Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia

Alexander’s advance into Bactria and Sogdiana brought the Macedonian conquest into one of its most difficult landscapes: a Central Asian frontier with established societies, political traditions and persistent resistance. Frank L. Holt begins with Bactria before Alexander, then follows invasion, revolt, military settlement and colonisation as the conquerors tried to secure the region between the Persian heartlands and the approaches to India.

Hellenistic Bactria emerges here from conflict and accommodation, not from a simple spread of Greek culture. Holt sets ancient literary accounts beside archaeological and numismatic evidence and carries the story beyond Alexander’s death toward the age of Seleucus, showing how conquest gradually became settlement and a new frontier society began to take shape.