Alexandria on the Oxus

[apollinaris]

Corinthian capital, found at Ai-Khanoum in the citadel, 2nd century BCEAcross the eastern-most satrapies of Persia are the ruins of Hellenistic towns, trading posts, cities and on the coast, ports. This is Greco-India.Our cultural heritage tell us that these were first built by Alexander the Great. though modern scholarly opinion offers a more qualified view. Livius:

• Alexander's biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea states that Alexander the Great founded no less than seventy towns, which were important centers of the Greek cultures in the East. By these foundations, the sage of Chaeronea implies, the Macedonian conqueror changed the nature of his oriental subjects from barbarians into civilized people.
  This in exaggerated. As far as we know, Alexander founded some twenty towns: real Greek towns (poleis) - which Plutarch must have had in mind-, permanent military garrisons (katoikiai) and temporary military settlement (phrouria). Other towns were simply repopulated or just renamed.

Good that the opinion is qualified, for the source provided here is Plutarch, who flourished in the second century of our era, some 450 years late for Alexander. Hence this is not history, but cultural heritage.
Here is a list of some of these sites:

• Alexandria in Aria: perhaps, the Arian capital Artacoana was repopulated with natives and Macedonian veterans in September 330. It was probably meant as a permanent garrison. Alternatively, this was a completely new town. Modern Herât in Afghanistan.


• Prophthasia in Drangiana: the Drangian capital Phrada was just renamed in October 330; 'Prophthasia' means 'Anticipation'. Modern Farâh in Afghanistan.


• Alexandria in Arachosia: the Arachosian capital Kapisa was repopulated with natives and Macedonian veterans in the winter of 330/329. It was a permanent garrison. Modern Kandahâr in Afghanistan, which still bear's Alexander's name (derived from Iskandariya, the Arabic and Persian rendering of "Alexander").


• Alexandria in the Caucasus: the Gandarian capital Kapiša-kaniš was repopulated with 4,000 natives and 3,000 Greek veterans in March 329. It was a permanent garrison or a Greek city, although many settlers felt that it was a punitive colony. Modern Chârikâr in Afghanistan.


• Alexandria Eschatê: founded in the Summer of 329 as a permanent garrison on the Jaxartes (Syrdar'ya). Settled with Macedonian and Greek veterans and native serfs. Modern Khodzent in Tajikistan.


• Alexandria on the Oxus: refoundation of a Persian city, settled with Greek and Iranian veterans and native serfs. Probably modern Ai Khanum in Afghanistan. Probably founded in the Spring of 328. Modern Termez?


• Six cities north of the Oxus. Populated with native prisoners of war who served as serfs for the Macedonian soldiers. Meant as permanent garrisons, together forming a kind of wall against the northern tribes, the Sacae.


• Alexandria in Margiana: refoundation of a Persian city in the oasis of Mary in modern Turkmenistan. Settled with Macedonian, Greek and Iranian veterans and native serfs.


• Arigaeum: the Aspasian capital was repopulated with natives and Macedonian veterans in the Spring of 326. It was a permanent garrison.


• Modern Nawagai in Pakistan. In the neighborhood were several temporary military settlements: Bazira, Ora, Massaga.


• Nicaea and Bucephala: twin foundation of permanent garrisons on opposite banks of the Hydaspes (Jhelum), founded in May 326 on the battle field. Settled with Greek, Macedonian and Iranian veterans and natives. Modern Jhelum in Pakistan? The towns had large dockyards, which suggests that they were meant as a center commerce.


• Alexandria on the Hyphasis: founded in July 326 at the eastern border of Alexander's empire. Settled with veterans of unknown origin.
  
  Alexandria on the Indus: founded in February 325 on the confluence of the Indus and the Acesines (Chenab), probably on the site of an older, Persian settlement. Settled with Thracian veterans and natives. Uch in Pakistan. It had large dockyards, which suggests that it was meant as a center commerce.
  
  Another town on the Indus: founded in the Spring of 325 among the Indian Sogdians. Probably a temporary military station north of Rohri.
  
  Patala ('naval base') or Xylinepolis ('wooden city'): temporary military settlement, founded in July 325 at the place of an earlier, Indian town. Vacated after September 325. Modern Bahmanabad, 75 kilometers north-east of Hyderabad.


• Rhambacia: a town among the Oreitians that was fortified by Hephaestion and Leonnatus in the Autumn of 325. If it was meant as a permanent garrison, it was soon vacated. Modern Bela in Pakistan.
  
  - Alexander the Great: his towns

Bust of an old man. Ai Khanoum, 2nd century BCELet us look at the archaeology of one of the better-studied sites and see if the archaeology supports the claim for Alexander.Ai-Khanoum
The city is located in the Kunduz area in northeastern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river (today's Amu Darya) and the Kokcha river and at the doorstep of the Indian subcontinent.
The name means 'Lady Moon' in Uzbek. There are traditions for it being Alexandria on the Oxus and also Eucratidia, named by the Bactrian king Eucratides I (c.170-c.145 BCE). Ai-Khanoum may have been the city in which Eucratides was besieged by Demetrius, before he successfully managed to escape to ultimately conquer India (Justin).
The site has been stripped and looted throughout the last 22 years of war.

Ai Khanoum, established by Alexander in 328 B.C., still bears remnants of columns that wouldn’t look out of place in the Parthenon.

