Alexander built a 6 kilometer brick wall around the city which, according to the ancient authors, was completed in only about twenty days. As with the other cities he founded, had a group of his retired wounded veterans settle there.
A Hellenistic outpost in Central Asia
Alexandria Eschate was located around 300km north of Alexandria on the Oxus in Bactria, and being in Sogdian territory had to sustain numerous conflicts with the local population. After 250 BCE, the city probably remained in contact with the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centered on Bactria, especially when the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I extended his control to Sogdiana.
Contacts with China
The city was also located around 400km west of the Tarim Basin, today's region of Xinjiang in China, where the Yuezhi, an Indo-European people were established. There are indications that Greek expeditions were led as far as Kashgar in Xinjiang. According to the Greek historian Strabo, the Greeks "extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni" (Strabo XI.II.I), possibly leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE.The descendants of the Greeks in Ferghana may be the Dayuan (lit. "Great Ionians") identified in the Chinese historical record of the Han Dynasty, starting with the embassies of Zhang Qian around 130 BCE. If so, they were the actors of the first major interaction between an urbanized Indo-European culture and the Chinese civilization, which led to the opening up the Silk Road from the 1st century BCE.
According to the Roman writer Curtius, the descendants of these soldiers still retained their Hellenistic culture at the time of his writing, around 30 BCE.
In Fiction
Alexandria Eschate is the final destination of Euxenus son of Eutychides of the deme of Pallene, the protagonist of "Alexander at the World's End" by Tom Holt.
"Horses of Heaven", by Gillian Bradshaw, is set in Alexandria Eschate, c.140 BCE.
Footnotes
References
See the notes on "Northern Wuyi" = Alexndria Eschate in the draft annotated translation of the 3rd century Chinese history, the Weilüe, by John Hill at:
and
External links
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Last updated on Monday May 12, 2008 at 15:52:30 PDT (GMT -0700)
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