The Baktria issue

Yesterday I read something I believe should be interesting for you guys.

According to the author Victor Barreiro, in his book "la guerra en el mundo antiguo", Baktria was a part of the seleucid kingdom/empire until 244 b.C. This means that including Baktria as an independent faction by 270-280 b.C. as I think the mod starts, would be historically wrong! ~:eek: This author mentions as his source the book the seleucid army (Bar-Kochva, B., 1976)

You may consider this little "contribution" as a way of somehow redeem my previous stupidity ~:handball:

The Parthians also didn't exist until 250bc, it is a problem. The EB team are going to represent this (I think) by having Parthia/Bactria allied to the Seleucids but with lands that historically represent the "heartlands" of the factions when they emerged. Not perfect, but reasonable.

It is indeed true that Baktria did not assert its independence until a later date than our starting date. The same is true for the Parthians, although the Arsacids lead their people, the Parni tribe of the Dahae confederation, in to the satrapies of Parthia and Hyrkania (Gurgan) within a decade of our starting date.

However, in EB the Parthians you control are the Parni tribe, still living outside the borders of Iran proper, in Central Asia. This is known, as you have seen on the newest publicly available map. It is up to you to decide to follow the real Parthians into Iran, or establish your hegemony over the other tribes of Central Asia and the Russian steppes!

Meanwhile, Baktria is a region which was, paradoxically, quite densely populated with Greeks (relative to the other eastern satrapies). It was so far away from the Seleukid power base, that its satraps always had a great degree of independence, especially in light of the Mauryan empire undermining Seleucid authority nearby (the Mauryans also controlled the Greek colonies of the Indus valley, hence the Indohellenikoi hoplitai). In 244 BC, they essentially asserted their statehood, but the Baktrians had been left to their devices virtually since their ancestors were settled there by Alexander, especially since the Seleukids only asserted their power over the eastern satrapies in the final stages of the Wars of the Diadochi, and were mostly concerned with their western satrapies anyways. In that light, Antiochus the Great's anabasis to the eastern satrapies was the exception rather than the rule.

Hope this helps,



~Wiz

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the Mauryans also controlled the Greek colonies of the Indus valley

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Wow! Never had any inkling that the Greeks spread so far. Least of all East ~:eek:

THey went all the way to India and Baktria! I just thought they went as far east as the eastern mediteranian coast! :dizzy2:

Yes, it is simply pure Romanticism, isn't it? All those Greek colonies, far away in the Hindu Kush...



~Wiz

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Originally Posted by hoom

Wow! Never had any inkling that the Greeks spread so far. Least of all East ~:eek:

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Originally Posted by Shrapnel

THey went all the way to India and Baktria! I just thought they went as far east as the eastern mediteranian coast!

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He. ~;)

http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/alexmos2.jpg

Alexander's so dreamy :sweetheart:

I've read a little about Baktria myself, and although they didn't officially assert their independence for another two decades approximately, they were on the frontiers of the Seleukid empire and had a large degree of autonomy throughout their history as a satrapy of that empire. Additionally, the last recorded act that we have recorded today still of Baktria as a part of the Seleukid empire took place in 282 when they sent a number of Indian elephants west to heart of the empire. They surely didn't declare independence right after that, but of course they will not start the game at war with the Seleukids either in our mod. Will a player in our mod playing as Baktria remain at peace with the Seleukids longer than was historically accurate (i.e., when they broke free), therefore totally subverting the way we are trying to show them as being friendly with the Seleukids back at our game's start date? No. I guarantee it! ~D

We won't have any descendants of Porus or Changragruptta attacking the Baktrians will we? Oh my the fun we could have with that...

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Originally Posted by anonymous_joe

We won't have any descendants of Porus or Changragruptta attacking the Baktrians will we? Oh my the fun we could have with that...

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We've already released an image of our indo-hellenic hoplites that the Baktrians will have when they conquer India, but you can be sure that rebel variants of those units, as well as least one other indian unit and maybe more will be there to try and stop any Baktrian, Seleukid, Parthian, Ptolemaic, or any other faction that might happen to be nearby and dangerous.