A Phoenician (the “punic” wars come from a mistranslation from greek to latin, phoenike) colony that became independent due to distance from the capital and just wanted to get rich from trading stuff around. They had an incredible naval industry. All the “losers” and “enemies” of these eras have amazing stories that we’re not taught at school. The many Persian dynasties of those times did incredible public works and had their own advanced bureaucracies and statecraft, which is what later muslim conquerors used as a basis for their own caliphates.

Somewhat related, this video, “Lost Worlds: Secrets of Alexander the Great” is a tracing, initially, of the likely path that created the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, as the myth possibly comes from when sea levels were much higher, to the point that the Black and Caspian seas were connected and you could sail all the way to what today is the middle of Turkmenistan. Later on, it mentions how Alexander didn’t “found” new cities in the region of Bactria, but rather subjugated the cities he happened to walk into