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85-661: Menander I Soter ( Ancient Greek : Μένανδρος Σωτήρ , romanized :  Ménandros Sōtḗr , lit.   ' Menander the Saviour ' ; Pali : Milinda ; sometimes called Menander the Great ) was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King (reigned c.  165 /155 –130 BC) who administered a large territory in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia . Menander

170-632: A backformation . Other forms of the name include Serica Regio . Flavius Josephus , in his book Antiquities of the Jews , book 1, paragraph 147, calls that region "Σηρια", that in Latin letters is "Seria". Some classicists have argued that it was extremely improbable that a nation would be named after an insect. Christian Lassen claimed to have identified references to the Seres in Hinduism 's Vedas , as

255-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in

340-452: A Buddhist legend, for his deification by later traditions resonates with Macedonian religious trends that granted divine honours to monarchs and members of their family and worshipped them, like Alexander, as gods. It is no coincidence that similar motifs highlight the Buddha’s deification and his funereal rituals are commensurate with those of Macedonian kings and universal monarchs. The evidence

425-604: A description of the Yellow River . From Turkic peoples of Central Asia the later Eastern Romans (i.e. Byzantines) derived a new name for China, Taugast (Turkic: Tabghach ), during its Northern Wei (386–535) period. By the time of the Eastern Roman ruler Justinian I (r. 527–565), the Byzantines purchased Chinese silk from Sogdian intermediaries. However, they also smuggled silkworms out of China with

510-638: A desert spot. Pliny the Elder discussed the Seres in his Natural History , Book VI, chapter xx. He similarly placed the Seres beyond a wasteland on the other side of Scythia ; like Vergil before him, he patently misunderstands sericulture , believing the silk to be a product of certain trees: Then [ sc. east of the Caspian], we again find tribes of Scythians and again desert tracts occupied only by wild animals, till we come to that mountain chain overhanging

595-514: A doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines). Strabo also suggests that Indo-Greek conquests went up to the Shunga capital Pataliputra in northeastern India (today Patna ): Those who came after Alexander went to the Ganges and Pataliputra The events and results of these campaigns are unknown. Surviving epigraphical inscriptions during this time such as

680-512: A faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he knew-- holy tradition and secular law ; the Sânkhya , Yoga , Nyâya , and Vaisheshika systems of philosophy ; arithmetic ; music ; medicine ; the four Vedas , the Purânas , and

765-799: A fragmented manner until the last Greek king Strato II disappeared around 10 AD. The 1st-2nd century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea further testifies to the reign of Menander and the influence of the Indo-Greeks in India: To the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza , coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodorus [ sic ] and Menander. According to tradition, Menander embraced

850-477: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and

935-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in

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1020-529: A lion, the king of beasts, when put in a cage, though it were of gold, is still facing outside, even so, do I live as the master in the house but remain facing outside. But if I were to go forth from home into homelessness I would not live long, so many are my enemies". Menander was the last Indo-Greek king mentioned by ancient historians, and developments after his death are therefore difficult to trace. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes

1105-488: A means of alluding to his ancestor's conversion. However, Menander I struck a rare bronze series with a Buddhist wheel (coin 3). Plutarch reports that Menander died in camp while on campaign, thereby differing with the version of the Milindapanha. Plutarch gives Menander as an example of benevolent rule, contrasting him with disliked tyrants such as Dionysius , and goes on to explain that his subject towns fought over

1190-498: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment

1275-544: A regent, until his son Strato could rule properly in his stead. Despite the success of his reign, it is clear that after his death, his "loosely hung" empire splintered into a variety of Indo-Greek successor kingdoms, of various sizes and stability. His legacy as a Buddhist arhat reached the Greco-Roman world and Plutarch writes: But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in

1360-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek

1445-676: A south-easterly direction—that beyond the Emodian Mountains ( Himalayas ) they look towards the Serve (Seres), whose acquaintance they had also made in the pursuits of commerce; that the father of Rachias (the ambassador) had frequently visited their country, and that the Serae always came to meet them on their arrival. These people, they said, exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking, having no language of their own for

