La Battriana e la Sogdiana: una testimonianza di Strabone e l’apporto delle fonti cinesi

Starting from Strabo’s account about the expansion of the Greeks of Bactria up to the borders of the Seres and Phrynoi, this contribution attempts to delineate the area of this expansion (probably located in the Ferghana region on the border of Xinjiang) to place it in the context of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom and its relations with bordering Sogdia, as well as to address the debated problem of the duration of the Greek rule in this region. Furthermore, special attention is drawn to some Chinese sources, in which, in addition to Bactria and Sogdia, there are mentions about a land designated by the ethnotoponym Da Yuan 大宛, which could provide confirmation for the conclusion that towards the end of the 3rd century B.C. a Greek presence settled in the Ferghana area.