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77-510: The Noin-Ula burial site was first discovered in the spring of 1913 by Andrei Ballod, a Russian geologist doing survey work for a new gold-mining company. After discovering a number of already dug mounds, Ballod assumed they were old goldworkings and excavated one, uncovering a number of artifacts. Realizing the importance of his find, he sent some of the artifacts to the Imperial Russian Geological Society . While

154-601: A Greek kingdom far in the east. Following the death of Alexander, control of Bactria passed on to his general Seleucus I Nicator . The fertility of the land and prosperity of Bactria by the early 3rd century BC led to the creation of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom by Diodotus as a breakaway state of the Seleucid empire. The Bactrian Greeks grew increasingly more powerful and started expanding further, invading north-western India between 190 and 180 BC under king Demetrius ,

231-575: A Hellenistic army and composed mostly of native Bactrian, Sogdian and other Indo-Iranian light horsemen. Polybius mentions 10,000 horse at the Battle of the Arius river in 208 BC. Greco-Bactrian armies also included units of heavily armored cataphracts and small elite units of companion cavalry . The third arm of the Greco-Bactrian army was the Indian war elephants , which are depicted in some coins with

308-524: A nomadic steppe nation called Sakastan . Around 140 BC, eastern Scythians (the Saka , or Sacaraucae of Greek sources), apparently being pushed forward by the southward migration of the Yuezhi started to invade various parts of Parthia and Bactria. Their invasion of Parthia is well documented: they attacked in the direction of the cities of Merv , Hecatompolis and Ecbatana . They managed to defeat and kill

385-583: A period of great cultural syncretism, exemplified by the development of Greco-Buddhism in the region of Gandhara . Back in Bactria, Eucratides I , either a general of Demetrius or an ally of the Seleucids , managed to overthrow the Euthydemid dynasty and establish his own rule, the short-lived Eucratid dynasty, around 170 BC, probably dethroning Antimachus I and Antimachus II . The Indian branch of

462-519: A policy of exiling rebelling Greek communities to that region long before it fell to Greek conquest. Therefore, it had a considerable Greek community that was expanded upon after Macedonian conquest. The Greco-Bactrians were known for their high level of Hellenistic sophistication, and kept regular contact with both the Mediterranean and neighbouring India. They were on friendly terms with India and exchanged ambassadors. During ancient times, it

539-624: A river bearing the same name and emptying into the Oxus ), and Darapsa, and several others. Among these was Eucratidia , which was named after its ruler. In 247 BC, the Ptolemaic empire (the Greek rulers of Egypt following the death of Alexander the Great ) captured the Seleucid capital, Antioch . In the resulting power vacuum, Andragoras , the Seleucid satrap of Parthia, proclaimed independence from

616-527: A sepulcher: As Eucratides returned from India, he was killed on the way back by his son, whom he had associated to his rule, and who, without hiding his parricide, as if he didn't kill a father but an enemy, ran with his chariot over the blood of his father, and ordered the corpse to be left without a sepulture. During or after his Indian campaigns, Eucratides was attacked and defeated by the Parthian king Mithridates I , possibly in alliance with partisans of

693-568: A tower ( thorakion ) or howdah housing men armed with bows and javelins. This force grew as the Greco-Bactrian kingdom expanded into India and was widely depicted in Greco-Bactrian coinage. Other units in the Bactrian military included mercenaries or levies from various surrounding peoples such as the Scythians , Dahae , Indians, and Parthians . Greeks first began settling the region long before Alexander conquered it. The Persian Empire had

770-790: A vast territory, as indicated by his minting of coins in many Indian mints, possibly as far as the Jhelum River in Punjab . In the end, however, he was repulsed by the Indo-Greek king Menander I , who managed to create a huge unified territory. In a rather confused account, Justin explains that Eucratides was killed on the field by "his son and joint king", who would be his own son, either Eucratides II or Heliocles I (although there are speculations that it could have been his enemy's son Demetrius II ). The son drove over Eucratides' bloodied body with his chariot and left him dismembered without

847-660: Is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg , Russia . It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography , ethnography , ecology and statistics . The society was founded in Saint Petersburg , Russia on 6 (18) August 1845. Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917 , it was known as the Imperial Russian Geographical Society . The order to establish

