This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1841 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. ANCIENT NOTICES OF ARIANA: THE COUNTRY BETWEEN PERSIA AND INDIA, WITH REMARKS UPON ALEXANDER'S MARCH FROM THE FORMER TOWARDS THE LATTER. The extent of the kingdom founded by the successors of the Greek governors of the province of Bactria considerably exceeded the limits assigned to the province by classical geographers. Its precise boundaries cannot be satisfactorily determined, but the numismatic illustrations which the history of the Bactrian kings has received render it likely that at different periods, and under different dynasties, the Bactrian monarchy comprised not only Transoxiana, but the countries to the south and south-west, to the confines of Persia on the one hand, and of India on the other. It is not likely, indeed, that the whole of this tract was at any one time under one sovereign; and the coins to be hereafter described show that there must have been several distinct dynasties of more or less contemporary existence. The country was therefore, no doubt, partitioned amongst different branches from the original stem; but in its undivided form it was in all likelihood co-extensive with the modern kingdom of Kabul, and with the Ariana of the ancients, in the widest application of the term.1 It is therefore advisable, before describing the coins of the several dynasties which held domination in this quarter of the globe, to attempt to determine what that designation imported, and what was the ancient condition of the countries over which the sway of the Bactrian Greeks was for a short season extended. The denomination of Ariana has perhaps been rarely used with the 1 So Strabo says; the Greeks of Bactria made themselves masters of Ariana and India, "exxij-s rijr 'Apiavrjs tntKparovv, ml Tov 'Ivdfir. Book XI. 11. 1. precision i...