Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18 (2012) 175-182 brill.

nl/acss

Hellenism in Central Asia and the North-West

of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent:
The Epigraphic Evidence1

Georges Rougemont*

Abstract
The Greek inscriptions from Central Asia give information mainly on the three centuries before
our era, particularly on the 3rd and 2nd century BC. In the Greek inscriptions from Central Asia,
we notice the absence of any sign of a civic life; the inscriptions, however, clearly show firstly on
which cultural frontier the Greeks of Central Asia lived and secondly how proudly they asserted
their cultural identity. The presence in Central Asia of a living Greek culture is unquestionable,
and the most striking fact is that the authors of the inscriptions were proud of the Greek culture.
Their Greek names however do not necessarily reveal the ethnic origin, and we do not know
whether among them there were “assimilated” Bactrians or Indians. The Greeks, at any rate,
constituted a limited community of people living very far from their country of origin, at the
borders of two foreign worlds (Iranian and Indian) which were far bigger and older than theirs.

Keywords
Hellenism, Iran, Central Asia, India, Epigraphy, Cultural identity, Cultural frontier

Although the Hellenistic presence in Central Asia has always been known and
has been studied for long, the corpus of Greek inscriptions of Central Asia was
only recently constituted: the first, very short, discovered documents were
published in 19472 and 19543 and the first long text4 was published in 1958.
These inscriptions were discovered in Uzbekistan, in Afghanistan and in
north-western Pakistan. They were listed, reproduced and/or studied at least

* UMR 5189 HISOMA, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée – Jean Pouilloux, 7,

Raulin, 69365, Lyon cedex 07, France, Email [email protected].
1
This paper was first presented at the Thematic Symposium “Hellenism in Central and South
Asia: from Archaeology to Society”, organized by P. Callieri and S. Stride in the frame of the 19th
Meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology, held in Ravenna, Italy, in
July 2007.
2
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 303.
3
The inscription of Palamedes in Surkh-Kotal, Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 314.
4
The first inscription of Asoka in Kandahar, Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 290.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI: 10.1163/157005712X638681

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three times in the recent years: firstly by Claude Rapin, in 1992, in his book
on the Treasury of the Hellenistic Palace of Ai Khanoum,5 secondly by Paul
Bernard in 2002 in a synthetic study6 and lastly by Filippo Canali De Rossi in
2004 in a “repertory” (repertorio) of the “Inscriptions of the Greek Far-East”,
published in Bonn in the series Inschriften aus Kleinasien.7 This last book,
although insufficiently critical (it cannot be used without control), is a conve-
nient work tool. We will use it in this article for the citation of documents.
This corpus was completed with two new inscriptions published in the Journal
des Savants in 20048 and reproduced in 2005 in the epigraphical anthology by
Reinhold Merkelbach and Josef Stauber.9
Jean Pouilloux gave me the task of publishing, with Paul Bernard, the col-
lection of the Greek inscriptions from Iran and Central Asia on which Louis
Robert had already worked. This collection will be published in the Corpus
Inscriptionum Iranicarum by the British Academy.10 The collection will not
only include the inscriptions engraved on rock but also those painted or
engraved on vases and, for the convenience of the user, the Greek texts on
papyrus and parchment. It will not include amphoric stamps, inscriptions on
coins, nor, of course, the inscriptions in other languages than Greek, even
those written with the Greek alphabet.
Only a few Greek inscriptions from Central Asia are available today.
According to the usually restricted meaning given to the word “inscription”,
which is an engraved text publicly and permanently exhibited, only a dozen of
those exist: four in Kandahar11 and eight in Bactria, four of which in Ai Kha-
noum.12 This limited number does not, however, reflect the real interest of the
collection. First of all, although some of these documents, which would appear
unremarkable had they been found in Greece, are interesting merely because

5
Rapin 1992, appendice III, 387-392.
6
Bernard 2002. I wish to thank Paul Bernard for having read over the present article.
7
Canali De Rossi 2004. See Revue des Études grecques 118 (2005), 545-546, No. 495.
8
Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004 (see Rougemont 2005, Pinault 2005).
9
Merkelbach & Stauber 2005, Nos. 101 and 105. See Revue des Études grecques 119 (2006),
720-723, No. 434., Clarysse & Thompson 2007, see note 16.
10
The volume has appeared in January 2012 (Rougemont 2012).
11
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 290-292 (Asoka), 293 (Aristonax), and probably Bernard,
Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 227-332 (Sôphytos).
12
Ai Khanoum: Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 382-384 (Clearchos), 381 (gymnasium);
Bernard 2002, 79, note 4 (two partial epitaphs, unpublished, one of them in verse; see Bernard,
Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 236, fig. 4). Somewhere else in Bactria: Kuliab (“plausible” origin
[P. Bernard in Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 341]), Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont
2004, 333-356; Djiga Tepe: Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 304 (epitaph in verse); Takht-i Sangin:
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 311 (dedication to Oxus); Surkh Kotal: Canali De Rossi 2004,
No. 314 (Palamedes).