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924-769: Is also described in western Classical sources from the 1st century BC: The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Bactriana, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari , and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the Jaxartes , opposite the Sacae and Sogdiani . Around that time the king Heliocles abandoned Bactria and moved his capital to the Kabul valley, from where he ruled his Indian holdings. Apparently there were two other Greco-Bactrian kings preceding Heliocles in

1001-465: Is the odontological study of preserved enamel caps of seven permanent teeth belonging to a young woman. The study describes highly diagnostic traits with a very rare combination found in certain ancient and modern populations of the Caspian–Aral region and in the northern Indus–Ganges interfluve. A Parthian woolen cloth in the grave indicates that the woman was of northwestern Indian origin associated with

1078-760: The Achaemenid cavalry contingents. 2,000 Bactrian horsemen fought at the Granicus against Alexander and 9,000 at the Battle of Gaugamela on the left flank of Darius' army. Herodotus also mentions the widespread use of chariots among the Bactrians. After Alexander's conquest of Bactria, Bactrian cavalry units served in his army during the invasion of India and after the Indian campaign, Alexander enlarged his elite companion cavalry by adding Bactrians, Sogdians and other east Iranian cavalrymen. Both Aeschylus (The Persians, v. 318) and Curtius mention that Bactria

1155-457: The Hydaspes towards the end of his reign ( c.  138 BC, before his kingdom was weakened by his death in 136 BC). Heliocles I ended up ruling what territory remained. The defeat, both in the west and the east, may have left Bactria very weakened and open to nomadic invasions. A nomadic steppe people called the Yuezhi inhabited a region thousands of miles to the east of Bactria on

1232-445: The Hydaspes river until he was finally repelled and returned to Bactria. However, soon after this the kingdom started to decline. The Parthians and nomadic tribes such as Sakas and Yuezhi became a major threat. Eucratides was killed by his own son in about 145 BC, which may have further destabilised the kingdom. Heliocles was the last king to rule in Bactria, after his death, Greek political power ceased in Bactria. Even after

1309-1091: The Kuliab area of Tajikistan , in eastern Greco-Bactria, and dated to 200–195 BC, a Greek by the name of Heliodotus, dedicating a fire altar to Hestia , mentions Euthydemus as the greatest of all kings, and his son Demetrius I as "Demetrios Kallinikos", meaning "Demetrius the Glorious Conqueror": τόνδε σοι βωμὸν θυώδη, πρέσβα κυδίστη θεῶν Ἑστία, Διὸς κ(α)τ᾽ ἄλσος καλλίδενδρον ἔκτισεν καὶ κλυταῖς ἤσκησε λοιβαῖς ἐμπύροις Ἡλιόδοτος ὄφρα τὸμ πάντων μέγιστον Εὐθύδημον βασιλέων τοῦ τε παῖδα καλλίνικον ἐκπρεπῆ Δημήτριον πρευμενὴς σώιζηις ἐκηδεῖ(ς) σὺν τύχαι θεόφρον[ι]. tónde soi bōmòn thuṓdē, présba kydístē theôn Hestía, Diòs kat' álsos kallídendron éktisen kaì klytaîs ḗskēse loibaîs empýrois Hēliodótos óphra tòm pántōn mégiston Euthýdēmon basiléōn toû te paîda kallínikon ekprepê Dēmḗtrion preumenḕs sṓizēis ekēdeîs sỳn Týchai theόphroni. "Heliodotus dedicated this fragrant altar for Hestia , venerable goddess, illustrious amongst all, in

1386-519: The Scythian "animal" style . A surviving portrait shows a low nose bridge, eyes with epicanthic fold , long wavy hair, divided in the middle, and a braid visibly tied and falling from the tip of the head over the right ear. Such braids were found in other kurgan tombs in the Noin Ula cemetery, they were braided from horsehair, and kept in special cases. The braid was a part of a formal hairstyle, and

1463-1028: The Twelfth Congress of Russian Natural Scientists and Physicians held in Moscow. Here they pushed for more professionalism to distinguish ethnographers from missionaries and amateurs. In 1917 David Zolotarev and Nikolai Mogilyansky of the RGO participated in the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia . Greco-Bactrians The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom ( Greek : Βασιλεία τῆς Βακτριανῆς , romanized :  Basileía tês Baktrianês , lit.   'Kingdom of Bactria')

