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Bactria (Bactriana) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush ( Caucasus Indicus) and the Amu Darya (Oxus), with the capital Bactra (now Balkh). To the east, it was bordered by the ancient region of Gandhara in the Indian subcontinent. Bactria's inhabitants spoke one of the Iranian languages. Today's Tajiks are their descendants.
1 Geography
It is a mountainous country with a moderate climate. Water is abundant and the land is very fertile. Bactria was the home of one of the Iranian tribes. Modern authors have often used the name in a wider sense, as the designation of the whole eastern part of Iran.
2 History
There can be scarcely any doubt that it was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is everywhere surrounded and limited by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster preached and gained his first adherents, and that his religion spread from here over the western parts of Iran, the sacred language in which the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, is written, has often been called "old Bactrian." But there is no reason for this extensive use of the name, and the term "old Bactrian" is, therefore, at present completely abandoned by scholars.
Whether Bactria formed part of the Median empire, we do not know; but it was subjugated by Cyrus and from then formed one of the satrapies of the Persian empire. After Darius IIIDarius III or Codomannus (c. 380 330 BC), was the last king of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC. He was deposed after Alexander the Great's conquest. After the ambitious chiliarch Bagoas murdered King Artaxerxes III of Persia in 338 had been defeated by Alexanderbust of Alexander the Great Alexander III (late July, 356 BC June 10, 323 BC), King of Macedon ( 336 BC-323 BC), known as Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of the ancient world. Following the unification of the multipl and killed in the ensuing chaos, his murderer BessusBessus was satrap of Bactria and Sogdiana under Darius III. In the battle of Gaugamela ( October 1 331 BC) he commanded the troops of his satrapy. When Alexander pursued the Persian king on his flight to the East (summer 330), Bessus with some of the othe, the satrap of Bactria, tried to organize a national resistance based on his satrapy.
2.2 Alexander the Greatbust of Alexander the Great Alexander III (late July, 356 BC June 10, 323 BC), King of Macedon ( 336 BC-323 BC), known as Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of the ancient world. Following the unification of the multipl
But Bactria was conquered by Alexander without much difficulty; it was only farther in the north, beyond the Oxus, in SogdianaSogdiana Sugdiane O. Sughuda was a province of the Achaemenian Empire, the eighteenth in the list in the Behistun Inscription of Darius (i. 16), corresponding to the modern districts of Samarkand and Bokhara (in modern day Uzbekistan). It lay north of Bac, where he met with strong resistance. Bactria became a province of the Macedonian empire, and soon came under the rule of Seleucus, king of Asia.
2.3 Seleucid EmpireThe Seleucid Empire was one of several political states founded after the death of Alexander the Great, whose generals squabbled over the division of Alexander's empire. The partition of Alexander's empire (323-281 BC) Alexander the Great left a huge empi
The Macedonians (and especially Seleucus ISeleucus I (surnamed for later generations Nicator , the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, was a Macedonian, the son of Antiochus, one of Philip's generals. Seleucus, as a young man of about twenty-three, accompanied Alexander into Asia in 333 BC, and won and his son Antiochus IAntiochus I Soter ( 324/ 323- 262/ 261 BC reigned 281 BC 261 BC) was half Persian, his mother Apame being one of those eastern princesses whom Alexander had given as wives to his generals in 324 BC. On the assassination of his father Seleucus I in 281 BC,) founded a great many Greek towns in eastern Iran, and the Greek language became for some time dominant there. The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far more adjacent to Greece could possibly be explained by the supposed policy of Persian kings to deport unreliable Greek as colonists to this the most remote province of their huge empire.
