Ἰνδικά 46: Fragm. XLVI.

46

Strab. XV. I. 6-8,— pp. 686-688.
That the Indians had never been attacked by others, nor had themselves attacked others.
(Cf. Epit. 23.)
6. But what just reliance can we place on the accounts of India from such expeditions as those of Kyros and Semiramis? Megasthenes concurs in this view, and recommends his readers to put no faith in the ancient history of India. Its people, he says, never sent an expedition abroad, nor was their country ever invaded and conquered except by Herakles and Dionysos in old times, and by the Makedonians in our own. Yet Sesostris the Egyptian and Tearkon the Ethiopian advanced as far as Europe. And Nabukodrosor, who is more renowned among the Chaldaeans than even Herakles among the Greeks, carried his arms to the Pillars, which Tearkon also reached, while Sesostris penetrated from Iberia even into Thrace and Pontus. Besides these there was Idanthyrsos the Skythian, who overran Asia as far as Egypt. But not one of these great conquerors approached India, and Semiramis, who meditated its conquest, died before the necessary preparations were undertaken. The Persians indeed summoned the Hydrakai from India to serve as mercenaries, but they did not lead an army into the country, and only approached its borders when Kyros marched against the Massagetai.
Of Dionysos and Herakles.
7. The accounts about Herakles and Dionysos, Megasthenes and some few authors with him consider entitled to credit, [but the majority, among whom is Eratosthenes, consider them incredible and fabulous, like the stories current among the Greeks.]
8. On such grounds they called a particular race of people Nyssaians, and their city Nyssa, which Dionysos had founded, and the mountain which rose above the city Meron, assigning as their reason for bestowing these names that ivy grows there, and also the vine, although its fruit does not come to perfection, as the clusters, on account of the heaviness of the rains, fall off the trees before ripening. They further called the Oxydrakai descendants of Dionysos, because the vine grew in their country, and their processions were conducted with great pomp, and their kings on going forth to war and on other occasions marched in Bacchic fashion, with drums beating, while they were dressed in gay-coloured robes, which is also a custom among other Indians. Again, when Alexander had captured at the first assault the rock called Aornos, the base of which is washed by the Indus near its source, his followers, magnifying the affair, affirmed that Herakles had thrice assaulted the same rock and had been thrice repulsed. They said also that the Sibae were descended from those who accompanied Herakles on his expedition, and that they preserved badges of their descent, for they wore skins like Herakles, and carried clubs, and branded the mark of a cudgel on their oxen and mules. In support of this story they turn to account the legends regarding Kaukasos and Prometheus by transferring them hither from Pontos, which they did on the slight pretext that they had seen a sacred cave among the Paropamisadae. This they declared was the prison of Prometheus, whither Herakles had come to effect his deliverance, and that this was the Kaukasos, to which the Greeks represent Prometheus as having been bound.