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The Death of Eucratides in Medieval Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. D. H. Bivar
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Extract

The introduction by Chaucer into his Knight's Tale of the character of Emetrius, who does not occur in any of the regular source material of the Thebaid story, has never been satisfactorily explained by Chaucerian scholars.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 82 , Issue 1-2 , April 1950 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1950

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References

page 7 note 1 Cummings, H. M., “The Indebtedness of Chaucer's Work to the Italian Works of Boccaccio” (Wisconsin, 1916)Google Scholar.

page 7 note 2 Cunningham, , Numismatic Chronicle(New Series), (1869) vol. ix, p. 151Google Scholar. The suggestion is briefly discussed in Cambridge. History of India, vol. i, p. 444. Also by Tarn, , Greeks in Bactria and India, p. 154, note 5Google Scholar; and by Trever, C., Monuments of Greco-Bactrian Art (Leningrad, 1940), p. 3 (in Russian)Google Scholar.

page 7 note 3 Especially relevant is the commemorative coin of Agathokles described in Numismatic Chronicle, 1934, p. 229; also the square bilingual bronze coins of Demetrius; and the unique bilingual silver coin of Demetrius described by White, head in Numismatic Chronicle, 1923, p. 301, plate 14, 2Google Scholar, and discussed by Tarn, , Greeks in Bactria and India, p. 77Google Scholar. All these illustrate the adoption by Demetrius of Alexander's cult title άνίκŋτος It seems to me dubious that the last coin should be attributed to a hypothetical Demetrius II, whose existenoe is far from certain.

page 8 note 1 Polybius XI, 39: τέλος Εύθύςημος έξέπεμψε Δημτριον τόν υίόν βεβαιώσοντα τάς όμολογοϒίας. ὃν βασιλεύς άποςεξάμενος καί ἅξιον εἷναι τόν νεανίσκον βασιλείας κάί… καί κατά τν ἔντευξιν (καί) προοτασίαν

page 8 note 2 Strabo XI, 516; τοσοûτον ςέ ἴσΧνσαν οί άποστσαντες Ελληνες αύτν(i.e. τν βακτριάνηυ ) διά τν άρετἠν τς Χώρας ὣστε τς τε ' Αριανς έπεκράτουν καί τν Ινδν, ὥς Φησιν 'Απολλόςωρος… καί πλείω ἕθνθη κατεσρέψαντο ἥ ' Αλέξανςρος, καί μάλιοτα Μένανςρος… τά μέν ϒάρ αύτός, τά ςέ Δημτριος ό Εύθυςμον νίός τοû βακτρίων βασιλέως.

page 9 note 1 The “Monk's Tale” tells how a series of great men came to grief, many of them characters Boccaccio deals with in “De Casibus”. Some of the MSS. of the Monk's Tale begin “Here begynneth the Monk's Tale, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium”. McCormiek, W., The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1933), pp. 92, 100, 116, etcGoogle Scholar.

page 10 note 1 Greeks in Bactria and India, p. 220.

page 10 note 2 B. M. IB 39797 f. 2.

page 10 note 3 Hauvette, : De Laurentio de Primofato (Thesis, Paris, 1903), p. 50Google Scholar.

page 11 note 1 B.M. IB 39797, Bk. 6, ch. 6.

page 11 note 2 Solinus, 49, 1: Oxus amnis oritur de lacu Oaxo, cuius oras hine inde Baleni et Oxystaoae acoolunt. Sed praecipuum partem Bactri tenent. Bactris praeterea est propius amnis Bactros: unde et oppidum quod incolunt Bactrum… Hocest conliminium, in quo limes Persious Scythis iungitur: quos Soythas Persae lingua sua Saoas diount, etc.

I suspect that Solinus is here drawing on some valuable source distinct from Pliny. The significance of Bactria as a march state has been discussed by Toynbee (A Study of History ii, p. 143) in some detail. It is possible that Laurence is here sharing a common source with Solinus rather than simply transcribing him.

page 11 note 3 Isidore of Seville IX (ii), 43: Bactriani Scythae fuerunt qui suorum factione a sedibus suis pulsi iuxta Baotron orientis fluvium considerunt, ex cuius vocabulo et nomen sortiti… Parthi quoque et ipsi ab Scythis originem trahunt.

Evidently Isidore is using the term Bactriani in the sense of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, as equivalent to Tochari or Kushans.

page 12 note 1 Isidore XII (iii), 30: Bactriae regionis propius amnis Bactros vocabulum dedit.

page 12 note 2 Isidore XIII (xxi), 14: Bactrus fluvius orientis a rege Bactro vooatus fertur. A quo Bactriani et urbs eorum.

It would be hard to say whether this is a typical invention of Isidore, or a confusedoffshoot of the tradition which originates from the Persika of Ktesiphon, and is quoted by Pseudo-Plutarch, De Fluviis 23, 1: 'Αράξης πογαμός έστι τς ‘Αρμενίαςς, τήν προσηϒορίαν είληΦώς άπ’ 'Αράξου ϒοὖ πύλου. οὖτος ϒάρ πρς Αρβηλον τν πάππον ύπέρ σκήπτρων μιλλώμενος αύτόν κατεϒόξενσε. ποινηλατούμενος ζέ ὺπ' ‘Ερινύων έαυτόνἕρριψεν είς ποταμόν Βάκτρον, ὅς άπ’ αύτο 'Αραάξης μετωνομάαθη καθώς ίστορεῖ ΚτηαίΦν έν ά Περοικν

page 13 note 1 It appears from Trogus, Prologue XLI that Trogus did relate the Greco-Bactrian conquests at considerable length, but these chapters are omitted by Justin.

page 13 note 2 The curious forms “Bautrians” and “Bautie” are used by Brunetto Latini in “Li Livres dou Tresor” (about A.D. 1250) for Bactriens and Bactrie. And the word “Baudrain” occurs in Jacques de Longuyon's poem “Les Voeux du Paon”, an imaginative continuation of the Alexander Romance, in apparently the same sense.