The Umayyad forces captured the area around Balkh, including Nava Vihara Monastery, causing the Turki Shahis to retreat to the Kabul Valley.
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For instance, during the reign of Darius I, the inhabitants of the Greek city of Barca, in Cyrenaica, were deported to Bactria for refusing to surrender assassins.
Bactria | Demetrius I of Bactria | Demetrius, qualified as "ANIKETOS", i.e. "Invincible" (Pedigree coin minted by Agathocles of Bactria | Bactria (satrapy) | Agathocles of Bactria |
Before continuing his pursuit of Darius III, who has retreated into Bactria, Alexander assembles all the Persian treasure and entrusts it to Harpalus, who is to hold it at Ecbatana as chief treasurer.
The later Bactrian king Agathocles honoured earlier rulers of Bactria on commemorative coins.
The place the arrow landed is variously identified as 'Mount Khvanvant' in the Avesta (likewise an unknown location); a river in Balkh (Tabari, al-Atir); east of Balkh (Talebi); Bactria/Tokharistan (Maqdesi, Gardizi); the banks of the Oxus River (Balami) or Merv (Mojmal).
It is a relatively broad mythology, as it was adopted and influenced by several diverse cultures such as Gandhara (Peshawar, Pakistan) which was the capital of Bactria.
When Lao Shang (reigned c. 174–161 BCE), ruler of the Xiongnu (a powerful people of North China), defeated them and killed their king, the main body of the Yuezhi moved westward into Sogdiana and Bactria, putting an end to Greek rule in both regions.
Xionites, a nomadic tribe prominent in Transoxania and Bactria
It is said that on his death bed, Cyrus urges Spitaces, to obey and respect him mother Spitamas, and also appoints his son Cambyses II of Persia to be the legitimate king of the empire, and his younger brother Bardiya to be the governor of Parthia, Choramnia, Bactria, and Carmania.
Africa, by contrast (illustration, below right) wears the elephant headdress (worn by rulers depicted on Hellenistic Bactrian coins) and is accompanied by a lion, the scorpion of the desert sands and Cleopatra's asps.
Alexander the Great explored the Afghan areas between Bactria and the Indus River after his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC.
During the second quarter of the 2nd century BCE, the Homodotes/Komedes or Asii (Parama Kambojas) appear to have participated in the tribal migration to Bactria and Sugugda and then further to Helmond valley.
One of the earliest literary references to Pilaf can be found in the histories of Alexander the Great when describing Bactrian hospitality.
Towards the end of Antiochus II's reign, various provinces simultaneously asserted their independence, such as Bactria under Diodotus, Parthia under Arsaces, and Cappadocia under Ariarathes III.
Spitamenes (in old Persian Spitamaneh; Greek Σπιταμένης; born 370 BC and killed 328 BC) Sogdian warlord, leader of the uprising in Sogdiana and Bactria against Alexander of Macedon 329 BC.
The campaign map for Rome II spans from Bactria (Afghanistan) to Lusitania (Portugal) and from Caledonia (Scotland) to Garamantia (in the Sahara).
The Yuezhi migration was not limited to the "storm" of Greco-Bactria, a main part of Yuezhi remained in the newly found lands, including the basin of the Syr-Darya and the Aral Sea area.
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Later, Uokils united with a Nan Shan branch of the Yuezhi in their movement, initially to the Aral area, and then on to Bactria and Sogdiana.
According to Tacitus (Annales xi. 8-10), Vardanes I was expelled temporarily from the throne by Gotarzes II, and fled to take refuge "in the plains of the Bactrians" (possibly the Yuezhi, who occupied Bactria at that time).
The story takes place in the ancient kingdom of Bactria and concerns the struggle between the forces of Good, led by Zoroastre, the "founder of the Magi", and Evil, led by the sorcerer Abramane.