THE SAKAS 205 of time entered India, possibly by more roads than one. This flood of barbarian invasion burst upon Bactria in the period between 140 and 130 B. c., finally extin- guishing the Hellenistic monarchy, which must have been weakened already by the growth of the Parthian or Persian power. The last Graeco-Bactrian king was Heliokles, with whom Greek rule to the north of the Hindu Kush disappeared for ever. The Saka flood, still pouring on, surged into the valley of the Helmund (Erymandrus) River, and so filled that region, the modern Sistan, that it became known as Sakastene, or the Saka country. Other branches of the barbarian stream which pene- trated the Indian passes deposited settlements at Tax- ila in the Pan jab and at Mathura on the Jumna, where Saka princes, with the title of satrap, ruled for more than a century, seemingly in subordination to the Par- thian power. Another section of the horde, at a later date, pushed on southwards and occupied the peninsula of Surashtra, or Kathiawar, founding a Saka dynasty which lasted for centuries. Strato I, a Greek King of Kabul and the Panjab, who was to some extent contemporary with Heliokles, seems to have been succeeded by Strato n, probably his grandson, who, in turn, was apparently displaced at Taxila by the Saka satraps. The satraps of Mathura were closely connected with those of Taxila, and belong to the same period, a little before and after 100 B. c. The movements of the Sakas and allied nomad tribes were closely connected with the development of the