1540-739: The Arctic, Camp Barneo . In 2009, the Minister of Defence of Russia Sergei Shoigu was elected the President of the Society. As of March 2022 , he is still in office. In 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Society was established. The president of Russia Vladimir Putin was appointed chairman of the Board. Other board members included Russian oligarchs, politicians and Albert II, Prince of Monaco . The appointments of Shoigu and Putin resulted in

1617-590: The Chinese protectorate that lasted 56 years, from 47 BCE to 9 CE. Wuzhuliu was buried in 13 CE, a date established from the inscription on a cup given to him by the Chinese Emperor during a reception in the Shanlin park near Chang'an in 1 BCE. The most dramatic objects of Wuzhuliu's funeral inventory are the textiles, of local, Chinese and Bactrian origin. The art objects show that Xiongnu craftsmen used

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1694-550: The Ethnography department, when the RGO was originally set up. During the 1850s and 1860s the ethnographic division gathered and published material such as works of folklore and the byt or "way of life" which they regarded as reflecting the "essence" of the indigenous people of the Russian Empire. In 1909 Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin , Vladimir Bogdanov and Vsevolod Miller convened the ethnographic sub-section of

1771-709: The Euthydemids tried to strike back. An Indian king called Demetrius (very likely Demetrius II ) is said to have returned to Bactria with 60,000 men to oust the usurper, but he apparently was defeated and killed in the encounter: Eucratides led many wars with great courage, and, while weakened by them, was put under siege by Demetrius, king of the Indians. He made numerous sorties, and managed to vanquish 60,000 enemies with 300 soldiers, and thus liberated after four months, he put India under his rule. Eucratides campaigned extensively in present-day northwestern India, and ruled

1848-814: The Euthydemids: The Bactrians, involved in various wars, lost not only their rule but also their freedom, as, exhausted by their wars against the Sogdians, the Arachotes, the Dranges, the Arians and the Indians, they were finally crushed, as if drawn of all their blood, by an enemy weaker than them, the Parthians. Following his victory, Mithridates I gained Bactria's territory west of the Arius ,

1925-632: The Geographical Society of the USSR in 1938. After Shokalsky its presidents were geneticist Nikolai Vavilov (1931–1940), zoologist Lev Berg (1940–1950), parasitologist Evgeny Pavlovsky (1952–1964), glaciologist Stanislav Kalesnik (1964–1977), and polar explorer Aleksei Treshnikov (1977–1991). The Society has convened numerous congresses and has awarded four types of medals, the tri-annual Grand Gold Medal, three bi-annual medals named after Litke, Semyonov, and Przhevalsky, and also

2002-763: The Great Silk Road and some imported objects and fragments of fabrics are recognized as Greek . The fabric, color, weaving methods and embroidery of the cloth were similar to the fabric produced in the Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast for the Scythians . Some tombs include horse burials and one tomb had especially lavish furnishings. The coffin was apparently made in China, and the interred person had many of his possessions buried with him. His horse trappings were elaborately decorated and his leather-covered saddle

2079-516: The Great . These territories possibly are identical with the Bactrian satrapies of Tapuria and Traxiane . Demetrius , the son of Euthydemus, started an invasion of the subcontinent before 180 BC, and a few years after the Mauryan empire had been overthrown by the Shunga dynasty . Historians differ on the motivations behind the invasion. Some historians suggest that the invasion of the subcontinent

2156-569: The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom when he seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC and became Basileus , or king Diodotus I of Bactria. The preserved ancient sources (see below) are somewhat contradictory, and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a high chronology ( c.  255 BC) and a low chronology (c. 246 BC) for Diodotus' secession. The high chronology has

2233-485: The Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I confronted the invasion of the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great , he commanded 10,000 horsemen). Zhang Qian actually visited Bactria (named Daxia in Chinese ) in 126 BC, and portrays a country which was totally demoralized and whose political system had vanished, although its urban infrastructure remained: Daxia (Bactria) is located over 2,000 li southwest of Dayuan, south of

2310-520: The Gui (Oxus) river. Its people cultivate the land and have cities and houses. Their customs are like those of Dayuan. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. The people are poor in the use of arms and afraid of battle, but they are clever at commerce. After the Great Yuezhi moved west and attacked Daxia, the entire country came under their sway. The population of

2387-550: The IGU maintains an open door for continued engagement with colleagues in Russia. In October 2023 an investigation revealed that two people purporting to be employees of the RGS tried to recruit a Norwegian as a spy. The Imperial Society comprised four departments: Physical Geography, Mathematical Geography, Ethnography, and Statistics. Nikolai Nadezhdin was involved in the foundation of

