Arsakês had finally subjugated Croatia, and found to his surprise that their domain stretched much further south than he had expected, having come into contact with Bactrian border guards. He knew that his troops now found themselves in the lands of what had once been Babylonia, and Persia before that.

He decided to split his army in two ; the majority of his army was to return home, but a small portion would now scour the lands of Persia, in order to provide Arsakês with information about the land, its geography, its people, its crops, information which could then be added to the library of Elephantinê, which contains much of the knowledge of the Eastern Hellenes.

In particular, Arsakês wished to find any examples of the sugar crop, which only Dakshinapathans and their northern brethren are known to harvest. His scouts closer to home had reported large amounts of Pangiristani troops withdrawing from their shared border just as Arsakês was annexing the easternmost reach of Croatia ; he knew these lands had once belonged to this nation, but not why they had been abandoned. Arsakês knew these lands might yield that elusive and exotic crop, but was curious as to what dangers might lurk within that had forced the Pangiristani to withdraw.

His scouts were ordered to explore until they met the sea.

Map

Map suggests there should be some sugarcane here somewhere, corroborated by this map