Episode T8 – The City

The Ancient World

Scott C.

History

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Synopsis: The rediscovery of Ai Khanoum testified to the wealth and power of the Bactrian Kingdom. Mithridates’ conquest of Babylonia is countered by an unlikely coalition. “The cities of Bactria were Bactra, which they also call Zariaspa and through which flows a river of the same name that empties into the Oxus, plus the city of Darapsa, and others more. Among these was a city called Eucratideia, named after its ruler… (The Greeks) also controlled Sogdiana, which lies above and to the east of Bactria between the Oxus River – demarcating Bactrians from Sogdians – and the Jaxartes River, likewise separating the Sogdians from the nomads.” – Strabo, Geography, 11.11.2 “These wise sayings of earlier men, the words of well-known men, are enshrined in the holy Pytho. There Clearchus copied them faithfully, and set them up here in the sanctuary of Kineas, blazing from afar. As a child, be well-behaved. As a youth, be self-controlled. As an adult, be just. As an elder, be wise. As one dying, be without pain.” – Inscription at the Heroon (hero’s tomb) of Kineas, oikistes (founder) of the city of Ai Khanoum, Afghanistan, dated 300 – 250 BC Map of Ai Khanoum and Ashoka Rock Edicts https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/Ai_Khanoum.jpg Map of the Eastern Satrapies https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/Eastern_Satrapies.jpg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Scott. If you're a fan of the ancient world, please help us get the word out.
0:07.0	Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and rate the series on iTunes.
0:13.0	Thanks again for listening. It was a lush region at the confluence of the Oxus and Cocha rivers, and perfect for a royal hunt.
0:37.2	Depending on the season, you might expect to find deer, ibex, goats, and rams, even the occasional wolf for bear.
0:47.0	Rarrest of all was the snow leopard or unts, who concealed themselves in broken terrain before attacking their prey from above.
0:58.1	But on this hunt, the king spied something even more unusual. A Corinthian column and a dress stone block protruding
1:06.8	from out of the earth. When others return to examine the site, historian Frank D. Holt describes what they found.
1:17.2	Just inches beneath the soil, the outlines of an entire city bulged in plain sight, ramparts, gateways, streets, courtyards, a theatre, and other
1:29.3	buildings of various sizes. Remarkably, the city had never been reoccupied so that no leader
1:37.0	city rested on its ruins. The city was, in all likelihood, the Bactrian city of Yucratadea, last stronghold of the legendary king Yucratities.
1:50.0	The year was 1961, and the monarch who discovered the site was King Mohammed Sahir
1:58.2	Shah of Afghanistan.
2:01.4	What he'd found at the site called Aikhanum or Lady Moon in Uzbek was the first example of a well-preserved city from the days of the Bactrian Kingdom. Much of the very little we know about
2:17.0	this place and time comes from the 16 excavations conducted at the site
2:22.0	between 1965 and 1978, framed by the initial discovery
2:28.7	and the later Soviet invasion.
2:32.1	But as Holt details in his book Lost World of the Golden King, the discovery was also
2:38.1	the culmination of an effort begun over two centuries earlier.
2:44.2	You can start with the super sparse classical sources like Justin, Plutarch, and Streboe,
2:50.9	which provide the basic framework. A wealthy kingdom forged by followers of
2:56.7	Alexander who engaged in a series of civil wars before eventually vanishing from history.
3:05.0	But in modern times, it really began with a coin.
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