Arsaces is called Asteh by Eastern writers, and is said to have been a descendant of tho ancient Persian kings. When he gained the kingdom, it is said lie promised to exact no tribute, and merely to consider himself as the head of a con federacy of princes, united for tho double object of maintaining their independence and freeing Persia front a foreign yoke. This is the commencement Of that era of Persian history called by Eastern writers lifuluk-ut-Turtif, or commonwealth of tribes. In A.D. 906 Rhages was taken by Ismail, founder of the Samani dynasty. It ceased now to be a seat of empire, and in A.D. 967 became the capital of the house of Shemgur, a race of petty princes who maintained a kind of independ ence, while the dynasties of Saman and Dilemee divided the empire of Persia, In A.D. 1027 Ithages was the last conquest of Mahmud of Ghazni.
Baaria.
The sole evidence of the long line of Bactrian kings exists in the emanations from their mints, exumed from thue to time in and around their ancient seats of government. In the almost total absence of annals, whether occidental or oriental, their coins furnish nearly all the testi mony at present available with which to recon struct the story of the survival, re-institution, and extinction, of the dominant Hellenic element on the site of Alexander's furthest conquest in the East, and of those potentates who swayed the dynasties of these lands for upwards of two centuries. Professor 1Vilson gives a list of them from Thcodotus r., B.C. 256, to Pantaleon, B.C. 120. Then of Barbaric kings, Su Hermmus, ladaphes and Kadphises, from p.c. 100 to B.C. 50. Of an Indo-Parthian dynasty ; the Indo-Scythian princes of Kabul ; and a classification of their contem poraries. Mr. Thomas, in Prinsep's Antiquities, quotes Major Cunningham's table :— B.C.
161-140. 3fenander reigns in Paropamisidx, Nysa, Peult., Taxila, l'or., Reg., Cath., l'ata lene, Syr., Larice.
13.1. Strato succeeds, with tho exception of the countries of l'ata., Syr., Larice, which fall to Mauas.
Hippostratus, Telcphus Theophilus, follow Strato.
Of all the kings who followed Eucratides, Menander and Apollodotus alone are mentioned by classical authorities. Menander advanced furthest into N.1V. India, and his coins are found front Kabul as far as Muttra on the Jutnna.
B.C. Barbaric Kings.
126. HermEeus rules over Parop., Nysa, Gand., Peuk. (The Su-Saka race obtain Aria., Drangia, Mid Arach. from tho Parthians.) Mauas has Taxila, Por., Reg., Cath., Patalcne, Syrastrene, Larice.
105. Kulphises (Yu-chi) takes possession of Herrnxus' ldngdom, and Taxila from Mauas (Kozola Ka daphes).
Vonones, Spalygis, Spalirises—Paropamisidw. 110. Azas succeeds Mauas, obtaining also, in 90 B.C., Nysa, Gand., and Peuk.
80. Azilas succeeds Azas in the three latter, adding Taxila and the Paroparnisidx.
80. The Sotcr Megas obtains the dominions of Azas, and subsequently those of Azilas.
60. The Yu-chi again possess Paro., Nysa, and U'axila, etc.
2'3. Gondophares reigns in Ariana, Abdagasses (and A.D. Sinnakes or Addinigaus) do. in do., less the Parop. 44. Arsaces (Ornospades or Orthomasdes), do. do. 107. Pakores Monnesses, do. do. (Hiatheleh) in Bac triana.
207. Artemon—in Aria, Drangia, Arachosia.
The family name Arsaces was that applied to all the kings of Parthia, hence called the Arsacidre.
There were military colonies of Macedonians established at Alexandria ad Caumsum, Arigmurn, and Bazira, and garrisons at Nysa, Ora, lassagn, Peukelaotis, and at Aornis, a mountain range, supposed to be the mountains of Mahaban in the Pir Panjal or mid - Himalayan range. Megasthenes mentions that India was divided into 118 kingdoms, some of which, such as that of the Prasii under Chandragupta, exercised suzerain powers. In the inscriptions of Asoka, five Greek princes appear,—Antiochus (of Syria) ; Ptolemy (Philadelphos, of Egypt) ; Antigonas (Gonattur, of Macedon) ; Magas (of Kyrene) ; Alexander (ir., of Epirus).
