Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .2
era. There are several ways of describing it. For example, to the classical historian K.K.
Zelin, Hellenism represented a specific historical phenomenon determined by the
combination and interaction of Hellenic (Greek) and Eastern elements in economic,
social and political spheres, ideology and culture.
At that time, the Hellenistic world itself covered a vast area stretching from
mainland Greece to the Indus valley, within which scholars distinguish three zones,
depending on the degree of Hellenisation: Hellas (Greece) itself; Asia Minor, Syria
and Egypt; and the areas east of the Euphrates river. These areas are included in the
widely accepted concept of the ‘Hellenistic East’, which includes Mesopotamia,
Iran, the southern regions of Central Asia, Afghanistan and parts of the territories of
Pakistan and India conquered by Alexander the Great.
The Hellenistic period in the history of the East began to come to an end from
the beginning of the 4th century BC, but at different times in different parts of the
Hellenistic world, depending on the political circumstances. In eastern Mediterranean
countries the period ended at the beginning of the 2nd half of the 1st century BC, as
a result of the end of the Seleucid dynasty following its conquest by Rome. In the
southern regions of Central Asia, it happened at the beginning of the 2nd half of the
2nd century BC, when the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom collapsed.
Hellenistic culture spread widely in the southern regions of Central Asia in this
period and ultimately merged with indigenous cultures. Hellenism played a particularly
prominent role in Bactria, Parthia and Sogdia, facilitated by a policy of intensive Graeco-
Macedonian colonisation of those areas, which had been launched by Alexander
the Great. According to a number of classical sources, in some areas of Central Asia,
Alexander founded a number of cities named after him as well as smaller towns. The
latter had probably started out as katoikia – military colonies with permanent Graeco-
Macedonian garrisons. Three cities called Alexandria emerged on the territory of
Central Asia: Alexandria Oxiana, Alexandria in Margiana and Alexandria Eschate.
Later, with the establishment of Seleucid domination in Central Asia, they
were renamed as Antiochia after King Antiochus I (281–261 BC), who continued
Alexander’s colonial policy. One of these cities, Antiochia in Margiana, was located
on the site of Gyaur-kala in Ancient Merv.
According to Pliny the Elder, ‘In Margiane … the city Alexander had founded
bearing his name was destroyed by the barbarians, but Antiochus son of Seleucus reestablished
a Syrian city on the same site, intersected by the river Murghab, which is
canalised into Lake Zotha; he had preferred that the city should be named after him’
(Natural History VI).
According to Strabo, when Antiochia in Margiana was founded, Antiochus ordered
a wall of about 250 km to be built around the Margiana oasis, to protect it from raids by
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