1530-630: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c.  300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as

1615-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and

1700-570: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of

1785-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected

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1870-666: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to

1955-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in

2040-451: Is in favour of the conversion of King Menander to Buddhism, which is neither an isolated historical incident nor an invention of later traditions." Minadrasa maharajasa Katiassa divasa 4 4 4 11 pra[na]-[sa]me[da]... (prati)[thavi]ta pranasame[da]... Sakamunisa On the 14th day of Kārttika, in the reign of Mahārāja Minadra, (in the year ...), (the corporeal relic) of Sakyamuni , which is endowed with life... has been established From Alasanda

2125-426: Is indicated by the fact that Menander probably overstruck a coin of Zoilos. The Milinda Panha might give some support to the idea that Menander's position was precarious, since it describes him as being somewhat cornered by numerous enemies into a circumscribed territory: After their long discussion Nagasaka asked himself "though king Milinda is pleased, he gives no signs of being pleased". Menander says in reply: "As

2210-864: Is noted for having become a patron and convert to Greco-Buddhism and he is widely regarded as the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings. Menander might have initially been a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab , as far as Taxila , he established an empire which stretched from the Kabul River in the west to the Indus River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province ). According to Numismatist Joe Cribb and archaeologist Rachel Mairs,

2295-527: Is positioned in the 150 AD Ptolemy world map in the area beyond the "Imaus" ( Pamir Mountains ). This shows that he considered Serica to either incorporate or consist of what is now Xinjiang . The inhabited part of our earth is bounded on the east by the Unknown Land which lies along the region occupied by the easternmost nations of Asia Major, the Sinae and the nations of Serice Ptolemy also positions

2380-535: Is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public ... Ammianus also reports this version, although Pausanias knew that silk came from insects specially cultivated by the Seres for the purpose, suggesting closer attention to Roman diplomats and traders who had visited China. Elsewhere, Pliny mentions that their iron—which they "send to us with their tissues and skins"—is

2465-638: Is the staple, but which include also silk-stuffs , fine furs, and iron of remarkable quality." That is manifestly a definition of the Chinese . Some scholars, however, contend the Seres were not the Chinese themselves but tribes speaking Indo-European languages on the western edges of the Chinese dynasties and empires who traded with the ancient Indians, such as the Yuezhi , Saka , and Tocharians . The Latin forms Serica and Seres derive from

2550-705: The Antonine period (supported by other finds in Thailand , Indonesia , and Malaysia ). Chinese histories affirmed that merchants of " Daqin " (i.e. the Roman Empire) were active in Cambodia and Vietnam . The archaeological evidence seems to correspond with the Chinese claim that a Roman embassy sent by a ruler named "Andun" (安敦; either Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius) in 166 AD first arrived in Jiaozhi,

2635-551: The Bautisus , identified as the Yellow River . The Greco-Roman writers name over a dozen tribes and fifteen cities of the Seres. It is evident from their portrayals that they are not all of the same ethnicity but share a common national appellation. Their capital is named as Sera . Possible candidates include Kashgar and Yarkand . Issedon , the capital of the Serican Issedones , is thought to have been situated on

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2720-696: The Buddhist faith, as described in the Milinda Panha , a classical Pali Buddhist text on the discussions between Milinda and the Buddhist sage Nāgasena . He is described as constantly accompanied by an elite guard of 500 Greek (" Yavana ") soldiers, and two of his counsellors are named Demetrius and Antiochus. In the Milinda Panha , Menander is introduced as King of the city of Euthymedia in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and

2805-597: The Cannibal Scythians and the Sakas , severed from one another by a region where none can dwell because of the number of wild animals. Another vast wilderness follows, occupied also by wild beasts, reaching to a mountain called Thabis which overhangs the sea. A long way from that the ridge of Taurus rises. The Seres come between the two; a race eminent for integrity and well known for the trade which they allow to be transacted behind their backs, leaving their wares in

