Bactria (redirected from Daxia)

Bactria (băk`trēə), ancient Greek kingdom in central Asia. Its capital was Bactra, present-day Balkh in N Afghanistan. Before the Greek conquest, the region was an eastern province of the Persian Empire. It prospered as the area for transmitting Siberian and Indian metals and goods to the Persians. When Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire, the Bactrians, under Bessus, resisted stoutly, but they were subdued in 328. Bactria took on Greek culture, became quasi-independent, and theoretically remained part of the Seleucid empire. In 256 B.C., Diodotus I was made satrap, and a little later he assumed complete independence. His successor, Euthydemus, successfully resisted attempts (208–206 B.C.) to bring Bactria back into the empire. Euthydemus' son Demetrius made Bactria a powerful state. The Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV, sent Eucratidas into Bactria, and Eucratidas in 167 B.C. brought about the death of Demetrius but was himself slain in 159 B.C. Menander, Demetrius' general, continued to exercise power until his death in 145 B.C. Bactria later (c.130 B.C.) became part of the Kushan empire. It was subjugated by the Ephthalites in the 5th cent. and partially by the Turks in the 6th cent.

Bibliography

See H. G. Rawlinson, Bactria: The History of a Forgotten Empire (1912, repr. 1969); W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India (2d ed. 1951); A. K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks (1957, repr. 1962).

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Bactria

Ancient country, Central Asia. It was situated between the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya in parts of modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Its capital was the city of Bactra. From the 6th century BC it was controlled by the Achaemenian dynasty; conquered by Alexander the Great, the area was ruled after his death (323 BC) by the Seleucid dynasty and for a time (c. 250 BC) formed an independent kingdom. It was long important as a crossroads for overland trade and as a meeting place for various religious and artistic traditions. The area ultimately came under Muslim control in the 7th century AD.

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Bactria

an ancient country of SW Asia, between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Oxus River: forms the present Balkh region in N Afghanistan

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Bactria 

or Bactriana, ancient region along the middle and upper course of the Amu Darya, comprising the territory of the present-day southern oblasts of the Uzbek SSR and the Tadzhik SSR and the northern region of Afghanistan. To the north, it was bordered by Soghdiana, to the south and southeast, by Arachosia and Gandhara, to the west by Margiana. Bactria was one of the most ancient centers of the development of agriculture and the formation of a state system in Middle Asia. Slaveholding society existed in Bactria as early as the first half of the first millennium B. C. Bactria’s main city was Bactra. Between the sixth and the fourth centuries B. C., Bactria was first part of the Achaemenid Empire and then of the empire of Alexander of Macedonia. After the latter empire disintegrated, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom arose on the territory of Bactria and several neighboring regions (circa 250 B. C.—between 140 and 130 B. C.). Then, Bactria, along with Soghdiana, became the center for the formation of the Kushan kingdom, which was created by the Tochari and other tribes. The name of the region, Tochari-stan, was derived later from the Tochari. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the region to the south of the Amu Darya was called Balkh (after its main city). Bactria was one of the ancient centers for the development of artistic culture in Asia; the Amu Darya treasure (fourth to second centuries B. C.) containing local and imported artistic articles was found here. Later on, the art of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and then of the Kushan kingdom took shape here.

REFERENCES

D’iakonov, M. M. “Slozhenie klassovogo obshchestva v Severnoi Baktrii.” In Sovetskaia arkheologiia, vol. 19, Moscow, 1954.
Istoriia Uzbekskoi SSR, vol. 1. Tashkent, 1967.

A. G. PODOL’SKII