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they were engraved 4.000 km farther to the East,13 it is also true that, out of
these twelve texts, at least three or four (in Kandahar the edicts of Asoka14 and
the epigram of Sôphytos,15 in Ai Khanoum the epigram of Clearchos and the
Delphic maxims)16 really are exceptional documents which would also be con-
sidered as such, had they been found by the Aegean sea; in fact, these texts
would not have made sense anywhere else than in Central Asia. Then, those
twelve inscriptions are completed with several Greek texts engraved or painted
without aiming at permanence and which, partly for this reason, are as impor-
tant historical documents as the “true” inscriptions: five texts – three eco-
nomic documents,17 a literary text18 and a philosophical text19 – written on
papyrus or on parchment (outside Egypt, the preservation of texts written on
perishable material is rare) and relatively numerous texts engraved or painted
on vases; those latter are not limited to names of individuals but also include
documents concerning the administration, the economy and society.20 Lastly,
all those texts are part of a much larger collection of documents and data of all
nature proving not only the presence of Hellenism in Central Asia, but also its
influence in this area. Among this data, it will suffice to mention the abun-
dance and quality of Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinages as well as the
persistence of the Greek alphabet and language after the disappearance of the
Greek kingdoms.
The Greek inscriptions from Central Asia give information mainly on the
three centuries before our era, particularly on the 3rd and 2nd century BC, and
naturally they do not give a complete picture of this civilization: they only
shed light on a few facts. I will not be looking at these facts with the eye of a
specialist of Central Asia: my carreer and work were devoted to the Greek
cities and sanctuaries of the Balkan peninsula and of the Aegean sea. In the
Greek inscriptions from Central Asia, an “Aegean” epigraphist immediately
notices the absence, maybe transitory, of any sign of a civic life; the inscrip-
tions however clearly show firstly on which cultural frontier the Greeks of
Central Asia lived and secondly how proudly they asserted their cultural
identity.

13
For instance, the dedication to Hermes and Heracles: Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 381
(Ai Khanoum).
14
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 290-292.
15
Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 229-232.
16
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 382-384.
17
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 459; Clarysse & Thompson 2007.
18
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 458.
19
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 457.
20
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 323-357 (Treasury of the Palace in Ai Khanoum).

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There is no evidence of a civic life in the Greek communities of Central

Asia: a royal administration, sanctuaries, a cultural (library, schools, theaters)
and athletic life (gymnasium) are attested but, until now, no decrees, no hon-
orific inscriptions, no trace, even indirect, of collective discussions; no texts
honoring benefactors, no data on a possible evergetism, a phenomenon usu-
ally associated to the Greek civic life, were discovered. It is, however, not
necessary for a Greek city to be completely independent to have a civic life:
internal autonomy is enough and, from Greece to Iran, many Greek commu-
nities depending on a monarchy, sometimes held by a royal garrison, had an
active civic life,21 the most eastern we know of those communities being Susa,22
which still had a Greek civic life at the beginning of our era, under the Parthi-
ans’ rule.23 However, in order for a community to have a civic life, the status
of Greek city (polis) was to have been officially granted by the King to this
community (which could in some cases gather Greeks and natives), which was
not systematic.24 Would the Seleucid, and then the Greco-Bactrian Kings, not
have granted this status to any Greek-speaking community in Central Asia?
This question cannot be answered: only in Ai Khanoum has the archaeological
research been sufficient to conclude, not without a doubt, that this commu-
nity was not a city or, if it was a city, that none of the public acts were engraved,
which would be surprising.25