2890-490: The Greek Sērikḗ ( Σηρική ) and Sḗres ( Σῆρες ). This seems to derive from their words for silk ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : σηρικός , sērikós ; Latin : sericum ), which since Klaproth has often been linked to the Chinese 絲 , whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as /*[s]ə/ . The Greeks and Romans knew of silk long before they understood its origin from silkworms , making sēr ( σὴρ )

2975-759: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect

3060-461: The Itihâsas ; astronomy , magic , causation , and magic spells ; the art of war ; poetry ; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He

3145-507: The Maurya empire . These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Greek communities in northwestern India, and the prominent role Greek Buddhist monks played in them, probably under the sponsorship of Menander. Menander has left behind an immense corpus of silver and bronze coins, more so than any other Indo-Greek king. During his reign, the fusion between Indian and Greek coin standards reached its apogee. The coins feature

3230-703: The Paropamisadae , thereby consolidating the rule of the Indo-Greek kings in the northwestern part of the Indian Subcontinent. The Milinda Panha gives some glimpses of his military methods: – Has it ever happened to you, O king, that rival kings rose up against you as enemies and opponents? – Yes, certainly. – Then you set to work, I suppose, to have moats dug, and ramparts thrown up, and watch towers erected, and strongholds built, and stores of food collected? – Not at all. All that had been prepared beforehand. – Or you had yourself trained in

3315-579: The Shunga capital Pataliputra resulting in a conflict. The religious scripture Yuga Purana , which describes events in the form of a prophecy, states: After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras , the Yavanas (Greeks), wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja. The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without

3400-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)

3485-458: The " Çaka [Sakas], Tukhâra [Bactria], and Kanka [Kangju]". Beginning in the 1st century BC with Virgil , Horace , and Strabo , Roman histories offer only vague accounts of China and the silk-producing Seres of the Far East. Florus seems to have confused the Seres with peoples of India, or at least noted that their skin complexions proved that they both lived "beneath another sky" than

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3570-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):

3655-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from

3740-632: The Chinese coast, and therefore the idea that Sinae is a separate country from Serica would be a misconception. In his Geography , Ptolemy wrote of lands in and around the Indian Ocean . He explained that a port city called Kattigara lay beyond the Golden Chersonese (i.e. the Malay Peninsula ) and was visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander, most likely a merchant. In an 1877 publication Ferdinand von Richthofen offered

3825-502: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs,   Serica If we fuse into one the ancient notices of the Seres and their country, omitting anomalous statements and manifest fables,

3910-676: The Hathigumpha inscription states that Kharavela sacked Pataliputra. Furthermore, numismatics from the Mitra dynasty are concurrently placed in Mathura during the time of Menander. Their relationship is unclear, but the Mithra may potentially be vassals. In the West, Menander seems to have repelled the invasion of the dynasty of Greco-Bactrian usurper Eucratides , and pushed them back as far as

3995-536: The Indo-Greek kings. Precise dates of his reign, as well as his origin, remain elusive, however. Guesses among historians have been that Menander was either a nephew or a former general of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I , but the two kings are now thought to be separated by at least thirty years. Menander's predecessor in Punjab seems to have been the king Apollodotus I . Menander's empire survived him in

4080-687: The King of Kalinga also places the Yavanas, or Indo-Greeks, in Mathura. Kharavela states to have forced the demoralized Yavana army to retreat back to Mathura: "Then in the eighth year, (Kharavela) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure on Rajagaha ( Rajagriha ). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana (Greek) King [ta] retreated to Mathura having extricated his demoralized army." Menander may have campaigned as far as

4165-402: The Punjab, Pakistan ). His territories covered Bactria (modern-day Balkh Province ) and extended to India (modern-day regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , and Greater Punjab . His capital is supposed to have been Sagala , a prosperous city in northern Punjab (believed to be modern Sialkot , Pakistan ). The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of

4250-576: The Romans. The 1st-century geographer Pomponius Mela asserted that the lands of the Seres formed the center of the coast of an eastern ocean , flanked to the south by India and to the north by the Scythians of the Eurasian Steppe . The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 400) wrote that the land of the Seres was enclosed by great natural walls around a river called Bautis, possibly

