Ἰνδικά 42: Strabo XV, p. 718

42

Μεγασθένης δ’ ἐν μὲν τοῖς φιλοσόφοις οὐκ εἶναι δόγμα φησὶν ἑαυτοὺς ἐξάγειν· τοὺς δὲ ποιοῦντας τοῦτο, νεανικοὺς κρίνεσθαι, τοὺς μὲν σκληροὺς τῇ φύσει φερομένους ἐπὶ πληγὴν ἢ κρημνὸν, τοὺς δ’ ἀπόνους ἐπὶ βυθὸν, τοὺς δὲ πολυπόνους ἄπαγχομένους, τοὺς δὲ πυρώδεις εἰς πῦρ ὠθουμένους, οἷος ἦν καὶ ὁ Κάλανος, ἀκόλαστος ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ταῖς Ἀλεξάνδρου τραπέζαις δεδουλωμένος· τοῦτον μὲν οὖν ψέγεσθαι, τὸν δὲ Μάνδανιν ἐπαινεῖσθαι, ὃς τῶν τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀγγέλων καλούντων πρὸς τὸν Διὸς υἱὸν, πειθομένῳ τε δῶρα ἔσεσθαι ὑπισχνουμένων, ἀπειθοῦντι δὲ κόλασιν· μήτε ἐκεῖνον φαίη Διὸς υἱὸν, ὅς γε ἄρχει μηδὲ πολλοστοῦ μέρους τῆς γῆς· μηδὲ αὐτῷ δεῖν τῶν παρ’ ἐκείνου δωρεῶν, ᾧ οὐδεὶς κόρος· μήτε δὲ ἀπειλῆς εἶναι φόβον, ᾧ ζῶντι μὲν ἀρκοῦσα εἴη τροφὸς ἠ Ἰνδικὴ, ἀποθανόντι δὲ ἀπαλλάξαιτο τῆς σαρκὸς ἀπὸ γήρως τετρυχωμένης, μεταστὰς εἰς βελτίων καὶ καθαρώτερον βίον· ὥστ’ ἐπαινέσαι τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον καὶ συγχωρῆσαι.

That the Jewish race is by far the oldest of all these, and that their philosophy, which has been committed to writing, preceded the philosophy of the Greeks, Philo the Pythagorean shows by many arguments, as does also Aristoboulos the Peripatetic, and many others whose names I need not waste time in enumerating. Megasthenes, the author of a work on India, who lived with Seleukos Nikator, writes most clearly on this point, and his words are these: — "All that has been said regarding nature by the ancients is asserted also by philosophers out of Greece, on the one part in India by the Brachmanes, and on the other in Syria by the people called the Jews."