Recently I have been studying more about the Greco-Bactrians and the Indo-Greeks due to my attempt to reconstruct Greco-Buddhism.

My search for more information about the Greco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks led me to refer to the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian.

Sima Qian describes that when Han China under the rule of Emperor Wu decided to learn more about the barbarians who dwelled in the west of China, he decided to send out Zhang Qian to learn more of the people of the West. Zhang Qian set out 138BC to the West with a hundred envoys and was guided by a Xiongnu guide. One of the first people he encountered barring the Yuezhi the moment he left the then border of Han China after crossing the mountains west of the Tarim basins were a peculiar group of people called the Dayuan.

Now Zhang Qian described the kingdom of the Dayuan to be as follows:-

“The capital of the kingdom of Dayuan is the city of Khujand with a distance from Chang-an of 12,550 li. The kingdom contains 60,000 families, comprising a population of 300,000, with 60,000 trained troops, a Viceroy, and a National Assistant Prince. The seat of the Governor General lies to the east at a distance of 4,031 li.”

This corresponds to modern day Khujand and interestingly enough to where we know Alexandria of the Eschate is located.

Now the people described here in 138BCE are interesting in that they are said to be:-

“The people of Dayuan uses grapes to make wine. Wealthy people store up as much as 10,000 bottles and over in their cellars, and keep it for decades without spoiling. This people are fond of their wine.”

This is interesting because the Xiongnu and Yuezhi and other tribes in the area are not described as ever making wine from grapes. In fact the whole concept of making wine from grapes is not something native to Central Asia. Zhang Qian was aware enough of this to specifically state it in his records and Sima Qian was aware enough of this peculiarity to state this in the Shiji as well.

And later when Zhang Qian met the Daxia who are likely the Greco-Bactrians and the Indo-Greeks ( these were Greeks who stayed in Bactria and India ) he had this to say.

“Their customs Daxia ( Greco-Bactrians, Indo-Greeks ) are similar to the Dayuan. The people settles in a fixed placed and live in walled cities and regular houses like the people of Dayuan..”

This is highly interesting as we know that there is one Greek city there from Greek and Roman records. It is called Alexandria of the Eschate or Alexandria the furthest and was founded in 329BC by Alexander himself!! The city was fortified in Alexander’s time and was considered by the then standard a very big city having a wall running 4 miles. The city then became the furthest outpost of the Seleucid Empire before falling under first the rule of the Diodotids, then fell under the nominal rule of the Euthydemus and the house of Eucratides.

It is generally presumed that the city of Alexandria of Eschate was the first Hellenic city to fall when the Scythians ( known to the Chinese as the Yuezhi ) invaded the Greco-Bactrian kingdom under Eucratides in 160BC. Then later the Greco-Bactrian cities slowly fell one after the other to the Scythians between 140BCE to 120BCE due to subsequent attacks till the Greco-Bactrian states finally came under total Scythian rule by 100BCE.

However the Greeks under Demetrius in 180BCE had already expanded into India following the collapse of the Mauryans. This group created new towns and became the Indo-Greeks. They would then be the only remaining torch of Greek civilization in the East. They were unified and strengthened under Menander I who managed to expand further into India and repel the Scythians to the north. However from Strato I onwards the Indo-Greeks empire splintered into many small city states and their strength diminished markedly which made them vulnerable to attacks. This happened from 120BCE onwards till the last Indo-Greek city state fell in 50AD under the rule of Hermaeus.

That is what we are led to believe. However this is not what Shiji seem to indicate. If the Dayuan are indeed the Alexandrians of Eschate for one they were definitely self ruling in 137BC when Zhang Qian visited them. Zhang Qian was quite specific they were self ruling. This means they were still self ruling 23 years after their supposed takeover in Greek and Roman literature.

In fact what is interesting is that Shiji states this:-

“The Yuezhi lies 2000 or 3000 li west of Dayuan. The rule north of the river Kuei ( this is believed to be the Oxus ). To the south of the Yuezhi lies the Daxia ( the Greco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks ).”

Interesting, that means that they were not ruled by the Yuezhi, they were merely cut off from the Greco-Bactrians by the Yuezhi. Of course because the Alexandrians of Eschate now had limited contact and ability to trade with the Greco-Bactrians it is not surprising that they were thought to have fallen.

Now if it sounds absurd that the Yuezhi successfully cut off the Alexandrians of Eschate from the rest of the world, note that the Yuezhi also kidnapped Zhang Qian, an ambassador of Han China and basically detained him for a few years before letting him go. The Yuezhi according to Chinese sources was basically trying to block any trade or potential human movement and this did not stop till they suffered internal political turmoil.

