Ancient Balkh or Bactria was an integral part of Bactria – Margiana Archaeological Complex, and was occupied by Indo-Iranians.

The effectiveness of this combined-arms system was most dramatically demonstrated in Alexander's conquest of Persia, Bactria, and northwestern India.

His father Anak, who was a Prince said to be related to the Arsacid Kings of Armenia or was from the house of Suren-Pahlaw, one of the seven branches of the ruling Arsacid dynasty of Bactria.

The province of Bactria revolted, and Parthia was conquered by the semi-nomadic Parni.

For instance, according to Ernst Herzfeld, it was a powerful empire, which stretched from north Mesopotamia to Bactria and India.

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was founded when Diodotus I, the satrap of Bactria ( and probably the surrounding provinces ) seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC.

Greco-Bactria continued until c. 130 BC, when Eucratides ' son, King Heliocles I, was defeated and driven out of Bactria by the Yuezhi tribes.

It was administered by a satrap called Satibarzanes, who was one of the three main Persian officials in the East of the Empire, together with the satrap Bessus of Bactria and Barsaentes of Arachosia.

This kingdom was characterized by a rich Hellenistic culture, and was to continue its domination of Bactria until around 125 BC, when it was overrun by the invasion of northern nomads.

Bactria was located in northern Afghanistan ( present-day Afghan Turkestan ) between the mountain range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ( Oxus ) River and some areas of current south Tajikistan.

During different periods, Bactria was a center of various Kingdoms or Empires, and is probably where Zoroastrianism originated.

The " Avesta "— the holy book of Zoroastrianism — was written in the old-Bactrian dialect ; it is also thought that Zoroaster was most likely born in Bactria.

After the Persian Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great, Bactria, Sogdiana and Merv, being part of Persian Empire, had to defend themselves from new invaders.

Bactria was also sometimes referred to by the Greeks as Bactriana.

A coin of Menander I, who ruled the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria and the modern Pakistani provinces of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab ( Pakistan ) | Punjab and Sindh.

The Greek kingdom of Bactria: from Alexander to Eucratides the Great.

* The Greek dynasty in Bactria is extinguished.

The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by past deportations of Greeks to Bactria.

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.

In addition, Xerxes also settled the " Branchidae " in Bactria ; they were the descendants of Greek priests who had once lived near Didyma ( western Asia Minor ) and betrayed the temple to him.

His territories cover the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria ( Panjshir and Kapisa ) and extend to the modern Pakistani province of Punjab, most of the Indian states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and the Jammu region.

Not only had Asia Minor become detached, but the easternmost provinces had broken away, Bactria under the Greek Diodotus of Bactria, and Parthia under the nomad chieftain Arsaces.

Euthydemus I ( Greek: Εὐθύδημος Α ΄) ( c. 260 BC – 200 / 195 BC ), Greco-Bactrian king in about 230 or 223 BCE according to Polybius., he is thought to have originally been a Satrap of Sogdiana, who overturned the dynasty of Diodotus of Bactria and became a Greco-Bactrian king.

Overland trade continued at a reduced rate, while sea trade between Greek Egypt and Bactria developed.

of the Coins of the Greek and Scythian Kings of Bactria and India ( Brit.

* The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum ( 1886 )

" Demetrius " was the name of at least two, probably three Greek kings of Bactria ( known as " ولایت بلخی " or Balkh Province in Afghanistan ) and India.

Unambiguous Buddhist symbols are found on later Greek coins, but Demetrius I, who was born in the milieu of Bactria and struck coins with Buddhist gods, personally was a Buddhist.

Archaeological finds can be traced back to the Greek empire of Bactria and Buddhist civilization.

Ta-hia ( Daxia ) is then taken to mean the Tushara Kingdom which also included Badakshan, Chitral, Kafirstan and Wakhan According to other scholars, it were the Saka hordes alone who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria.

His territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria ( modern day ولایت بلخ or Bactria Province ) and extended to India ( modern day Pakistani provinces of the NWFP, Punjab and parts of Himachal Pradesh and the Jammu region ).

He is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them Apollodorus of Artemita, quoted by Strabo, who claims that the Greeks from Bactria were even greater conquerors than Alexander the Great, and that Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings, with Demetrius, who extended their power farthest into India:

It is only after the Greek settlement in Bactria ( third century BC ) that explicit references to planets are attested in Sanskrit texts.

The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress in Sogdiana, was captured in 327 BC by the forces of Alexander the Great ; after an extended campaign putting down Sogdian resistance and founding military outposts manned by his Greek veterans, Alexander united Sogdiana with Bactria into one satrapy.

Bactria ( from, the Hellenized version of Old Persian Bāxtriš ; Elamite ba-ak-ši-iš, Persian and Pashto as باختر Bākhtar or Pākhtar ; ; Chinese ) is the ancient name of a historical region located south of the Amu Darya and west of Gandhara.

The name Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BC to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BC to designate Bactria.

The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within Kushan Empire in the 1st to 3rd centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from Bactria and Taxila .< ref name =" Iranica "> Sogdian Trade, Encyclopedia Iranica, ( retrieved 15 June 2007 ) < http :// www. iranica. com / newsite ></ ref > They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China and India, such as in the archeological site of Begram.

A number of historians, beginning with the Roman Cephalion ( c. AD 120 ) asserted that Ninus ' opponent, the king of Bactria, was actually Zoroaster ( or first of several to bear this name ), rather than Oxyartes.

:" The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander ... Their cities were Bactra ( also called Zariaspa, through which flows a river bearing the same name and emptying into the Oxus ), and Darapsa, and several others.

Their name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria.

Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra ( modern Balkh ), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in today's Turkmenistan.

The name Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BCE to designate Bactria.

Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra ( modern Balkh ), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan.

:" The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander ... Their cities were Bactra ( also called Zariaspa, through which flows a river bearing the same name and emptying into the Oxus ), and Darapsa, and several others.

In the same year he published a memoir on the coins of Bactria, under the name of Die Münzen der griechischen, parthischen und indoskythischen Könige von Baktrien und den Ländern am Indus.

Either Demetrius II was not king of India but Bactria, or the account of the war is mixed up, or the king's name is wrong, Justin having confused the name of another Indo-Greek king with that of Demetrius I.

* Daxia, the name given in antiquity by the Chinese to the territory of Bactria

Daxia, Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia ( Chinese: 大夏 ; Pinyin: Dàxià ) is the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to the territory of Bactria.

The name Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BCE to designate Bactria.

Bahlika Pratipeya, as the name implies, was a prince of Bahlika ( Bactria ).