Studia Hercynia (Oct 2021)
The forgotten ones. Thracians and Thessalians in Bactria-Sogdiana
Abstract
The presence and pre-eminence of settlers from the Northern Aegean world in early Hellenistic Bactria-Sogdiana have been tacitly accepted by scholars since Robert’s paper in 1968. The present article challenges the idea which backs up this assumption and also provides some new evidence with a greater focus on the Thracian and Thessalian cases. In this paper, it will be assessed that the hitherto accepted proofs are mostly circumstantial and not compelling. However, the dismissal of these pieces of evidence does not imply the total rebuttal of the possible presence of settlers from Thrace and Thessaly, but a reassessment of their importance and the times and circumstances of their arrival, proposing different migratory waves and purposes behind these populational movements. In consequence, this reassessment also implies new insight about how they would have been integrated into the complex multicultural mosaic of Bactria-Sogdiana.
