. The Seleukid Royal Economy: The Finances and Financial Administration of the Seleukid Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p295
[7]: "History gives no information...about the lower levers of administration under Menander and his fellow Greek kinds in India", George Woodcock, The Greeks in India (1966), pp. 106-107
The soldier-settler, or kleruch, was awarded land and a hereditary obligation to serve in the army under a system known as Kleros. The size of the land grant varied with the rank of the soldier-settler. In addition, soldiers were recruited from native people, especially in the light cavalry.
[1]
Amphipolis skin text "a brief receipt concerning payments for Scythian soldiers" of unclear origin which could be dated 157/6 B.C.E.
[2]
[1]: Holt, Frank L. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Vol. 32. University of California Pr, 1999. pp. 118-119
[2]: (Jakobsson 2009) Jakobsson, Jens. Who Founded the Indo-Greek Era of 186/5 B.C.E.? Dec 2009. The Classical Quarterly. New Series. Vol. 59. No.2. pp. 505-510.
In the Greco-Bactrian Kingdoms, Iranian aristocrats were members of a permanent elite cavalry. The military officers seem to have been recruited from both native and Greek settlers. As the Indo-Greeks were originally from the Greco-Batrians, the same structure could have been present. [1]
[1]: Daryaee, Touraj, The Oxford handbook of Iranian history. p. 158
Evidence of a street layout with the possibility of specialized governmental buildings in the Indo-Greek cities.
[1]
[1]: Mairs, Rachel (2009) "The ’Greek Grid-Plan’ at Sirkap (Taxila) and the Question of Greek Influence in the North West," in Michael Willis (eds.), Migration, Trade and Peoples: European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Congress, London, 2005, 135-147. London: The British Association for South Asian Studies; The British Academy
The evidence is unclear. The Indo-Greeks were on a cultural frontier between Iranian and Indian core territories, but seem to have maintained a distinct and enduring identity. Whether this was extended to a full time bureaucracy is unclear but likely. The Seleucid Empire did have full time bureaucrats, and this system in the Greco-Bactrians also seems to have existed. It is therefore inferred that some element of this system was preserved. [1] [2]
[1]: Mairs, Rachel. "The Hellenistic Far East: From the Oikoumene to the Community." Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narratives, Practices, and Images (2012).
[2]: Rougemont, Georges. "Hellenism in Central Asia and the North-West of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent: The Epigraphic Evidence." Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18, no. 1 (2012): 175-182.
The Greek legal code seems to have been in practice in the other Greek successor states. [1] In terms of the details of how this would have been administered, we have little information. [2] Scholarship since the 1960s has not clarified this assessment.
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 63
[2]: "History gives no information...on such important matters as administration of justice", George Woodcock, The Greeks in India (1966), p. 106
The wealth of the Greeks and the number of cities were based on extensive irrigation and a wetter climate. These were based on the maintenance of Persian networks and expansion under the Greeks. [1]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 101-105
Town roads. [1] The Persian road network had served as an example of the importance of a large scale transport infrastructure, and was a network maintained by the Greek successor kingdoms. There was also the precidence of royal roads under the Mauryan empire. However, very little evidence of Indo-Greek infrastructure, apart from the street plans of some urban centers, has been found during this period.
[1]: Higham, Charles, Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations, Facts of File,2009 p. 344
The Indo-Greeks straddled a crossroads of writing systems and written language traditions. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet, use of cuneiform in legal documents and exposure to records in Prakrit are all recorded. Further evidence is found in the Kharosthi inscriptions and the Asokan edicts. Further evidence exist of a transmissions of writing systems to other groups in the North Indian area. [1]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 98-107
The Indo-Greeks straddled a crossroads of writing systems and written language traditions. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet, use of cuneiform in legal documents and exposure to records in Prakrit are all recorded. Further evidence is found in the Kharosthi inscriptions and the Asokan edicts. Further evidence exist of a transmissions of writing systems to other groups in the North Indian area. [1]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 98-107
The Indo-Greeks straddled a crossroads of writing systems and written language traditions. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet, use of cuneiform in legal documents and exposure to records in Prakrit are all recorded. Further evidence is found in the Kharosthi inscriptions and the Asokan edicts. Further evidence exist of a transmissions of writing systems to other groups in the North Indian area. [1]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 98-107
The Indo-Greeks straddled a crossroads of writing systems and written language traditions. Inscriptions written with the Greek alphabet, use of cuneiform in legal documents and exposure to records in Prakrit are all recorded. Further evidence is found in the Kharosthi inscriptions and the Asokan edicts. Further evidence exist of a transmissions of writing systems to other groups in the North Indian area. [1]
[1]: Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Vol. 2. Brill, 2010, pp. 98-107
Given the scarce records of the Indo-Greeks no proof has been found to indicate indigenous literary works.
[1]
However, this was a literature society. The Bactrian Greek city of Ai Khanoum is much better preserved than the Indo-Greek capital Sirkup and may serve some indication of what was there. Ai Khanoum had an impressive administrative center, gymnasium, theater, and Greek statuary.
[2]
The presence of a theatre would suggest specialist entertainers and writers.
[1]: Sherwin-White, Susan M. From Samarkhand to Sardis: a new approach to the Seleucid empire. Vol. 13. University of California Pr, 1993.
[2]: Docherty, Paddy. "The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion: A History of Invasion and Empire. 2007." Publisher: Faber and Faber. pp. 64-65
A denominational system of coinage was introduced during the reign of King Menander. The system used symbols and letters to denote value. [1] "The Indo-Greeks were the first rulers to issue coins having the name, title and portrait of the ruler who issued them." [2]
[1]: Srinivasan, Doris, ed. On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kuṣāṇa World, pp. 247-249
[2]: Chand, Tara. ed. 2015. General Studies Paper I for Civil Services Preliminary Examinations. McGraw-Hill Education. New Delhi.