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2464-687: The Iaxartes forms also the boundary between the Sogdians and the nomads. Euthydemus was attacked by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III around 210 BC. Although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat. He then successfully resisted a three-year siege in the fortified city of Bactra , before Antiochus finally decided to recognize the new ruler, and to offer one of his daughters to Euthydemus's son Demetrius around 206 BC. Classical accounts also relate that Euthydemus negotiated peace with Antiochus III by suggesting that he deserved credit for overthrowing

2541-607: The Indo-Greeks and influenced Indian art, religion and culture, leading to new syncretic art called Greco-Buddhist art . Due to the influence of the Greeks, both Buddhist and Hindu deities were represented in human form for the first time. Bactria was inhabited by Greek settlers since the time of Darius I , when the entire population of Barca , in Cyrenaica , was deported to the region for refusing to surrender assassins. Greek influence increased under Xerxes I , after

2618-654: The Noin-Ula site. As with some finds of the Pazyryk culture , the Noin Ula graves had been flooded and subsequently frozen, thus preserving the organic material to a remarkable degree. The tombs were opened in antiquity and the bodies were removed. This corroborates the Han chronicles which state the leaders of one of the nomad tribes, oppressed by the Xiongnu at the height of their empire, took an unprecedented step 100 years after

2695-841: The Parthian culture. The finds suggest that at the beginning of the Common Era, peoples of Parthian origin were incorporated within Xiongnu society. original colors of a carpet from Noyon uul]. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937. ekspeditsii P. K. Kozlova [Brief reports of the expedition to study Northern Mongolia in conjunction with the Mongolia-Tibetan expedition of P. K. Kozlov]. Leningrad, 1925. artefacts of Noyon uul (results of spectroscopic analysis)]. //Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii 167 (1981): Russian Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society ( Russian : Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество (РГО) ), or RGO ,

2772-641: The Parthian king Phraates II , son of Mithridates I, routing the Greek mercenary troops under his command (troops he had acquired during his victory over Antiochus VII ). Again in 123 BC, Phraates's successor, his uncle Artabanus I , was killed by the Scythians. When the Han Chinese diplomat Zhang Qian visited the Yuezhi in 126 BC, trying to obtain their alliance to fight the Xiongnu , he explained that

2849-576: The Parthians, partly because, used to the rule of the Macedonians, they disliked the arrogance of this new people. Thus, Demetrius, supported by the Persians, Elymes and Bactrians, routed the Parthians in numerous battles. At the end, deceived by a false peace treaty, he was taken prisoner. The 5th century historian Orosius reports that Mithridates I managed to occupy territory between the Indus and

2926-598: The Seleucids, declaring himself king. A decade later, he was defeated and killed by Arsaces of Parthia, leading to the rise of a Parthian Empire . This cut Bactria off from contact with the Greek world. Overland trade continued at a reduced rate, while sea trade between Greek Egypt and Bactria developed. Diodotus was succeeded by his son Diodotus II , who allied himself with the Parthian Arsaces in his fight against Seleucus II : Soon after, relieved by

3003-436: The Society getting more subsidies from the Russian state. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine led to BP CEO Bernard Looney 's resignation as a trustee of the Society and membership of Russia within International Geographical Union (IGU) was suspended as of 7 March 2022, pending a formal decision on its membership at the next IGU General Assembly in July 2022. Nevertheless, while suspending Russia’s formal membership,

3080-445: The Xiongnu through commercial exchange or tributary payment, as the Yuezhi may have remained tributaries of the Xiongnu a long time following their defeat. Embroidered carpets were one of the highest prized luxury items for the Xiongnu. The Noin-Ula burials were intensively studied, but because the cemetery was desecrated in antiquity and bodies removed, no craniological, odontological, or genetic studies could be conducted. One exception

3157-429: The Yuezhi again invaded his territory in the Paropamisadae (while the "eastern" Indo-Greek kings would continue to rule until around AD 10 in the area of the Punjab region ). Overall, the Yuezhi remained in Bactria for more than a century. They became Hellenized to some degree, as suggested by their adoption of the Greek alphabet to write their later Iranian court language, and by numerous remaining coins, minted in

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3234-400: The Yuezhi were settled north of the Oxus but also held under their sway the territory south of Oxus, which makes up the remainder of Bactria. According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi represented a considerable force of between 100,000 and 200,000 mounted archer warriors, with customs identical to those of the Xiongnu, which would probably have easily defeated Greco-Bactrian forces (in 208 BC when

