The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India. Getzel M. Cohen

. . . They say that the clothing of the Armenians is Thessalian. . . . I have already discussed Medeia in my account of the Medes; and therefore, from all this it is supposed that both the Medes and the Armenians are in a way kinsmen to the Thessalians and the descendants of Jason and Medeia”; trans. Jones); and P. Bernard in Topoi Supplement 1 (1997) 131–216.

      2. See Mehl, Seleukos 296 n. 33 (“Völlig unklar ist die Situation bezüglich Armenien”); Brodersen, Komment 123; Schmitt, Antiochos 37–38; Schottky, Media 92–94; Bernard, Topoi Supplement 1 (1997) 183, suggested that Armenia might have come under the control of Seleukos I in 281 after the battle of Korupedion.

      3. On Mygdonia in Mesopotamia see, for example, Bousdroukis, Recherches 40–47. ANTHEMOUSIAS and BATNAI were the names of both a settlement and the region around it in northern Mesopotamia. See those entries.

      4. Strabo does say that Gordyene east of the Tigris was named for Gordys the son of Triptolemos who migrated and settled there (7.1.25, 7.2.5; see also 16.1.24). But here we are in the realm of mythological origins; see also the scholiast to Lycophron (ed. Scheer) 1443. On Gordyene see E. Herzfeld, Memnon 1 (1907) 121–22.

      5. See Mørkholm, Antiochus 125–26; id., INC Rome 2:63–67.

      6. Of course the absence of these mints in the regions beyond northern Mesopotamia may also reflect the swiftly declining Seleucid control after the mid-second century B.C.

      7. Mørkholm, Antiochus 126.

      8. In CAH 7:155–56 and SEHHW 478, where he described Syria and northern Mesopotamia as “the centre of his [i.e., Seleukos’s] power and the seat of his great capitals.”

      9. See, for example, Sherwin-White in Hellenism 16–18 and below; Briant in Religion 47. Cf. Bickerman, who remarked—citing Strabo 11.9.2—that “Iran and Syria were two heartlands of the Seleucid Empire” (in La Persia [1966] 108).

      10. Samarkhand 1, 91; see, earlier, Ach. Hist. 8: 311.

      11. In Religion 47; see also Sherwin-White and Kuhrt, Samarkhand 36–39 on the importance of Hellenistic Babylonia—“the core of the empire”; see also Van der Spek in Roi et economie 304; and Kuhrt (in Hellenistic Kingship 41–54), who emphasized the presence of the Seleucids in Babylonia. For the opposite view see, for example, P. Lévêque, who earlier remarked: “Son vrai centre est la Syrie . . . . Séleucos est un Grec et il veut faire de sa conquête un Etat grec, donc méditerranéen” (Le monde hellénistique [Paris, 1969] 42).

      12. See also the discussion in the various articles published in Topoi 4/2 (1994); and L. Martinez-Sève, Dialogues d’histoire ancienne, Supplément 5: 92–93.

      13. Rostovtzeff, SEHHW 78–79; Cary, Geographic Background 183 n. 1.

      14. See, for example, A. Goetze, JCS 7 (1953) 51–72; id., JCS 18 (1964) 114–19; W. W. Hallo, JCS 18 (1964) 57–88; A. L. Oppenheim, JCS 21 (1969) 238–54.

      15. On Emar see A. Finet in The Land of Israel: Crossroads of Civilizations, ed. E. Lipinski (Leuven, 1985) 27–38.

      16. Kessler, Untersuchungen 228–29; Graf in Ach. Hist. 8:180.

      17. See, for example, Syme, Anatolica 3–23; Graf in Ach. Hist. 8:180–81; Briant, Empire perse 369–373.

      18. DAE 67 = ArD 6; see Graf in Ach. Hist. 8:181; Briant, Empire perse 371.

      19. 16.1.27; on this road see Dillemann, Mésopotamie 133, 177.

      20. See W. H. Schoff, Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax (Philadelphia, 1914); FGrH 781; M.-L. Chaumont, Syria 61 (1984) 63–107; Gawlikowski in GHPO 76–98.

      21. See especially Dillemann, Mésopotamie 132–92.

      22. See, for example, M. Gawlikowski, Iraq 58 (1996) 123–33; Briant in Ach. Hist. 6:77–79. It is probable that Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 102 = GGM 1:77) meant the Orontes when he referred to the Thapsakos River; see Müller’s discussion and Grainger, Seleukid Syria 17. If this is so, it would reflect the fact that the Orontes River valley was the beginning of the caravan route to the Euphrates crossing at Thapsakos.