Chinese sources are not the only source that state that the city of Alexandria of Eschate might have survived, remained self ruled and maintain its Hellenic culture. Quintus Curtius Rufus the Roman historian to Emperor Claudius stated in writings between 41AD to 50AD that the people of Alexandria of Eschate mantained their Hellenistic culture based upon reports from travellers who were there somewhere in 30BCE!!

This means that the city of Alexandria of Eschate continued to survive 130 years after its supposed destruction by the Scythian!!

The more interesting thing is that according to Sima Qian’s Shiji the Dayuan are very organized in their system of rule and are independent. This is opposed to the Daxia ( Greco-Bactrian ) who this is what Zhang Qian quite unflatteringly has to say:-

“Their customs Daxia ( Greco-Bactrians, Indo-Greeks ) are similar to the Dayuan ( the people of Alexandria at Eschate ). The people settles in a fixed placed and live in walled cities and regular houses like the people of Dayuan. The Daxia has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling certain cities. The people are inept in the use of arms and afraid of battle, but they are clever at commerce. After the Yuezhi moved west and attacked Daxia, the entire country quickly came under their dominion. The population of the country is large, numbering some 1,000,000 or more persons. The capital is called the city of Lanshi and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold.”

So by the time Zhang Qian got to Bactria the Greeks had already lost Bactria to the Scythians while the Dayuan who are very likely to be the Alexandrians of the Eschate was still independent.

It should be noted that Strabo concurred with this with roughly the same timeline that before the 1st century BC the Greeks lost Bactria.

“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.”

Of course he had nothing to say about Alexandria of Eschate, given that as we already stated the Yuezhi/Scythian tribes had basically cut off the Alexandrian of Eschate from the rest of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. Note that Strabo also had nothing to say of Indo-Greek kings like Agathocles and Strato I who got increasingly cut off from the Hellenic world with the rise of Parthia and the increasing presence of the Kushan on their Western fronts.

Now of all the non-nomadic foreign nations Han China had to deal with Dayuan had the most contact with China. There were two reasons. Due to its geographical position with China being the first settled nation outside China’s Western front China would naturally come into contact with the Dayuan the moment they left China. In fact Emperor Wu taking the recommendations of Zhang Qian decreed that Han China should in fact develop trade and political relationships with Dayuan. The other two countries named in his decree is Greco-Bactria and Persia. Later India was added to the list of countries that China should develop trade and political relationships with.

The second reason the Dayuan was sought after is that Dayuan were excellent horse breeders and had horses of superior breed to anything in China or among the Xiongnu and Yuezhi. This augmented the Chinese army big time and helped neutralize the Xiongnu threat to China. The Chinese empire practically bought horses from the Dayuan.

Indeed it was because the Dayuan cancelled a shipment of horse to Emperor Wudi that brought the Chinese to first go to war with the Dayuan in 104BC. The first battle was a failure as the Chinese sent too little troops. In the second battle the Dayuan were heavily outnumbered and retreated into their cities before giving 3000 horses to the Chinese.

Note that despite this battle seventy years later in 30BC we have a few Roman soldiers still talking about an intact Hellenistic Alexandria of Eschate which shows how tenacious these people were. They were beset increasingly on the West by the Parthians, on the south by the Yuezhi, north by the diminished Xiongnu, and to the east so long as they continue to provide horses the Chinese will leave them alone.

What happened to the Alexandrians of Eschate is unknown. They were prevalent in the records of the Early Han but began to diminish from the records in the Later Han period. There is clearly a mention of a Dayuan merchant town in the Tarim basin up till the Later Han. This town is clearly distinguished from the Dayuan country and we have no such mention of a town in Western records. The Dayuan disappeared from Chinese records by the Three Kingdom period and indeed disappeared from Western records as well by 250AD.

What is clear is that this description of Zhang Qian of the Dayuan which is:-

“The peoples west from Dayuan to Anxi have deep sunken eyes, and bushy beards and whiskers. They are clever traders and dispute about the division of money. Women are honorably treated among them, and their husbands are guided by them in their decisions.”

Remains the way modern Chinese depict the legendary horse riders from many walled cities of the Western frontier. Indeed in many Wuxia the civilized people of Central Asia are always depicted in stories as being great horse riders, living in cities with high walls and are deep eyed and their males all have bushy beard.

So the Dayuan, the Alexandrians of Eschate live on in popular Chinese culture.

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