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Q: After Alexander the Great (Hellenistic Kingdoms)

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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Q: After Alexander the Great (Hellenistic Kingdoms)
    Posted: 23-Nov-2004 at 13:33

for this question check out the most recent thread in the iranian subforum about the Saka tribes.

and it's not really known for certain how some tribes are related, it's also quite dificult to keep track with the nomads as they moved around a lot and joined other tribal goups very often...

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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Apr-2005 at 19:51

Originally posted by YusakuJon3


This leaves one more puzzle: the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, where we even had one king convert to Bhuddism.  Just how much of its Hellenistic character was retained, I don't know, but it does receive attention in Indian history.  Other than that, it seems to have lost its contacts with the other Hellenes (I guess having first Parthia, then Sassanid Persia  in between -- not to mention some thousands of miles of desert and  Hun-infested steppe -- was partly to blame, otherwise Bhudda would've gotten a head-start on Jesus in the West).

I guess you mean Menandros who was at first, general of Demetrios, King of Bactria. Menandros established a strong state and succeed to continue the politics of Alexander more than anyone of his diadochi.

He spread his power until Himaliyas and the basin of Ganges and later he invaded deeper, conguering the city of Pataliputra (Ancient Greeks called it Palibothra) today known as Patna. With this campaign Menandros got himself into Indian tradition. According to this tradition, Greek invaders left from the country when they started fighting eachother.

Though there was an ancient inscription in front of a cave, out of the Indian city of Orissa, which was written in it, Greek kings left the place because of the forward march of the amry of a king called Kallinga.

Menandros was introduced to buddhism, he enriched it with the ideology of Greek philosophy and he  got a distinguished position  in Indian tradition under the name of Milinda.

He is worshipped even today  in Tayland as a god. Many coins of King Menandros have been found in the area of Candahar and to northern areas. Its remarkable and a sample of the spreading of trade of Graeco-Indian state of Bactria that coins of Menandros have been found even in Wales!

These coins have both Indian and Greek letters which underlines the respect Menandros showed to Indian civilization, religion and tradition in general.

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  Quote YusakuJon3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-May-2006 at 09:08
I've decided to give this thread a bump since I didn't want to start a new thread on basically the same subject...

Upon refreshing my memory on the subject of Alexander's successors (the Diadochi) and their respective kingdoms after his death, I wanted to see if there was anything new developing in the field of study on this subject.  There was recently a discovery of ancient manuscripts said to be of the period of the Kushan dynasty that succeeded the Graeco-Bactrians, but no translations have been made public.  What we have so far are those fragmentary writings from the Roman archives, a few hints to Hellenic sources written during the Diadochi era and the bits gathered from the histories of India and Iran.  My guess is that it's going to take a while for the newly discovered manuscripts to be translated and that it's not guaranteed to be a history of the region so much as a religious scripture (the Kushan dynasty was known for spreading Bhuddism beyond its Indian roots, after all).

Could someone give me an outline of the following to guide me in finding further sources on the Diadochi kingdoms and their successors?

  • Historical writings of classical origins outside of the aforementioned works of Arrian and Plutarch.
  • Known translations of fragmentary writings confirmed to be from the Hellenic sources.
  • Modern histories which best piece together the events affecting the Seleucids, Ptolemaic Egyptians, the other Hellenic kingdoms in Europe and Asia Minor (including Mithridatic Pontus) and of the eastern portions that became  independent (Graeco-Bactrian and Kushan dynasties).
"There you go again!"

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  Quote Imperator Invictus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-May-2006 at 20:38
http://www.seleukids.org/texts.html

...has sources on the Seleucids.

If you're looking for recent fragmentary writing, your best bet is to look in research journals, but those are hard to find available to the public on the internet.
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  Quote YusakuJon3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-May-2006 at 08:48
Could you name one or two of those journals and where I'm likely to find them?
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  Quote Sharrukin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-May-2006 at 22:32
A very good original source for the earlier history of the Diadochi is Diodorus Siculus, Books XVIII to XX, which gives a description of events found in no other sources for the period, 323 to 301 BC.  The rest of the books of Diodorus Siculus are in fragments, but still give some good details for the period from 301 BC and onwards.  One available source for the history of Diodorus Siculus is the Loeb Classical Library, which can be ordered online, depending on availability.  My set of volumes for the period in question begin with Diodorus Siculus, volume IX of the series.
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  Quote akritas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-May-2006 at 09:46
Agree Sharrukin as about  Diodoros Siculus.In my opinion is the best ancient writer as about the chronicle of the events. The books that you said are the
Book 14.....323-318 B.C.
Book 15.....317-311 B.C.
Book 16.....310-302 B.C.
Book 17......quotes from events in 301-60 B.C.
 
For the Hellenistic period used as sourses writers such as Ieronimos and Douris the Samian.
 
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  Quote Sharrukin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-May-2006 at 03:57
Hmmm, according to the Loeb Classical Series, the chronology of the books goes like this:
 
LCS Diodorus Siculus, volume 9
Book 18 - 323 to 317 BC
Book 19a - 317 to 315 BC
 
LCS Diodorus Siculus, volume 10
Book 19b - 314 to 311 BC
Book 20 - 310 to 302 BC
 
LCS Diodorus Siculus, volume 11
fragments of Books 21 to 32 -
301 to 145 BC
 
LCS Diodorus Siculus, volume 12
fragments of Books 33 to 40 -
145 to 61 BC
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  Quote akritas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-May-2006 at 11:32

Sharrukin you are right as about the numbers of the books. Yours numbers are the specific from the Diodoros work. I used the book numbers that given from the Kaktos publisher ,the biggest publisher in the Greece as about the ancient writers.

 
 
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  Quote Sharrukin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-May-2006 at 23:29
Okay, I think what happened is that the Kaktos version is simply using a different volume scheme than the LCS.  For instance:
 
Kaktos volume 14 equals Diodorus book 18 which equals LCS volume 9a
Kaktos volume 15 equals Diodorus book 19 which equals LCS volumes 9b and 10a
Kaktos volume 16 equals Diodorus book 20 which equals LCS volume 10b
Kaktos volume 17 equals Diodorus books 21-40 which equals LCS volumes 11 and 12.
 
The neat thing about the Kaktos version is at least it keeps a complete Diodorus book in one volume instead of splitting it apart as is done in the LCS version.
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