21
To know more about the status or rather the statuses of the submitted cities in the Seleucid
Empire, see e.g. Bikerman 1938, 157-163; Robert 1954, 300-302; Gauthier 1989, 154-159; Ma
1999, 153-160.
22
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 178-223; Le Rider 1965; Martinez-Sève 2002.
23
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 218.
24
See e.g. the recently discovered letter by Eumenes II, King at Pergamon, granting the status
of polis to a community in Phrygia: Inschriften aus Kleinasien, Bd 62 (2002), No. 393; see
Ph. Gauthier, Revue des Études grecques 112 (1999), 681-682, No. 509. Recent references con-
cerning this text in H. Müller 2005, 355, No. 3 and 357 ff.
25
Concerning the lack of public documents in the Greek epigraphy of Central Asia, see
Bernard 2002, 92-93. After considering several possible explanations, he simply suggests that
this is “the consequence of a limited colonial population”; however, he concludes: “as long as the
epigraphical documents will remain as such, . . . we will be restricted to mere hypotheses to try
and explain the lack of engraved public texts in Central Asia”. It can easily be understood that
kings may have hesitated to grant the status of city to small Greek-speaking communities. Kan-
dahar, located on one of the highways from Iran to India, provided with a garrison by Alexander,
apparently had a Greek-speaking community sufficiently vast to justify the translation into
Greek of the edicts of Asoka, to have offered to someone like Sophytos an advanced Greek edu-
cation and to be considered as a polis hellenis, “Greek town”, at the beginning of our era, by the
writer of the Parthian Stations. Does this, however, mean that Kandahar was a city? During a
large part of the Hellenistic era (from the end of the 4th century until the beginning of the 2nd
century BC), this town was not under the influence of the Greek kings, heirs of Alexander
(P. Bernard in Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 265-276), who knew the model of the
Greek city well and who used it to consolidate their Greek-speaking communities. The still

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The existence of a cultural frontier is the most spectacular information of

the Greek texts from Central Asia, although it is not the most surprising.
In the middle of the 3rd century before our era, the Indian king Asoka had to
publish his edicts in Greek and in Aramaic in order to be read in Kandahar, a
city which was part of his Empire. The Greek translator, although not really
being unfaithful to the Indian text, mistranslated a few passages; in fact, he
transposed more than translated, using the Greek philosophical terms accepted
at that time in Athens or Rhodes.26 Still in Kandahar, apparently, Sophytos, a
powerful notable, whose Indian name is transformed in order to sound Greek,27
is proud to have written ten elegiac distichs praising himself in a very personal
style, in the erudite language of the Alexandrine poets. Near the middle of the
2nd century before our era, the administrators of the Treasury in the Hellenis-
tic palace of Ai Khanoum wrote in Greek and their names were either Greek
or Iranian; among the listed goods money and precious objects from India are
mentioned.28 The author of a Greek dedication to Oxus has an Iranian name.29
In the 2nd century AD, in Surkh Kotal, in the Kushan empire, a man named
Palamedes recalls in Greek, at the end of a Bactrian inscription, the role
he apparently played in a great building site;30 this list of examples is not
exhaustive.
The Greeks living in Central Asia, as well as those living in Iran, proudly
asserted their Hellenism. Around 300 before our era, a man named Clearchos,
who was probably a philosopher and disciple of Aristotle, and who had copied
the maxims attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece in Delphi, came to Ai
Khanoum and had these maxims engraved on a great stele; this stele was then
erected in a sanctuary so that, according to Clearchos’s own words, the max-
ims “shine forth”. This sanctuary, built on a tomb at the heart of the city,
resembles the heroic sanctuaries erected by the Greeks in honor of the found-
ers of their cities.31 Many differences exist between the Greek cities of Greece

limited extent of archeological research in Central Asia naturally forbids to draw definitive con-
clusions. P. Bernard (2002, 92 note 69) however notes: “In the sanctuary of Takht-i Sangin,
which was also extensively excavated and where several thousands of objects were found, one
single inscription was found” (the dedication to Oxus, Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 311).
26
See the detailed study by P. Bernard (2002, 96-103).
27
And who added to the Indian name of his father Naratos (Narada ?), “the Greek patro-
nymic suffix – iadès, reflecting the prestige of the Homeric denominations”, thus showing his
will to “hellenize [. . .] an Indian family, several members of which, and at least the author of the
stele, had acquired the Greek culture and mastered it” (G.-J. Pinault, in Bernard, Pinault &
Rougemont 2004, 255).
28
Rapin 1992, mainly 95-114; short summary by P. Bernard (2002, 809).
29
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 311.
30
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 314. See Bernard 2002, 86-92.
31
Canali De Rossi 2004, Nos. 382-384. See Bernard 2002, 75-78. The editio princeps of the

