Both the Ptolemies and the Seleucids (as the dynasty of Seleucus was called) abandoned
Alexander's attempts to produce a fusion of Greek and barbarian, and established military
tyrannies based, at first, upon their part of the Macedonian army strengthened with Greek
mercenaries. The Ptolemies held Egypt fairly securely, but in Asia two centuries of confused
dynastic wars were only ended by the Roman conquest. During these centuries, Persia was
conquered by the Parthians, and the Bactrian Greeks were increasingly isolated.
In the second century B.C. (after which they rapidly declined) they had a king, Menander,
whose Indian Empire was very extensive. A couple of dialogues between him and Buddhist
sage have survived in Pali, and, in part, in a Chinese translation. Dr. Tarn suggests that the first
of these is based on a Greek original; the second, which ends with Menander abdicating and
becoming a Buddhist saint, is certainly not.
Buddhism, at this time, was a vigorous proselytizing religion. Asoka (264-28), the saintly
Buddhist king, records, in a still extant inscription, that he sent missionaries to all the
Macedonian kings: "And this is the chiefest conquest in His Majesty's opinion--the conquest by
the Law; this also is that effected by His Majesty both in his own dominions and in all the
neighboring realms as far as six hundred leagues--even to where the Greek king Antiochus
dwells, and beyond that Antiochus to where dwell the four kings severally named Ptolemy,
Antigonus, Magas and Alexander... and likewise here, in the king's dominions, among the
Yonas" * (i.e. the Greeks of the Punjab). Unfortunately no western account of these
missionaries has survived.
Babylonia was much more profoundly influenced by Hellenism. As we have seen, the only
ancient who followed Aristarchus of Samos in maintaining the Copernican system was
Seleucus of Seleucia on the Tigris, who flourished about 150 B.C. Tacitus tells us that in the
first century A.D. Seleucia had not "lapsed into the barbarous usages of the Parthians, but still
retained the institutions of Seleucus, †its Greek founder. Three hundred citizens, chosen for
their wealth or wisdom, compose as it were a Senate; the populace too have their share of
power." ‡ Throughout Mesopotamia, as further West, Greek
* Quoted in Bevan, House of Seleucus, Vol. I, p. 298n.â
€ The king, not the astronomer.â
€
¡Annals, Book VI, Ch. 42.