- Global Heritage Fund
The site was excavated through archaeological searches by a French DAFA mission under Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978, as well as Russian scientists.
Numerous artifacts and structures were found, pointing to a high Hellenistic culture, combined with Eastern influences. "It has all the hallmarks of a Hellenistic city, with a Greek theatre, gymnasium and some Greek houses with colonnaded courtyards" (Boardman).
The mission unearthed various structures, some of them perfectly Hellenistic, some other integrating elements of Persian architecture:

• Two-miles long ramparts, circling the city.


• A citadel with powerful towers (20x11 meters at the base, 10 meters in height) and ramparts, established on top of the 60 meters-high hill in the middle of the city.


• A Classical theater, 84 meters in diameter with 35 rows of seats, that could sit 4,000-6,000 people, equipped with three loges for the rulers of the city.
  
  Sun dial within two sculpted lion feet. Ai Khanoum.


• Its size was considerable by Classical standards, larger than the theatre at Babylon, but slightly smaller than the theatre at Epidaurus.


• A huge palace in Greco-Bactrian architecture, somehow reminiscent of formal Persian palatial architecture.


• A gymnasium (100x100m), one of the largest of Antiquity. A dedication in Greek to Hermes and Herakles was found engraved on one of the pillars. The dedication was made by two men with Greek names (Triballos and Strato, son of Strato).


• Various temples, in and outside the city. The largest temple in the city apparently contained a monumental statue of a seated Zeus, but was built of the Zoroastrian model (massive, closed walls instead of the open column-circled structure of Greek temples).


• A mosaic representing the Macedonian sun, acanthus leaves and various animals (crabs, dolphins etc...)


• Numerous remains of Classical Corinthian columns.

Various sculptural fragments were also found, in a rather conventional, classical style, rather impervious to the Hellenizing innovations occurring at the same time in the Mediterranean world.
Of special notice, a huge foot fragment in excellent Hellenistic style was recovered, which is estimated to have belonged to a 5-6 meter tall statue (which had to be seated to fit within the height of the columns supporting the Temple). Since the sandal of the foot fragment bears the symbolic depiction of Zeus' thunderbolt, the statue is thought to have been a smaller version of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.


Stucco face, Ai Khanoum, 2nd century BCAlso found among the sculptural remains were:

• A statue of a standing female in a rather archaic chiton.


• The face of a man, sculpted in stucco.


• An unfinished statue of a young naked man with wreath.


• A gargoyle head representing the Greek cook-slave.


• A frieze of a naked man, possibly the god Hermes, wearing a chlamys.


• A hermaic sculpture of an old man thought to be a master of the gymnasium, where it was found. He used to hold a long stick in his left hand, symbol of his function.

Due to the lack of proper stones for sculptural work in the area of Ai-Khanoum, unbaked clay and stucco modeled on a wooden frame were often used, a technique which would become widespread in Central Asia and the East, especially in Buddhist art. In some cases, only the hands and feet would be made in marble.
The history that can be determined from the archaeology is that the city was probably founded by Achaemenid Persia, then became an extremely important Greek city (1.5 sq km), characteristic of the Seleucid Empire, and then the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. It seems the city was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, about the time of the death of the Eucratides around 145 BCE.
At no point, therefore, does the archaeology confirm the legend of Alexander beyond the existence of the 'successors, in this case, the Seleucids. This is the same conclusion we drew from the archaeology of Alexandria, Egypt:
Ptolemy II laid the foundations of a world culture as well as those of this great city port. Both went on to develop over the centuries, transforming themselves and the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean.

The traditional tales of Alexander and Alexandria are now part of our cultural heritage, though - so far at least - it is not supported very much, if at all, by the archaeological record.

- Founding of Alexandria

The discoveries at Ai Khanoum give a new perspective on the influence of Greek culture in the East and reaffirms the influence of the Greeks on the development of Greco-Buddhist art.
Despite A huge and ever-increasing bibliography, the history of northern India from the death of Asoka to the first inroads of the Moslem armies is still imperfectly known. About its social history we can only state that new peoples kept coming from Iran and Central Asia and were, in the course of time, integrated into an Indian social organization about which we have very little incontrovertible data.
Its economic history is summed up by lists of commodities. some indications about currencies and monetary policies. and imprecise records of its trade with China and the Roman Empire.
Thanks to recently discovered inscriptions and sculptures, the complex relationship between Buddhism and early Hinduism now appears in a new light, but this new data comes from widely separated places (mainly Gandhara and Mathura) and its interpretation may be disputed)2. The political history of northern India still consists of bare lists of names, with an often unsure relative chronology and a still more unsure absolute chronology. These chronological uncertainties cannot but have a bearing on the history of early Indian Art which, despite some advances, has not yet been established on a sure footing.

2. For Buddhism, see now the summary in Fussman l994. For Vaishnava bhalui cults in Mathura, the best overview is still Srinivasan l988, although dating back to l98l.

- Southern Bactria and Northern India before Islam: a review of archaeological reports, by Gerard Fussman

The Hellenistic history being revealed by archaeology is not so much of Alexander III of Macedon, but of his successors and the rise of trade and asceticism across the 'Alexandrian' settlements from East to West, in which divine men appear, bearing the image of Alexander.