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and what we know or guess of the Hellenistic towns of Central Asia. However,
the latter were provided with gymnasiums, which are typical of Hellenism,
and where dedications to Hermes and Heracles were left.32 A sanctuary devoted
to Zeus is known in one of those towns; in this sanctuary, it was possible to
offer an altar to Hestia, with libations and sacrifices, “for the salvation” of the
reigning king and of his son.33 It was also possible to offer Greek-type dedica-
tions to the Oxus.34 None of those elements is surprising for a Hellenist. The
most striking fact is that people were proud of the Greek culture and that they
proudly asserted it. The presence in Central Asia of a living Greek culture is
unquestionable: not only was it possible to read in Ai Khanoum, in the 2nd
century, a theater play in iambic trimeters35 or a philosophical dialogue on the
Platonic theory of Ideas,36 but also the Greek translation of the edicts of Asoka
in Kandahar does not reveal any backwardness or “provincialism” in the
vocabulary nor in the graphy (the Hellenism of the Greeks in Arachosia and
Bactria is not isolated);37 moreover, the mastery revealed by Sophytos’ poem
presupposes a deep knowledge of the Greek poetic tradition, which is another
typical characteristic sign of Hellenism. It also presupposes that long excerpts
of Greek poems, in particular by Homer (we can find at least one citation of
the Odyssey in the twenty verses of Sophytos), had been memorized by the
author and that he had mastered Greek versification. Sophytos explicitly
prides himself on having benefited from this education, which does not mean
that he did not benefit from another education, but that his Greek education
is the one he is most proud of.38 His poem confirms that he had followed a
living and in-depth Greek literary education and that this education was not
confined to elementary school. This kind of education was given to all culti-
vated persons in the Greek world. There, engraved poems, such as dedications
and epitaphs, were common.39 However, in Central Asia as well as in Iran, this
literary culture is more visible than anywhere else (among a dozen Greek
inscriptions, six are poems), even in daily life, and it is noteworthy that

document by L. Robert is essential: Comptes-rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,

1968, 416-457 = Fouilles d’Aï Khanoum I (1973), 207-237 = Robert 1989, 510-557.
32
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 381.
33
Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 333-356.
34
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 311.
35
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 458.
36
Canali De Rossi 2004, No. 457.
37
See supra, note 23.
38
Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 238-244.
39
See the references in Bernard, Pinault & Rougemont 2004, 237 note 11.

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person’s names borrowed from the Greek mythology are clearly more com-
mon than in other areas.40
This “epigraphic picture” of Hellenism in Sogdia, in Bactria, in Arachosia
and at the outer edges of India is incomplete but coherent: the Greeks consti-
tuted a limited community of people living very far from their country of
origin, at the borders of two foreign worlds (Iranian and Indian) which were
far bigger and older than theirs; they were maybe deprived of the civic life
which was so natural for them41 and that they tried to recreate in all the places
where they settled; they kept vivid links with their country, they transmitted
and kept their culture alive, displayed it as a major identity sign; they were
supported, during more than two centuries, in Bactria firstly and then more
to the south, by a political and military dominating Greek power; but, long
after this domination disappeared, they left behind them a deep trace of their
culture, which was integrated into the civilizations of this part of the world.
Additionally, this “profile” of the Greeks in Central Asia is recognizable: they
probably resembled some of the European colonists who had settled beyond
the seas in the 19th and 20th centuries. This comparison is of course not perfect,
but it can help us to understand, for instance, why the Greek identity was so
strongly asserted in Kandahar or Ai Khanoum. Although Sophytos was not of
Greek origin, he acquired this cultural identity, or at least a part of him
acquired it, through his education, which might have been, for him, a familial
tradition. Everywhere in the Hellenized East, “barbarians” adopted Greek
names: Central Asia should not be an exception, and thus the name does not
necessarily reveal the ethnic origin. We do not know whether, among the
Greeks of Central Asia identified thanks to the available texts, there were
“assimilated” Bactrians or Indians. The Greeks’ opinion on their identity, as
well as their cultural practices, were diverse; but, fifty years before the con-
quest of Alexander, the Athenian publicist Isocrates, who explicitly favored
the colonization and exploitation of Anatolia by the Greeks,42 wrote:43 “The
word ‘Greek’ does not refer to our race anymore [in Greek genos, a group of
people linked by blood ties], but to our way of thinking [in Greek dianoia];
the Greeks are now people who share our culture [in Greek paideusis: learning,
education culture] rather than people who share the origin [literally the nature,
Greek physis: what is innate, natural, hereditary, congenital] which is common

40
Bernard & Bopearachchi 2002, 251-262. The same phenomenon is observed in the ono-
mastic of the Greek city in Susa (3rd century BC – 1st century AD).
41
“A Man is a being who lives in a city (zôon politikon)”, says Aristotle.
42
Isocrate, Panegyr, 36.
43
Isocrate, Panegyr, 50.

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[to us, the Greeks]”. Was the Hellenism in Central Asia the Hellenism of
Isocrates? No one knows.

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