It would appear that the Greek colonists in the Panjab had first been placed under Philip, while the civil administration of the country remained in the hands of its native princes, Taxiles and Porus. Afterwards, on the murder of Philip by the mercenary soldiers, Alexander (Anabasis, vi. 2, vii.) directed Eudemos and Taxiles to govern the country until he should send another deputy. It is probable, however, that they continued to retain the charge ; for, after Alexander's death in B.C. 323, Eudemos contrived by his general Eumenes to make hitnself master of the country, by the treacherous assassination of king Fortis (Diodorus, xix. 5). Some few years later, in B.C. 317, he marched to the assistance of Eumenes with 3000 infantry and 5000 cavalry, and no less than 120 elephants. With this force he performed good
service at the battle of Gabiene. But his continued absence gave the Indians an opportunity not to be neglected, and their liberty was fully asserted by the expulsion of the Greek troops and the slaughter of their chiefs,—Justin, xv. 4—' Prmfactos ejus occiderat; ' again, Molienti deinde bellum adversus proefactos Alexandri.' Chandragupta was present when Porus was murdered, and be became the leader of the national movement, which ended in his own elevation to the sovereignty of the Panjab. Justin attributes his success to the assistance of banditti ; Justin, xv. 4—‘ Contmctis latronibus Indos ad novitatem regni solicitavit.' But in this Colonel Cunningham thinks he has been misled by a very natural mistake ; for the Aratta, who were the dominant people of the Eastern Panjab, are never mentioned in the Mahabliarata without being called robbers (Lassen, Pentapot. Indica), —` Arattiprofecto latrones,' and Bahici latrones.' The Sanskrit name is Arashtra, the kingless,' which is preserved in the Adraistaa of Arrian, who places them on the Ravi. They were the repub lican defenders of Sangala or Sakala, a fact which points to their Sanskrit name of Arashtra, or kingless.' But though their power was then confined to the Eastern Panjab, the people them selves had once spread over the whole country,— ' Ubi flnvii illi quini . . . ibi sedes sunt Arrat tor= ' (Lassen, Pentapot. Indica, from the Maha bharat). They were known by the several names of Bahilia, Jarttika, and Takka, of which the last would appear to have been their true appellation ; for then. old capital of Taxila or Takka-sila was known to the Greeks of Alexander, and the people themselves still exist in considerable numbers in the Panjab hills. The ancient extent of their power is proved by the present prevalence of their alphabetical characters, which, under the name of Takri or Takni, are now used by all the Hindus of Kashmir and the northern mountains, from Simla and Subathu to Kabul and Bamian. On these grounds Major Cunningham identifies the banditti of Justin with the Takka, or original inhabitants of the Panjab, and assigns to them the honour of delivering their native land from the thraldom of a foreign yoke. This event occurred most probably about 316 s.c., or shortly after the march of Eudemos to the assistance oc Eumenes. It was followed immediately by the conquest of Gangetic India, Justin, xv. 4 ; and in 316 B.C. the rule of Chandragupta wad acknowledged over the whole northern Peninsula, from the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges. According to Colonel Tod, the Yavan or Greek. princes, who apparently con tinued to rule within the Indus after the Christian era, were either the remains of the Bactrian dynasty, or the independent kingdom of Demetrius or Apollodotus, who ruled in the Panjab, having as their capital Sagala, changed by DemetriuS to Euthydemia. Beyer says, in his Hist. Reg. Bact. p. 84, that according to Claudius Ptolemy there was a city within the Hydaspes yet nearer the Indus, called Sagala, also Euthydemia ; but Ile scarcely doubts that Dernetrius called it Euthy demia, from his father, after his death and that of Menander. Demetrius was deprived of his patrimony A.U.C. 562. Sagala is conjectured by Colonel Tod to be the Salbhanpura of the Yadu when driven from Zabulisthan, and that of the Yuchi or Yuti, who were fixed there from Central Asia in the 5th century, and, if so early as the 2d century, when Ptolemy wrote, may have origi nated the change to Yuti-nredia, the central Yuti.' Nnmerous medals, chiefly found within the pro bable limits of the Greek kingdom of Sagala, either belong to these princes or the Parthian kings of Minagara on the Indus. Tbe legends are in Greek on one side, and in the Sassanian character on the reverse. The names of Apollo dotus and Menander have been deciphered, and the titles of Great King, Saviour, and other epithets adopted by the Arsacidw, are perfectly legible. The devices, however, resemble the Parthian. These Greeks and Parthians must have gradually merged into the Hindu population. Recent travellers—Burnes, Masson, and Ferrier— met with tribes who claim a Grecian descent. According to Burnes, the Mir of Badakhshan, the chief of Darwaz in the valley of the Oxus, and the chiefs eastward of Darwaz who occupy the provinces of Kulab, Shaughnan, and Wakhan north of the Oxus, also the hill states of Chitral, Gilghit, and Iskardo, aro all held by chiefs Who claim a Grecian origin.