Macedonians in the Punjab

[Manjinder Singh]

Mr. Nick (as per previous responses),Thanks for your previous responses. I do agree with your reasoning and viewpoints on Memnon and Darius.
One last thought - Porus was only a Chieftain (betw. 2 rivers and Omphis betrayed him to Alexander. Porus had to defend only and did all that he could. Darius was a letdown. He lacked the military discipline and a genuine warrior spirit.I wish to inquire on the Macedonians that were left in the Punjab. How many were left behind by Alexander?
Seleucus Nicator did rule the Punjab and later Menander (Indo-Greek). The Greeks ruled the Punjab for 300 odd years.........I am very interested as to the number of men left there.......because this means that present day Sikhs and Punjabis are of that descent and temperament. 4000 men? more or less? Rgds
Manjinder Singh

[Nicator]

Hello again,It's a question of how many men were required to garrison a fortress. He left what men were needed, and frequently they were massacred after his departure (in India). Desertions were no doubt more frequent at the edge of the empire, and even more so after ATG's death. There is evidence of a commander who stayed on for over 20 years and flourished. Can't remember his name though...it was in some online history bulletin on the Diadochi under Seleucus. Perhaps Sikander can be of help here, he has a decent web page, and knows the Indian side of things perhaps a bit more intimately than most. later Nicator

[agesilaos]

The numbers left behind as garrisons and settlers is moot since the sources are mute. However citadels were established at Taxila where he left those unfit for duty,and Patala where alongside the invalids the Thracian contingent was left. He also established Nicaea and Bucephala as well as refounding some Indian settlements. Figures for the Macedonian sick are of course absent but the garrrisons must have totalled about two thousand and the settlers possibly a similar amount, of these only the tiniest fraction were Macedonian the majority being Greek mercenaries.As a test against this estimate in 322BC the Upper Satrapies rose and twenty thousand Greeks attempted to march home, four thousand seems reasonable for the Indian portion of this army. Most of the Hellenic blood in the later Indo-Bactrian kingdoms would have come from later, Seleucid resettlement; which subsequently broke from the central authority.