Frontière et passage. Les grands fleuves de l’Asie centrale et de l’Inde dans l’espace idéologique et politique du royaume gréco-bactrien (c. 246-128 av. J.-C.)

The Greco-Bactrian kingdom occupies a geographical space where the rivers have always played a major role for the prosperity of the region. On the one hand, waterways, as natural borders, define the scope of the royal authority. Indeed, the kings of Bactria built several fortresses and military colonies along the rivers of Central Asia in order to protect the crossing points as well as the territories depending on those rivers for supplying water to the irrigation canals. Actually, irrigated agriculture was the basis of the almost legendary wealth of the region and the Greeks of Bactria preserved and developed a well-established mode of production. In addition, the kings promote the religious aspect related to the rivers, as it is shown by the attention devoted to the shrine of the river god Oxus at Takht-i Sangin and to a lesser extent by the monetary iconography. Finally, the conquest of the territories beyond the river Hypanis provides the kings of Bactria with the ideological justification for presenting themselves as those who went further than Alexander had ever done. Hypanis was not a border anymore, it became a passage.