3311-403: The advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotus would have become independent there early in Antiochus' reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War , a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire. Diodotus, the governor of

3388-407: The bi-annual Semen Dezhnev prize. By 1970, it had published more than 2,000 volumes of geographical literature, including the annual Zapiski (since 1846) and Izvestiya (since 1865). The society reverted to its original name upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The main offices of the Society are in St. Petersburg. Since 2002 the society has sponsored an annual seasonal ice base in

3465-401: The borders of the Qin State in China by about 230 BC. Although a Greek population was present in Bactria by the 5th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the land by 327 BC and founded many cities, most of them named Alexandria , and settled with Macedonians and other Greeks . These colonists further strengthened the Greek population in the region, thereby laying the foundation of

3542-420: The braid resembles the death-masks of the Tashtyk . From these observations, L.N. Gumilev concluded that among the Xiongnu of the 1st century BC, a far-eastern ideal of beauty overcame the traditional western model, which continued in the art of the Scythian "animal" style. Among the most important artifacts from Noin-Ula are embroidered portrait images. The portraits are not made in the Chinese manner, and are

3619-571: The country is large, numbering some 1,000,000 or more persons. The capital is called the city of Lanshi ( Bactra ) and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold. ( Records of the Great Historian by Sima Qian , quoting Zhang Qian, trans. Burton Watson) The Yuezhi further expanded southward into Bactria around 120 BC, apparently further pushed out by invasions from the northern Wusun . It seems they also pushed Scythian tribes before them, which continued to India, where they came to be identified as Indo-Scythians . This invasion of Bactria

3696-412: The death of Diodotus, Arsaces made peace and concluded an alliance with his son, also by the name of Diodotus; some time later he fought against Seleucos who came to punish the rebels, and he prevailed: the Parthians celebrated this day as the one that marked the beginning of their freedom. Euthydemus , an Ionian Greek from Magnesia according to Polybius , and possibly satrap of Sogdiana , overthrew

3773-492: The decline of the Xiongnu. Wishing to unite their subjects, and driven by a desire for revenge, the new nomadic leaders desecrated the Chanyus ' royal tombs. All the burials were unsealed, and the remains of the Chanyus were removed, together with some of their clothing, weaponry and symbols of authority. However, the robbers left Xiongnu weaponry, home utensils, and art objects, and Chinese artifacts of bronze, nephrite , lacquered wood and textiles. Many artifacts show origins along

3850-412: The descendants of Greek priests who had once lived near Didyma (western Asia Minor ) were forcibly relocated in Bactria, and later on with other exiled Greeks, most of them prisoners of war. Greek communities and language were already common in the area by the time that Alexander the Great conquered Bactria in 328 BC. Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria (and probably the surrounding provinces) founded

3927-401: The dynasty of Diodotus II around 230–220 BC and started his own dynasty. Euthydemus's control extended to Sogdiana, going beyond the city of Alexandria Eschate founded by Alexander the Great in Ferghana : And they also held Sogdiana, situated above Bactriana towards the east between the Oxus River, which forms the boundary between the Bactrians and the Sogdians, and the Iaxartes River. And

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4004-433: The edges of the Han Empire called the Hexi Corridor . Shortly before 176 BC, the Xiongnu invaded the Hexi Corridor, forcing the Yuezhi to flee the region. In 162 BC the Yuezhi were driven west to the Ili River valley by the Xiongnu. In 132 they were driven out of the Ili valley by the Wusun . The surviving Yuezhi migrated again south towards the territory just north of the Oxus River where they encountered and expelled

4081-404: The end of the 1st century BC. Antigonus might have briefly won a battle against the Yuezhi or the Saka before he was overrun himself. Around 12 BC the Yuezhi then moved further to northern India where they established the Kushan Empire . Before the Greek conquest, the armies of Bactria were overwhelmingly composed of cavalry and were well known as effective soldiers, making up large portions of

4158-428: The expeditions of Richard Maack , Pyotr Kropotkin , Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Nikolai Przhevalsky , Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai , Pyotr Kozlov , Vladimir Obruchev , and Lev Berg . It helped set up the first polar stations in Russia and was one of the first to publish detailed studies of the Russian folklore and Ukrainian fairs. The Society pioneered the systematic exploration of the Northern Urals in 1847–1850, of