4335-460: The Seres as one of three peoples inhabiting the eastern extremity of Asia. He places the Seres between the Indians to the south and the Scythians to the north. In a later passage, he notes: From these the course [of the Caspian shore] makes a bend and trends to the coast line which faces the east. That part which adjoins the Scythian promontory is first all impassable from snow; then an uncultivated tract occupied by savages. These tribes are

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4420-436: The Seres in two asides. In the first passage, he mentions that "some writers" claim the Seres to be longer lived than the Indians of Musicanus, whom Onesicritus claimed lived to the age of 130. In the second, a passage discussing the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , he mentions that Apollodorus of Artemita claimed the Bactrians' borders stretched "even as far as the Seres and the Phryni ". Pomponius Mela 's De situ orbis names

4505-438: The Sinae quite precisely: The eastern extremity of the known earth is limited by the meridian drawn through the metropolis of the Sinae, at a distance from Alexandria of 119.5 degrees, reckoned upon the equator, or about eight equinoctial hours. Ptolemy also speaks of "Sera, the Capital of the Seres". Henry Yule argued that Ptolemy's misrendering of the Indian Sea as a closed basin meant that Ptolemy must also have misplaced

4590-452: The accounts of Menander’s kingdom stretching as far as Sialkot, is hard to believe, as there is no numismatic evidence of him east of Taxila, even more hard is to believe is stretching even further east as thought earlier by historians based upon Indian references, which most likely are referring to Kushans . Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and longevity of his realm. Menander

4675-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has

4760-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in

4845-418: The camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him." The above seems to corroborate the claim: It is unlikely that Menander’s support of Buddhism was a pious reconstruction of

4930-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West

5015-410: The city of the Yonas came the Thera ("Elder") Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus . A coin of Menander I was found in the second oldest stratum (GSt 2) of the Butkara stupa suggesting a period of additional constructions during the reign of Menander. It is thought that Menander was the builder of the second oldest layer of the Butkara stupa, following its initial construction during

5100-474: The country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander-- by Menander in particular (at least if he actually crossed the Hypanis towards the east and advanced as far as the Imaüs ), for some were subdued by him personally and others by Demetrius , the son of Euthydemus the king of the Bactrians; and they took possession, not only of Patalena , but also, on

5185-500: The death of Eucratides. Menander was the first Indo-Greek ruler to introduce the representation of Athena Alkidemos ("Athena, saviour of the people") on his coins, probably in reference to a similar statue of Athena Alkidemos in Pella , capital of Macedon . This type was subsequently used by most of the later Indo-Greek kings. A king named Menander with the epithet Dikaios , "the Just", ruled in Punjab after 100 BC. Earlier scholars, such as A. Cunningham and W. W. Tarn, believed there

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5270-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of

5355-563: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c.  1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c.  1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c.  800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c.  500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been

5440-412: The help of Nestorian monks, who claimed that the land of " Serinda " was located north of India and produced the finest silk. The first surviving European accounts of the Seres are those in Ctesias 's 5th-century BC Indica , where he calls them "a people of portentous stature and longevity". The authenticity of the account is, however, disputed. Strabo 's 1st-century Geography mentions

5525-430: The highest quality in the world, surpassing even Parthian iron. Pliny also reports a curious description of the Seres made by an embassy from Taprobane to Emperor Claudius , suggesting they may be referring to the Indo-European populations of the Tarim Basin , such as the Tocharians : They also informed us that the side of their island which lies opposite to India is ten thousand stadia in length, and runs in

5610-506: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from

5695-424: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to

5780-711: The honour of his burial, ultimately sharing his ashes among them and placing them in "monuments" (possibly stupas ), in a manner reminiscent of the funerals of the Buddha. But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him. Despite his many successes, Menander's last years may have been fraught with another civil war, this time against Zoilos I who reigned in Gandhara. This

5865-551: The idea that Kattigara was located near modern Hanoi , within the ancient Chinese province of Jiaozhi that existed in northern Vietnam . However, archaeological finds of Roman and Mediterranean artefacts at Óc Eo (near Ho Chi Minh City ) in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam hint that this was the location of the port city related by Ptolemy. Roman golden medallions dating to the reign of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were uncovered there, seeming to suggest Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia during at least

