Alexander the Great and Bactria by Frank Holt

If you pay attention to the details, Alexander the Great AND Bactria (ISBN 9004086129) is a striking title, while one would expect to read Alexander the Great IN Bactria. There is a good reason for that.

Although the title includes only Bactria, one should see this book in the broader context of Bactria + Sogdiana, generally reunited under the label of Central Asia. Besides his Introduction, Frank Holt divides his book into three distinct parts: before the arrival of Alexander, during Alexander’s occupation; and what became of the area after his death. All in all a far from an easy task.

Frank Holt’s account of Alexander’s campaign through today’s Afghanistan in Into the Land of Bones was a fascinating and captivating voyage in the wake of the Macedonian King. I expected to find the same in this book about Bactria, but this is an entirely different ballgame.

In Alexander's days, Bactria was at the far end of the known world, where nobody “civilized” wanted to go, and nobody really knew where it started or ended. Even a meticulous geographer such as Strabo often got confused between Bactria and Sogdiana. Arrian and Curtius were no great help either, as they randomly gave contradictory accounts using Bactria and Sogdiana. As it turns out, modern historians are not more successful in their endeavors. Rivers are not exact frontiers but seem to bring the desert peoples together instead. The same goes for mountains, where passes commute between different peoples instead of separating them.

So far, I have had a somewhat confused view of Central Asia, and I was hoping that Frank Holt would shed some light on the subject. In a way, he did, as besides Strabo, Arrian, and Curtius, he closely analyzed all available ancient authors like Pliny (National History), Claudius Ptolemy (Geography), Ammianus-Macellus (on Persia), and Stephanus the Byzantine (Ethnika). Yet, despite his thorough study and consulting other modern writers, the end result could be better. Facts and dates are so intertwined that there is no way to clarify the situation.

I assume that this explains why Frank Holt talks about Alexander AND Bactria instead of Alexander IN Bactria. It makes sense. Pending new discoveries, new excavations, and new theories, Frank Holt is the best we have for now to get an excellent overall view of Bactria and Sogdiana, roughly of Central Asia.

The book is not easy to come by; the latest print dates back to 1989, but it is a handy tool for those who want to understand Alexander’s maneuvers' complexity and genius. After all, he spent three years of his short life in Central Asia – three years out of the ten during which he marched through Asia!