4235-504: The fall of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, their rich Hellenistic influence remained strong for many more centuries. The Yuezhi invaders settled in Bactria and became Hellenized . They subsequently founded the Kushan empire around 30 AD, and adopted the Greek alphabet to write their language and added Greek deities to their pantheon . The Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum was at the doorstep of India and known for its high level of Hellenistic sophistication. Greek art travelled from Bactria with

4312-462: The farthest reaches of the Amur River in 1854–1863, of the vast areas of Kashgaria , Dzungaria , and Mongolia from the 1870s onward. By 1917 the RGO was composed of eleven subdivisions and 1,000 members. The founding members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society included: The Society's official presidents were Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia in 1845–1892 and Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia in 1892–1917, but it

4389-411: The fashion of the Macedonian army . A Greek army in Bactria during the anti-Macedonian revolt of 323 BC numbered 23,000. The army of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was then a multi-ethnic force with Greek colonists making up large portions of the infantry as pike phalanxes, supported by light infantry units of local Bactrians and mercenary javelin-wielding Thureophoroi . The cavalry arm was very large for

4466-401: The find was recognized as significant, nothing was done for eleven years due to the chaos of the First World War and subsequent revolutions in Russia and Mongolia . In 1924, Pyotr Kozlov was alerted to the find by a member of Ballod's team. After a colleague, Sergei Kondratiev, confirmed that the find was a major discovery, Kozlov changed his plans and eventually excavated eight mounds at

4543-512: The grove of Zeus , with beautiful trees; he made libations and sacrifices so that the greatest of all kings Euthydemus , as well as his son, the glorious, victorious and remarkable Demetrius , be preserved of all pains, with the help of Tyche with divine thoughts." Following the departure of the Seleucid army, the Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded. In the west, areas in north-eastern Iran may have been absorbed, possibly as far as into Parthia , whose ruler had been defeated by Antiochus

4620-447: The hallmarks of a true Hellenistic city with a Greek theater , gymnasium and some houses with colonnaded courtyards. The kingdom reached the height of its power under king Eucratides the Great , who seems to have seized power through a coup around 171 BC and created his own dynasty. Eucratides also invaded India and successfully fought against the Indo-Greek kings, minting many Indian coins and temporarily holding territory as far as

4697-442: The handiwork of a Central Asian or Scythian artist, or perhaps of a Bactrian or Parthian master in the capital of the Chanyus (who had active diplomatic relations with these Central Asian states). It has been claimed that the portraits depict Greco-Bactrians , or are Greek depictions of Scythian soldiers from the Black Sea. According to Sergey Yatsenko, the carpets were made by the Yuezhi in Bactria , and were obtained by

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4774-401: The historian Strabo, as having "subdued more tribes than Alexander." The invasion was completed by 175 BC. This established in the northwestern Indian Subcontinent what is called the Indo-Greek Kingdom , which lasted for almost two centuries until around 10 AD. The Buddhist faith flourished under the Indo-Greek kings, especially Menander who was arguably the most powerful of them all. It was also

4851-403: The original rebel Diodotus and that he was protecting Central Asia from nomadic invasions thanks to his defensive efforts: ... for if he did not yield to this demand, neither of them would be safe: Seeing that great hordes of Nomads were close at hand, who were a danger to both; and that if they admitted them into the country, it would certainly be utterly barbarised. In an inscription found in

4928-433: The region have also attested to a major Macedonian presence, as evidenced by the presence of symbols, style of coinage, and epigraphic names. Greek garrisons in the satrapy of Bactria were housed in fortresses called phrouria and at major cities. Military colonists were settled in the countryside and were each given an allotment of land called a kleros . These colonists numbered in the tens of thousands, and were trained in

5005-400: The regions of Tapuria and Traxiane : "The satrapy Turiva and that of Aspionus were taken away from Eucratides by the Parthians." In the year 141 BC, the Greco-Bactrians seem to have entered in an alliance with the Seleucid king Demetrius II to fight again against Parthia: The people of the Orient welcomed his (Demetrius II's) arrival, partly because of the cruelty of the Arsacid king of

5082-449: The same region and from the same dynasty, named Eucratides II and Plato Epiphanes , the latter probably being a brother of Eucratides I. Since Heliocles left the Bactrian territory, he is technically the last Greco-Bactrian king, although several of his descendants, moving beyond the Hindu Kush, would form the western part of the Indo-Greek kingdom . The last of these "western" Indo-Greek kings, Hermaeus , would rule until around 70 BC, when

