Surviving Bactria

I've been reading about the successors of Alexander lately and Bactria in particular makes for rather interesting reading,
The Greco-Bactrian kingdom unlike other such states was very Greek and it was located in a area which we don't traditionally assosiate with civilization (Central Asia being the land of nomads and Afghanistan in particular being rather rough and tribal even today).
So...How could we have Greece survive for at least a bit longer? (when we get Huns or Mongols or someone similar moving they are screwed)
Not having them move into India?
Maybe having China expand way westwards as they managed later on IOTL and incorporating them as a vassal?
 
Bright day
AArgh my eyes, my poor eyes!

Ehrm. AFAIK there were several kingdoms in modern Afghanistan in history, but each has fel because it simply was part of nomadic transways.

And there is a TL devoted to Bactria- Faelin's Answers to Milinda.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Bactria does live on in many of the cultures of Northern India, specifically the Punjab.

Many Punjabi myths are indeed Greek myths with a superficial Indic coating.
 

Nikephoros

Banned
Shameless Thread Necromancy to follow:

So...How could we have Greece survive for at least a bit longer? (when we get Huns or Mongols or someone similar moving they are screwed) Not having them move into India? Maybe having China expand way westwards as they managed later on IOTL and incorporating them as a vassal?

You need to stop the Yuezhi invasion. They pushed the Saka into Bactria, thus destroying the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. But the Indo-Greek kingdoms lived on even after the Saka and later the Yuezhi moved into India. They just became vassals of nomad overlords.
 
To make Bactria last longer, you would have to foil some conspiracies, prevent some civil wars, try to make an early compromise with the Seleucids, and I think Bactria was once at war with the Han Empire. I think by avoiding war with the powerful Chinese and the Seleucids, and even teaming up with the latter against the Parthians could extend the shelf life of the Bactrian Kingdom. Thats what I reckon anyway.
 
I think by avoiding war with the powerful Chinese and the Seleucids, and even teaming up with the latter against the Parthians could extend the shelf life of the Bactrian Kingdom. Thats what I reckon anyway.
A little difficult to avoid a war with the Seleucids; the Bactrian Greeks rebelled against their rule! The situation with the Parthian was more complex because the Bactrian/Indo Greeks kept the Saka off their backs whilst they the Parthians did over the Seleucids. What might serve the B/I Gs better would be to ally with the Seleucids and do over the Parthians then ally with the anti-Seleucids and do the Seleucids over. By heading west and not east, they move out of the path of the Saka invasions. Of course they then become Bactrian/Persian Greeks, but what in a name? ;)
 
Maybe I should have said that the Helleno-Bactrians should make overtures of peace and quickly establish an alliance with the Seleucids after seizing their independence. At least the Bactrians could be more useful as allies than vassals, given how overstretched the Seleucids were. Keeping good relations with their former masters should buy them some time before they could secure their new kingdom and expand their military.

Also, the problem wasn't that Bactria invaded India, it was the civil wars and dynastic shifts that took place after. If it wasn't for the infighting amongst the Bactrian and Indo-Greeks that weakened them, the might have proved harder for the Saka to defeat.

Perhaps Bactria could have gone for the poorly defended Seleucid eastern provinces before setting their sights on India, but then that might prove to be a long conflict, which could have drawn the Parthians to take advantage of them both.
 
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