ALEXANDRIAN FOUNDATIONS
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Central Asia, India.
In his course across Asia Alexander the Great founded numerous towns: the
present concern is with those established E of the Tigris
between 331 and 325 B.C. In the listing below the order
follows the course of Alexander to the E, then S along
the rivers of India, and W on his return route. The primary sources either refer to these towns as Alexandrias,
or provide other, specific names. Later Classical writers
applied descriptive terminologies to those named for
Alexander. These towns were at sites of strategic and
commercial importance, and the practice was to draw
upon local Greek populations, which were already relatively numerous under Achaemenid rule, as well as Greek
mercenaries who had served the Achaemenid empire and
Macedonian troops. Some of these towns probably had
very brief lives, others prospered and served as conveyors
of Hellenistic art and culture in remote regions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Route of Alexander and the founding
of his towns: C. A. Robinson, Jr.,
The Ephemerides of
Alexander's Expedition (1932); P. Jouguet,
L'Impérialisme Macéonien et l'Hellénisation de l'Orient (1937)
37-62; P. Sykes,
A History of Persia I (1958) 255-78;
G. Woodcock,
The Greeks in India (1966) 27-41. These
sources are not repeated in bibliographies below, where
references have been largely restricted to Classical writers.
Alexandria
or Alexandria of Mygdonia (Erbil)
Iraq
Founded in 331, probably in the area of
Arbela, the site of a battle between the forces of Alexander and Darius III. Arbela lies SW of the Greater Zab
river, a tributary of the Tigris.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plin. 6.26; L. Dillemann,
Haute Mesopotamie orientale et pays adjacents . . . (1962) 160;
The Middle East. Lebanon-Syria-Jordan-Iraq-Iran, Hachette World Guides (1966) 702.
Alexandria
(Herat) Afghanistan.
Founded
in 330, at Artacoana, capital of the province of that
name at, or near, Herat on the Hari river.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plin. 6.21; Isodore Charax 15;
Strab.
11.8.9; 10.1; Amm. Marc. 23.6.69.
Prophthasia
Afghanistan.
Earlier capital of Sistan; in
330 made into a Greek colony by Alexander.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strab. 11.8.8; Sykes,
History of Persia
303.
Alexandria
or Alexandria-in-Arachosia, or Alexandropolis (Qandahar) Afghanistan.
Founded in
the spring of 329 at or near Qandahar; the name is a
corruption of Alexander.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Isodore Charax 19; Woodcock,
Greeks
in India 27, 111.
Alexandria
Afghanistan.
Founded in 329
near the modern town of Ghazni.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Woodcock,
Greeks in India 27, 111.
Alexandria
or Alexandria-ad-Caucasum, Afghanistan.
Founded in 329 on the Kabul river; it may
be present-day Jebal Seraj. It was S of the Parapamisus
range (Hindu Kush), which the Macedonians mistakenly
called the Caucasus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 3.28.4; Curtius 7.3.23; Woodcock,
Greeks in India 27, 28, 31, 86, 87, 96, 105.
Alexandria
or Alexandria Eschate, or Alexandria-ad-Tanais, Soviet Central Asia.
Founded in 329
on the Jaxartes river, near present-day Khojand. Alexander spent 20 days supervising the building of the walls
of the town, which measured 60 stadia. There he settled
people of the region, Greek mercenaries and some Macedonian troops who were past fighting. Later, the town
was rebuilt by Antiochos I.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 4.1.3; 4.1; 22.5; Curtius 7.6.13, 25-26;
Plin. 6.49; Frye,
The Heritage of Persia (1963) 131; Sykes,
History of Persia 268.
Alexandria
or Alexandria Oxiana, Afghanistan.
Founded in 328 on the Oxus, possibly near the
present village of Nakhshab.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ptol. 6.12.6.
Alexandria
or Alexandria Margiana, Soviet Central
Asia.
Six towns were said to have been founded
in 328 in this region, later known as the oasis of Merv,
or Marv, but only this one is precisely recorded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Curtius 7.10.15; Isodore Charax 14;
Strab. 11.516.
Nikaia
(Jalalabad) Afghanistan.
Founded in
327 at or near Jalalabad.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 5.19.4; Justin 12.8.8; Woodcock,
Greeks in India 31, 111; Sykes,
History of Persia 270.
Nikaia
India.
Founded in 326 and named
after the victory over the Indians under Porus which
took place nearby. On the W bank of the Jhelum, possibly at, or near, present-day Mong.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 5.19.4; Curtius 9.1.6; 3.23; Woodcock,
Greeks in India 111.
Buchephala
India.
Founded in 326 and named
after his steed Buchephalos, which succumbed to old age
at this spot. It was on the E bank of the Jhelum, just
across from Nikaia, and possibly at, or near, modern
Jelalpur. It maintained an active existence at least
through the 1st c. A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 5.19.4; Curtius 9.1.6; 3.23; Woodcock,
Greeks in India 35, 39, 110, 111; Sykes,
History of Persia 273.
Alexandria
India.
Founded in 325 at the
junction of the Akesines (modern Chenab) and Indus
rivers. Alexander hoped that it would become great and
famous in the world. Possibly the site is near modern
Multan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 6.15.2; Curtius 9.8.8; Woodcock.
Greeks in India 39, 111.
Alexandria
or Patala, India.
In 325 a
Greek city was founded beside the old Indian town of
Patala, which lay at the mouth of the Indus, much farther
inland than it is today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Woodcock,
Greeks in India 40.
Alexandria
or Alexandria apud Oritas, India.
In 325 Alexander arrived at the village of Rambacia,
and left Hephaestion behind to found a city there. The
capital of a people called Oritus, it lay in a desolate region W of the Indus river.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arr. 6.21.5.
Alexandria
Iran.
Founded in 325 in the
land of the Fish Eaters, the region later called Makran,
with its site possibly near present-day Mashkid.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. R. Bevan,
The House of Seleucus I
(1902) 273.
Alexandria
Iran.
Founded in 325 at the
place where his admiral Nearchus came up from the
Persian Gulf to join him. The site is N of modern Bandar
'Abbas, at or near present-day Gulashkird, the Walasgird
of the Arab geographers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plin. 6.107; Sykes,
History of Persia I,
303; id.,
Ten Thousand Miles in Persia or Eight Years
in Iran (1902) 270, 445.
D. N. WILBER