Rome and the East
nium, persisted throughout the Hellenistic period into the first century..;
the latest cuneiform tablet so far known dates to..–,andisthuscon-
temporary with Vespasian.^20 Second, further east, was the vast Iranian pla-
teau, the culture of which is immensely difficult to characterise; it remains
an empty space on the map of the cultures of Asia. Third, beyond Iran, was
the region classical writers called ‘‘Arachosia’’ and ‘‘Bactria,’’ roughly modern
Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, in which scattered evidence reveals
a powerful imprint of Greek imperialism and colonialism. Finally, there was
India (primarily the Indus Valley, now in Pakistan), which attracted more
attention and stimulated more ethnographic—or pseudo-ethnographic—
writing in Greek and Latin than the other three regions combined: Herodo-
tus and other Greek writers had spoken of India even before Alexander’s
expedition. The high profile of India was partly the legacy of the detailed ac-
counts left by writers of Alexander’s time and of the early Hellenistic period;
and it was partly explained by the existence under the Roman Empire of
well-established trade routes from the Mediterranean to India, by sea from
Egypt, or by a combination of land and sea through Mesopotamia. The sight
of a ship setting sail for India had made Trajan think longingly of following
in the footsteps of Alexander.
A survey of the relations between the Greek and Roman world and this series
of regions should begin by recalling that Alexander had travelled south-east
across the Fertile Crescent to Babylonia, Susa, and Persis, then north and
north-east to Media and Bactria, and then south again to the Indus Valley.
With what conceptions, and with what long-term goals (if any) Alexander
and his forces had approached the cultures and societies they encountered,
it is hardly possible now to know. It may not be an accident, however, that
the clearest and most emphaticattributionof a motive to Alexander in classi-
cal literature comes from centuries later, and dates to precisely the period of
Trajan’s campaigns in the East. At that time, Plutarch wrote hisOn the For-
tune of Alexander, in which he portrayed Alexander as bearing the benefits of
Greek civilisation to the barbarians:
But if you examine the results of Alexander’s instruction, you will
see that he educated the Hyrcanians to respect the marriage bond and
taught the Arachosians to till the soil, and persuaded the Sogdians to
support their parents, not to kill them, and the Persians to respect their
mothers and not to marry them....WhenAlexanderwascivilising. See J. Oelsner,Materialien zur babylonischen Gesellschaft und Kultur in hellenistischer Zeit
(), .