Used during the spread of walled villages. A development considered very important in this period. [1] [2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 1951. p.124-5
[2]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
Mud wall at the city of Taxila. [1] Reference for use of the mud rampart in ancient India. [2]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press: 1951, p.124-5. Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: (Singh 2008, 336) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi.
"when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the Indus region in 180 BC, he established a Greek centre called Sirkap near the Indian city. Sirkap was a Greek walled city built on the river bank opposite Taxila, but the two centres shared administrative duties and the royal mint remained in the Indian capital." [1]
[1]: (McLaughlin 2016, 80) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley.
This could be southern India (and/or Sri Lanka): Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123). [1] Northern India as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa. [2]
[1]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer.
[2]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press.
This could be southern India (and/or Sri Lanka): Historical records show Indian steel was exported to Abyssinia in 200 BCE. (Biggs et al. 2013 citing Tripathi and Upadhyay 2009, p. 123). [1] Northern India as early as 1st CE was exporting iron and steel as far as East Africa. [2]
[1]: Lynn Biggs. Berenice Bellina. Marcos Martinon-Torres. Thomas Oliver Pryce. January 2013. Prehistoric iron production technologies in the Upper Thai-MalayPeninsula: metallography and slag inclusion analyses of iron artefacts from Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer.
[2]: (Hatke 2013) Hatke, George. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Press.
Present in Alexander’s army and successor states. [1] Inferred as the Bactrian Greeks were equipped in the tradition of the Macedonians. [2]
[1]: Sekunda, Nick. The army of Alexander the Great. Edited by Angus McBride. No. 148. Osprey Publishing, 1984.
[2]: Sekunda, Nick. The army of Alexander the Great.
The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen. [1] One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period. [2] Helmet would provide defence against weapons such as a war club which may have been wielded by cavalry.
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66
[2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001.
The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen. [1] One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period. [2] Coded present for the Seleucids.
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66
[2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001.
The coins from the period show lancers of the Greek style. [1] Yuezhi (Kushan) find at Tillya-Tepe: "decorative gold clasp depicted a Greek infantryman in a cuirass breastplate carrying a spear and an oval shield." [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: (McLaughlin 2016, 78) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley.
The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen. [1] One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period. [2]
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66
[2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001.
The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen. [1] One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period. [2] Coded present for the Seleucids.
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66
[2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001.
The Indo-Greeks were most likely to have been influenced and equipped in the tradition of the Macedonian style adopted by their Bactrian-Greek forbearers. They presumably wore the muscled breastplate made of metal scales and stripped with leather. Military adventurers and mercenaries from the Mediterranean took part in campaigns into India (attracted by India’s rumored wealth) and were present in military colonies; and they may provide more circumstantial evidence of the types of military equipment used by the Indo-Greeks. In addition, depictions on coins provide evidence of plate armour and the Boeotian helmet of the Alexandrian cavalrymen. [1] One issue that remains unclear is how many, if any, of the reforms taking place were in reaction to Roman military innovations trickling into the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. Therefore, the coding reflects Greek military technology from an earlier period. [2]
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp. 64-66
[2]: Lee, Mireille M. "Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s BC, by Nicholas Sekunda.(Studies on the History of Ancient and Medieval Art of Warfare 5.) Oficyna Naukowa MS, Lodz 2001.
The Indo-Greeks wore the muscles breastplate typical of Greek armament, made of metal scales and stripped with leather. The pasturage and access to the steppe horses provided sturdy mounts. There is also evidence that the horses were armored in iron in the central Asian fashion, at least in the initial period when the Indo-Greeks had access to the Bactrian-Greek trade networks. [1] The degree to which innovations from either the East or the West affected the equipment of the armies of the Indo-greeks is unknown. [2]
[1]: Docherty, Paddy. The Khyber Pass: a history of empire and invasion. Union Square Press, 2008. pp.64
[2]: N. Sekunda: Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-145 BC. Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army under Antiochus IV Epiphanes., Stockport: Montvert, 1994.
Shields used by Greek soldiers. [1] Yuezhi (Kushan) find at Tillya-Tepe: "decorative gold clasp depicted a Greek infantryman in a cuirass breastplate carrying a spear and an oval shield." [2]
[1]: Sekunda, Nick, and Nicholas Sekunda. The Ancient Greeks. Vol. 7. Osprey Publishing Company, 1986.
[2]: (McLaughlin 2016, 78) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass. [1] Yuezhi (Kushan) find at Tillya-Tepe: "decorative gold clasp depicted a Greek infantryman in a cuirass breastplate carrying a spear and an oval shield." [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: (McLaughlin 2016, 78) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather. [1] For a wider view of equipment of the period, see the Osprey works on typical equipage. [2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, pp. 168-169
[2]: Sekunda, Nick, and Nicholas Sekunda. The Ancient Greeks. Vol. 7. Osprey Publishing Company, 1986.
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather. [1] There is also some limited archaeological evidence. [2] Yuezhi (Kushan) find at Tillya-Tepe: "decorative gold clasp depicted a Greek infantryman in a cuirass breastplate carrying a spear and an oval shield." [3]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, from Alexander to Eucratides the Great, Oxford, 2000, pp. 168-169
[2]: Nikonorov, Valeri P., and Serge A. Savchuk. "New Data on Ancient Bactrian Body-Armour (In the Light of Finds from Kampyr Tepe)." Iran (1992): 49-54.
[3]: (McLaughlin 2016, 78) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley.
inferred. As a landlocked kingdom, naval forces were restricted to river craft.
Inferred. As a landlocked kingdom, naval forces were restricted to river craft.
inferred. As a landlocked kingdom, naval forces were restricted to river craft.