Lost World of the Golden King : In Search of Ancient Afghanistan

247 Pages·2012·2.91 MB·English

by  the Great Eucratides

The Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature
In honor of beloved Virgil—
“O degli altri poeti onore e lume…”
—Dante, Inferno
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Classical
Literature Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation,
which was established by a major gift from Joan Palevsky.
HELLENISTIC CULTURE AND SOCIETY
General Editors: Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S.
Gruen, A. A. Long, and Andrew F. Stewart

I.Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic
Age, by Peter Green
II.Hellenism in the East: The Interaction of Greek and Non-Greek
Civilizations from Syria to Central Asia after Alexander, edited by
Amélie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-White
III.The Question of “Eclecticism”: Studies in Later Greek Philosophy,
edited by J. M. Dillon and A. A. Long
IV.Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State, by
Richard A. Billows
V.A History of Macedonia, by R. Malcolm Errington, translated by
Catherine Errington
VI.Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.c., by Stephen V. Tracy
VII.The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World, by Luciano
Canfora
VIII.Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind, by Julia E. Annas
IX.Hellenistic History and Culture, edited by Peter Green
X.The Best of the Argonauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero in Book
One of Apollonius's Argonautica, by James J. Clauss
XI.Faces of Power: Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics, by
Andrew Stewart
XII.Images and Ideologies: Self-definition in the Hellenistic World,
edited by Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and
Andrew Stewart
XIII.From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid
Empire, by Susan Sherwin-White and Amélie Kuhrt
XIV.Regionalism and Change in the Economy of Independent Delos,
314–167 B.C., by Gary Reger
XV.Hegemony to Empire: The Development of the Roman Imperium in
the East from 148 to 62 B.C., by Robert Kallet-Marx
XVI.Moral Vision in The Histories of Polybius, by Arthur M. Eckstein
XVII.
XVII.
The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor,
by Getzel M. Cohen
XVIII.Interstate Arbitrations in the Greek World, 337–90 B.C., by Sheila L.
Ager
XIX.Theocritus's Urban Mimes: Mobility, Gender, and Patronage, by
Joan B. Burton
XX.Athenian Democracy in Transition: Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290
B.C., by Stephen V. Tracy
XXI.Pseudo-Hecataeus, “On the Jews”: Legitimizing the Jewish
Diaspora, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
XXII.Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World, by Kent J.
Rigsby
XXIII.The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy, edited
by R. Bracht Branham and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé
XXIV.The Politics of Plunder: Aitolians and Their Koinon in the Early
Hellenistic Era, 279–217 B.c., by Joseph B. Scholten
XXV.The Argonautika, by Apollonios Rhodios, translated, with
introduction, commentary, and glossary, by Peter Green
XXVI.Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and
Historiography, edited by Paul Cartledge, Peter Garnsey, and Erich
S. Gruen
XXVII.Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible, by Louis H. Feldman
XXVIII.Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context, by Kathryn J.
Gutzwiller
XXIX.Religion in Hellenistic Athens, by Jon D. Mikalson
XXX.Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition, by
Erich S. Gruen
XXXI.The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties,
by Shaye D. Cohen
XXXII.Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria, by Frank L.
Holt
XXXIII.Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan
(323 B.C.E.–117 c.E.), by John M. G. Barclay
XXXIV.From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context, edited by
Nancy T. de Grummond and Brunilde S. Ridgway
XXXV.Polyeideia: The Iambi of Callimachus and the Archaic Iambic
XXXV.
Tradition, by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
XXXVI.Stoic Studies, by A. A. Long
XXXVII.Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria, by
Susan A. Stephens
XXXVIII.Athens and Macedon: Attic Letter-Cutters of 300 to 229 B.C., by
Stephen V. Tracy
XXXIX.Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Theocritus, translated with
an introduction and commentary by Richard Hunter
XL.The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in
Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity, by Kathy L. Gaca
XLI.Cultural Politics in Polybius's Histories, by Craige B. Champion
XLII.Cleomedes' Lectures on Astronomy: A Translation of The Heavens,
with an introduction and commentary by Alan C. Bowen and Robert
B. Todd
XLIII.Historical Fictions and Hellenistic Jewish Identity: Third Maccabees
in Its Cultural Context, by Sara Raup Johnson
XLIV.Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions, by
Frank L. Holt
XLV.The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian
Monument of the Hellenistic Period, by Seán Hemingway
XLVI.The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North
Africa, by Getzel M. Cohen
XLVII.Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan, by
Frank L. Holt
XLVIII.Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome, by
Arthur M. Eckstein
XLIX.Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture, by Jean
Bingen. Edited and introduced by Roger S. Bagnall
L.Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers, edited by Tessa Rajak,
Sarah Pearce, James Aitken, and Jennifer Dines
LI.The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature: The Hellenistic Period,
by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
LII.From Alexander to Jesus, by Ory Amitay
LIII.Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan, by
Frank L. Holt
LIV.
LIV.
The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and
Mesopotamia to Bactria and India, by Getzel M. Cohen
LV.Creating a Common Polity: Religion, Economy, and Politics in the
Making of the Greek Koinon, by Emily Mackil
Lost World of
the Golden King
In Search of Ancient Afghanistan
Frank L. Holt
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London, England © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holt, Frank Lee.
Lost world of the golden king : in search of ancient Afghanistan / Frank L. Holt.
p. cm. —(Hellenistic culture and society ; 53) Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27342-9 (cloth, alk. paper)
1. Bactria—Civilization. 2. Bactria—Antiquities. 3. Greeks—Afghanistan—History—To 1500. 4.
Eucratides, the Great, fl. 170–145 B.c. 5. Coins, Greek—Bactria. 6. Coins, Greek—Afghanistan. 7.
Afghanistan—Civilization. 8. Afghanistan—Antiquities. I. Title.
DS374.B28H655 2012
939'.6—dc23 2012000828
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For Alec Emery McDaniel and his parents,
Laura and Patrick,
From someone who loves them all