5159-413: The society came directly from Emperor Nicholas I . The motive for the establishment was to encourage geographical research on domestic topics, which has later been described as a Russian nationalist political goal. The filial societies were established at the Caucasus (1850), Irkutsk (1851), Vilnius (1867), Orenburg (1868), Kiev (1873), Omsk (1877), and other cities. The Society organized and funded

5236-503: The son of Euthydemus . This invasion led to the creation of the Indo-Greek kingdom , as a successor state of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, and was subsequently ruled by kings Apollodotus I and Pantaleon , who were the first to issue coins in the Indian standard. Historical records show that many rich and prosperous cities were present in the kingdom, but only a few such cities have been excavated such as Ai-Khanoum and Bactra . The city of Ai-Khanoum, in north-eastern Afghanistan, had all

5313-422: The style of the Greco-Bactrian kings, with the text in Greek. There is evidence for the persistence of Greek populations in Bactria after the collapse of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. For example, an obol of a previously unknown ruler called Antigonus has been found and it seems he ruled after the kingdom's collapse, as evidenced by the use of a lunate sigma and the lower art quality of the coin, perhaps dating from

5390-408: The thousand cities of Bactria ( Latin : Theodotus, mille urbium Bactrianarum praefectus ), defected and proclaimed himself king; all the other people of the Orient followed his example and seceded from the Macedonians. The new kingdom, highly urbanized and considered one of the richest of the Orient ( opulentissimum illud mille urbium Bactrianum imperium "The extremely prosperous Bactrian empire of

5467-483: The thousand cities", according to the historian Justin ), was to further grow in power and engage in territorial expansion to the east and the west: The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of 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… Their cities were Bactra (also called Zariaspa, through which flows

5544-644: Was a Greek state of the Hellenistic period located in Central Asia . The kingdom was founded c.  256 BC by the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I Soter and lasted until its fall c.  120 BC. At its peak the kingdom consisted of present-day Afghanistan , Tajikistan , Uzbekistan , and Turkmenistan , and small parts of Kazakhstan , Pakistan and Iran . An extension further east, with military campaigns and settlements, may have reached

5621-636: Was able to field a force of 30,000 horse. Most of these horsemen were lightly armed, using bows and javelins before closing with sword and spear. Herodotus describes the Persian cavalry of Mardonius at the Battle of Plataea (which included Bactrians) as horse archers ( hippotoxotai ). Bactrian infantry is described by Herodotus as wearing caps in the Median style, short spears and reed Scythian style bows. Alexander and Seleucus I both settled Macedonians and other Greeks in Bactria, and archeological finds in

5698-655: Was actually run by the Vice-Presidents: Fyodor Litke (1845–1850, 1855–1857), Count Mikhail Muravyov (1850–1857), Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1873–1914), and Yuly Shokalsky (1914–1931). The Constantine Medal was a gold medal worth 200 silver roubles and was the highest award of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. It was established and named after the Society’s first chairman, Great Duke Constantine and

5775-619: Was awarded from 1849 to 1929 to explorers who had made a significant geographical discovery or to authors of outstanding publications in geography, ethnography or Russian statistics. From 1924 to 1929 the Medal was referred to as “The highest award of the Russian Geographical Society”. Recipients of the medal included: The Society changed its name to the State Geographical Society in 1926 and to

5852-655: Was intended to show their support for the Mauryan empire , and to protect the Buddhist faith from the religious persecutions of the Shungas as alleged by Buddhist scriptures (Tarn). Other historians have argued however that the accounts of these persecutions have been exaggerated ( Thapar , Lamotte ). Demetrius may have been as far as the imperial capital Pataliputra in today's eastern India (today Patna ). However, these campaigns are typically attributed to Menander . His conquests were mentioned along with that of Menander by

5929-420: Was threaded with black and red wool clipped to resemble velvet. Magnificent textiles included a woven wool rug lined with thin leather with purple, brown, and white felt appliqué work, and textiles of Greco-Bactrian , Parthian and Anatolian origin. Kurgan No 6 was the tomb of Wuzhuliu (烏珠留若提 Wuzhuliuruodi , reigned 8 BCE–13 CE), who is mentioned in the Chinese annals. He is famous for freeing his people from

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