Geography

​Some parts of Bactria lie adjacent to Aria towards the north, but most of it lies above it towards the east; it is extensive and produces all kinds of crops except the olive. The Greeks who caused it to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters of Ariana and of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says, and subdued more nations than Alexander—especially Menander (if indeed he even crossed the Hypanis towards the east and advanced as far as the Imaus), some conquests being made by himself and others by Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus the king of the Bactrians. They occupied not only Patalene, but also, of the rest of the coast, both that which is called the kingdom of Saraostus and that of Sigerdis. In short, Apollodorus says that Bactriana is the ornament of Ariana as a whole; and indeed they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni.

​They had as cities Bactra, which they also call Zariaspa, through which flows a river of the same name emptying into the Oxus, and Adrapsa, and several others; among these was also Eucratideia, named after its ruler. The Greeks who occupied it also divided it into satrapies, of which the Parthians took away from Eucratides both the satrapy of Aspionus and Tapuria. They also held Sogdiana, which lies situated above Bactriana towards the east, between the river Oxus, which bounds the land of the Bactrians and that of the Sogdians, and the Jaxartes; and this river bounds both the Sogdians and the nomads.

​Now in ancient times the Sogdians and the Bactrians did not differ much in their lives and customs from the nomads, though nevertheless those of the Bactrians were slightly more civilized; yet even of these, Onesicritus and his followers do not report the best things. For they say that those who have become helpless through old age or sickness are thrown alive to dogs kept specially for this purpose, which are called ‘undertakers’ in their native language; and that while the areas outside the wall of the metropolis of Bactra are clean, most of the parts within are full of human bones; but that Alexander abolished this custom. They relate also similar things about the Caspians: that they lock up and starve to death their parents when they happen to be over seventy years of age. This, indeed, is more tolerable and similar to the law of the Ceans, although being Scythian, but that of the Bactrians is much more Scythian. And indeed it was worthy of wonder, when Alexander found such customs there, what one must say about what was likely to have been established as custom among them in the times of the first Persians and of the rulers still earlier.