      23. See also Briant in Ach. Hist. 6:77.

      24. Strabo 1.3.1; see A. B. Breebart, Mnemosyne 20 (1967) 422–31; Briant in Ach. Hist. 6:78–79.

      25. Xen. Anab. 1.4.11–17. On the itinerary of the 10,000 see, for example, Manfredi, La strada 95–149; F. Joannès, Pallas 43 (1995) 173–200; Lee, A Greek Army 18–42.

      26. See Strabo, who refers to the “old Zeugma” at Thapsakos (16.1.21–23).

      27. See Honigmann, RE s.v. “Syria,” esp. 1718; Dyer, Dict. Geog. s.v. “Syria.” See also J. Markwart (REArm [1966] 311): “Ammien, comme Strabon, entend par Assyrie, non pas un territoire determiné, mais l’ensemble, de Babylonie et d’Assyrie, au-delà de la frontière romaine, c’est-à-dire y compris la region de l’Euphrate (cf. liv. 23, ch. 2, 7, 3, 1, liv. 24, l.1).” On the origins and history of the terms “Syria” and “Assyria” see J. A. Tvedtnes, JNES 40 (1981) 139–40; and R. N. Frye, JNES 51 (1992) 281–85.

      28. CAH 7:184. For Hellenistic settlements on the banks of the Euphrates see, for example, Gaborit, Géographie historique 107–10.

      29. Note that a number of the ancient writers did not include Babylonia in Mesopotamia; see, for example, Strabo 16.1.21; Ptol. 5.18.1.

      30. Diod. 18.39.6, 19.27.4. For Babylonia from the late Achaemenid period to 301 B.C. see, for example, Kuhrt and Sherwin-White in Ach. Hist. 8:311–27. For the half century after the death of Alexander see especially Bosworth, Legacy esp. 1–64.

      31. E. M. Anson, Eumenes of Cardia 158, 164; Bosworth, Legacy 113.

      32. On the battle of Gabiene see, for example, Bosworth, Legacy 147–57 et passim; Billows, Antigonos 101–3, 317–18, et passim; and Anson, Eumenes 184–88 et passim.

      33. Billows, Antigonos 415.

      34. For the date see Bosworth, Legacy 219–25; cf. Billows, Antigonos 134 n. 67 (311 B.C.).

      35. For Antigonos’s campaign in Babylonia in 310–c. 308 B.C. see, for example, Mehl, Seleukos 129–34; P. Wheatley, JNES 61 (2002) 39–47; Schober, Untersuchungen 106–39; Boiy, Babylon 125–37; Capdetrey, Pouvoir 42. For the decade c. 319–309 B.C. see also BCHP 3 (“Diadochi Chronicle”) = ABC 10 and Van der Spek’s commentary.

      36. Billows, Antigonos 146–47; see also P. Bernard, BCH 114 (1990) 531; id., Topoi Supplément 1 (1997) 185–86 n. 181; see further EDESSA, n. 2.

      37. Briant in Religion 47; Billows, Antigonos 48.

      38. Billows, Antigonos 292–305; and Bernard, Topoi Supplément 1 (1997) 185 n. 181.

      39. Cohen, Settlements in Syria 21–28.

      40. See, for example, P. Clancier, Topoi 15 (2007) 41–46; Capdetrey, Pouvoir 25–38. For Hellenistic Babylonia see also www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/chron00.html and www.onderzoekinformatie.nl/en/oi/nod/onderzoek/OND1297087/.

      41. Arr. 7.8.21, 7.19.3–4; see also Högemann, Alexander 48–52 et passim; Boiy, Babylon 104–17.

      42. Boiy, Babylon 125–34.

      43. Scharrer in West und Ost 95–128.

      44. See, for example, Joannès, Age of Empires 10–11; Boiy, Babylon passim; P. Clancier, Topoi 15 (2007) 21–74.

      45. P. Bernard, BCH 114 (1990) 532–36; Kuhrt and Sherwin-White in Ach. Hist. 8:321. Bactria and, possibly, elephants (the latter is restored) are also mentioned in BCHP₇ [ = ABC 13A] Obv. 14 (“Antiochus and India Chronicle”). Finally, BCHP 9 Rev. 8 (“End of Seleucus Chronicle”) also mentions Bactria. For the Seleucids in Babylonia see, especially, Van der Spek, Reallexikon s.vv. “Seleukiden, Seleukidenreich.”

      46. Le Rider, Suse