Many Greek settlers – both retired soldiers and adventurers from old Greece – settled in the fertile lands of Bactria following Alexander the Great’s conquest.
There were a substantial number of cities with Greek names and hegemonic Greek culture, and many ethnically Greek inhabitants were scattered from central Asia to India. The rise of Parthia, however, severely weakened the Bactrian kingdom.
Mithridates the Great attacked the eastern kingdom of Bactria. Justin and Strabo are not saying that Mithridates conquered Bactria but that he vassalised Bactria, for Eucratides continued to hold his throne after his submission.
A series of nomadic incursions started around 145 BC and delivered the coup de grace. Bactria was overrun by Eastern Iranian tribes of Sakas and later by Yuezhi, a tribal federation dominated by the Tocharians. They destroyed the Greek cities of Bactria.
The end was probably quick. The Greek temples and their colossal statues were burned, as were the palaces and the gymnasium. Most of the Greek inhabitants were killed, enslaved, or scattered.
Within a few years, the Greek city we now call Ai Khanoum, in the green fields by the rushing Oxus in what is now northern Afghanistan, had vanished.
The article first appeared in We Pretend It’s Ancient Internet.
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