5950-453: The legend ( Ancient Greek : ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ , romanized :  BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU / Kharoshthi : MAHARAJA TRATARASA MENADRASA). These alterations were possibly an adaption on Menander's part to the Indian coins of the Bactrian Eucratides I , who had conquered the westernmost parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, and are interpreted by Bopearachchi as an indication that Menander recaptured these western territories after

6035-413: The management of war elephants, and in horsemanship, and in the use of the war chariot, and in archery and fencing? – Not at all. I had learnt all that before. – But why? – With the object of warding off future danger. Generous findings of coins testify to the prosperity and extent of his empire: (with finds as far as Britain) the finds of his coins are the most numerous and the most widespread of all

6120-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which

6205-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c.  1450 BC ) are in

6290-703: The purpose of communicating their thoughts. The rest of their information (on the Serae) was of a similar nature to that communicated by our merchants. It was to the effect that the merchandize on sale was left by them upon the opposite bank of a river on their coast, and it was then removed by the natives, if they thought proper to deal on terms of exchange. On no grounds ought luxury with greater reason to be detested by us, than if we only transport our thoughts to these scenes, and then reflect, what are its demands, to what distant spots it sends in order to satisfy them, and for how mean and how unworthy an end! The country of "Serica"

6375-556: The rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom of Saraostus and Sigerdis . In short, Apollodorus says that Bactriana is the ornament of Ariana as a whole; and, more than that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni . Accounts describe Indo-Greek campaigns to Mathura , Panchala , Saketa , and potentially Pataliputra . The sage Patanjali around 150 BC, describes Menander campaigning as far as Mathura. The Hathigumpha inscription inscribed by Kharavela

6460-490: The result will be something like the following:— "The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world , and extending west to Imaus and the confines of Bactria . The people are civilized, mild, just, and frugal, eschewing collisions with their neighbours, and even shy of close intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk

6545-696: The same region as other Chinese-recorded Roman embassies to follow. As Ptolemy describes it, Serica was bordered in the north by the Annibi and Auxacii Montes , identified as the Altai Mountains . The Montes Asmiraei , a Serican district, are the Da-Uri Chain while the Cassi Montes are believed to be the mountains of the Gobi Desert . Ptolemy names the principal river of the Seres as

6630-415: The sea which is called Tabis. Not till nearly half the length of the coast which looks north-east has been past do you find inhabited country. The first race then encountered are the Seres, so famous for the fleecy product of their forests ... The Seres are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves ... So manifold

6715-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies

6800-486: The world, but Plutarch says that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas , across his realm. Menander was born into a Greek family in a village called Kalasi adjacent to Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram , Afghanistan), although another source says he was born near Sagala (modern Sialkot in

6885-469: The world: And afterwards, taking delight in the wisdom of the Elder, he handed over his kingdom to his son, and abandoning the household life for the houseless state, grew great in insight, and himself attained to Arahatship ! There is however little besides this testament to indicate that Menander in fact abdicated his throne in favour of his son. Based on numismatic evidence, William Tarn believed that he in fact died, leaving his wife Agathocleia to rule as

6970-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,

7055-579: Was also a patron of Buddhism , and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali ). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathocleia , perhaps the daughter of Agathocles , who ruled as regent for his son Strato I . Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from

7140-448: Was only one Menander, and assumed that the king had changed his epithet and/or was expelled from his western dominions. A number of coincidences led them to this assumption: However, modern numismatists such as Bopearachchi and R.C. Senior have shown, by differences in coin findings, style, and monograms, that there were two distinct rulers. The second Menander could have been a descendant of the first, and his Buddhist symbols may have been

7225-400: Was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end. Buddhist tradition relates that, following his discussions with Nāgasena, Menander adopted the Buddhist faith: May the venerable Nâgasena accept me as a supporter of the faith, as a true convert from to-day onwards as long as life shall last! He then handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from

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