ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with a province often related to Bactria, the seat of the Achaemenid satrapy, but which is actually profoundly different. A brief summary is given of the preceding periods and shows the importance of its Saka component. The Achaemenid presence, though undeniable, is still poorly visible. The Greek period can be subdivided into three different phases: one related with Alexander’s conquest, another with a Seleukid military occupation, and a third one with the entry of a Hellenized population after the breakup of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. A gap of several decades separates phases 2 and 3 and is due to the recovery of its independence at the end or not long after Antiochos I/II’s reigns. The last Hellenization process emerged shortly after, with Roman influences, at the time of the Silk Road.
