The Bactrian Armies – An Introduction

Bactria has been considered by many historians as one of the most important countries in the Central Asian region during ancient times. Ancient Greek scholar Strabo called it “an ornament of the whole of Ariana”, referring to the region that spread from eastern Iran to India. Bactria was widely renowned for it’s majestic beauty and exorbitant amounts of wealth in natural resources. As a result, many conquerors have tried to rule this land, as early back as ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, who was purported by the Roman historian Tacitus in his literary work Annals II,60 to have taken over these lands with his armies sometime during his reign from 1301-1235 BC. The Greek writer Ctesias of Cnidus tells a story of a similar feat accomplished by the Assyrians.

Bactria as a historical and cultural was thought to have come to fruition somewhere around 1000 BC, around the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age.