Encyclopedia › Places

Sogdiana

Eastern land of the Achaemenid empire beyond the Oxus, Central Asia, 6th-5th century BCE

In the game: Level 5: The Charter

Sogdiana lay between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, north of Bactria, and was one of the far eastern lands of the empire. It appears in Darius's royal inscriptions as a subject land and is named in the Susa foundation charter as a source of precious stones. It shows how far the King's rule reached beyond the Persian homeland.

In the game: The game mentions Sogdiana only in Chronicle entries and in the Encyclopedia's event articles, such as the Susa charter, where it supplies lapis lazuli and carnelian. It has no mechanic of its own.

Where Sogdiana lay

In the record

Darius's lists of subject lands name Sogdiana (Suguda) among the eastern peoples, near Chorasmia and Bactria. The lists show it was counted as a land of the empire by Darius's reign. They give no borders and no detail of how it was governed.

DB §6; DNa

Materials named in the Susa charter

In the record

In the foundation charter of the palace at Susa, Darius says lapis lazuli and carnelian were brought from Sogdiana. Turquoise came from Chorasmia. The text presents the palace as built from the whole empire, with each land supplying its own material.

DSf

Conquest and the Greek view

Disputed

Historians do not agree on who first brought Sogdiana under Persian rule. Many think Cyrus campaigned in the east, but Herodotus does not describe the conquest of Sogdiana and no contemporary text records it. Herodotus's tax list puts the Sogdians in one district with the Parthians, Chorasmians and Areians, a grouping the Persian lists do not show.

Herodotus 3.89-97; P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002

Sogdians in the army

Disputed

Whether Sogdian troops served in Xerxes' invasion of Greece is uncertain. Herodotus's catalogue of the army is the main source and historians treat its numbers as greatly exaggerated. He lists Sogdians under their commander Azanes son of Artaeus, but no other source confirms them in Greece.

Herodotus 7.61-99