eastern Parthia and entered India perhaps through the Bolân Pass in the Brahui Mountains.[1]
Even the energetic Mithradates II was apparently unable to regain complete control of the eastern provinces, though the Sacae may have acknowledged some form of vassalage. After his death one of his successors sometime between 87 and 75 b.c. made a series of campaigns in the east and struck coins to commemorate the recovery of Margiana, Traxiana, and Aria.[2]
When the Sacae entered India remains uncertain, and new evidence must be forthcoming to settle the question. The date of the first Indo-Scythian king,
- ↑ Rapson in CHI, I, 564. The writer does not agree with the view of F. W. Thomas, "Sakastana," JRAS, 1906, pp. 181–216, that the Sacae had long been in eastern Iran.
- ↑ Wroth, Parthia, p. 40 and n. 1. On the assignment of these coins see pp. 40 f., n. 51. Isid. Char. Mans. Parth. 18 f. offers only a post quem date of about 1 b.c. on the acquisition of Seistan and Arachosia. Tarn in CAH, IX, 587, cites the Chinese sources as recording an independent kingdom, "Woo-yi-shan-li," which occupies the same territory as these provinces about 75 b.c. A similar statement was earlier made by Gutschmid, Geschichte Irans, pp. 79 f., also without reference. Neither V. A. Smith, "The Indo-Parthian Dynasties," ZDMG, LX (1906), 55, nor the writer has been able to locate the source for this statement; cf. de Groot, Chinesische Urkunden. II. Die Westlande Chinas, pp. 91–93. Note that the Chinese sources almost invariably use such names as Parthia, Chaldaea, Bactria, and Arachosia in a provincial sense rather than in a more all-embracing meaning.
"The Date of Kaniska," JRAS, 1913, pp. 634 f., feel that the physical difficulties of the Kashmir route preclude a large tribal migration. Obviously all the Sacae could not have entered India by this route, or so large a Parthian element would not be present in their culture.
