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198 INDO- GREEK AND INDO - PARTHIAN DYNASTIES not survive Asoka, and that when the influence of his dominating personality ceased to act, the outlying prov- inces shook off their allegiance and set up as independ- ent states. The history of some of these has been told in the preceding chapter. The regions of the north- western frontier, when no longer protected by the arm of a strong paramount native power in the interior, offered a tempting field to the ambition of the Hellen- istic princes of Bactria and Parthia, as well as to the cupidity of the warlike races on the border. This chap- ter will be devoted, so far as the very imperfect mate- rials available permit, to a sketch of the leading events in the annals of the Pan jab and trans-Indus provinces from the close of Asoka 's reign to the establishment of the Indo-Scythian, or Kushan, power. The spacious Asiatic dominion consolidated by the genius of Seleukos Nikator passed in the year 262 or 261 B. c. into the hands of his grandson Antiochos, a drunken sensualist, miscalled even in his lifetime Theos, or " the god," and, strange to say, worshipped as such. This worthless prince occupied the throne for fifteen or sixteen years, but toward the close of his reign his empire suffered two grievous losses by the revolt of the Bactrians, under the leadership of Diodotos, and of the Parthians, under that of Arsakes. The loss of Bactria was especially grievous. This province, the rich plain watered by the Oxus (Amu Darya) after its issue from the mountains, had been occupied by civilized men from time immemorial, and its capital, Zariaspa, or Balkh, had been from ancient