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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nathan B., post: 4577189, member: 112852&quot;]Whoa!&nbsp; That brought me up sharp.&nbsp; I took the trouble to google this, and found this in a Wikipedia page:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;He may have been the Bactrian ally of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) and Cleopatra VII referred to by Virgil in his vision of the Battle of Actium in The Aeneid, Bk.VIII, 688: Hinc ope barbarica variisque Antonius armis, victor ab Aurorae populis et litore rubro, Aegyptum viresque Orientis et ultima secum Bactra vehit. (Antony, with barbarous wealth and strange weapons, conqueror of eastern peoples and the Indian shores, bringing Egypt, and the might of the Orient, with him, and furthest Bactria).&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>I have read a large amount of Greek literature (in translation), but a negligible amount of Latin literature (again, in translation),&nbsp; I don&#039;t know much about Vergil but I do know that Augustus was his patron, and it was Augustus who wanted a founding epic for Rome: the Aeneid was the result.&nbsp; Since the Aeneid is a Homeric-style epic myth, I wouldn&#039;t necessarily put too much credence in the historicity of this detail there.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I read this line in isolation, though, it looks like it is saying that Antony is the &quot;conqueror of eastern peoples and Indian shores&quot; (hyperbole); in other words, I think this Wikipedia entry may be misinterpreting the power that the eastern triumvir Antony brings to the battle, including the wealth of Baktria and Egypt, by stating that he had a Baktrian ally, which the article then identifies with Zoilos II.&nbsp; Or, perhaps Antony had a token contingent of Baktrian elephants and elephant handlers, or even soldiers there.&nbsp; I guess, in that context, maybe it&#039;s not so <i>very </i>difficult to believe that he would have asked Zoilos II, or an intermediary, to help support him in that struggle--but without knowing very much, I suspect that it was at most a contingent of elephants that was being referred to.</p><p><br /></p><p>But if anyone knows more than this, or has different or simply more information, I would very happily consider it--it would make for a fascinating connection![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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