[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Latin](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la) › [Principate (31 BCE – 300 CE)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial) › [Pliny the Elder, Natural History](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder) › 6.58 # Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.58 Naturalis historia 6.58 - **Language:** Latin ### [6.58](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6.58) alia illi caeli facies, alii siderum ortus; binae aestates in anno, binae messes, media inter illas hieme etesiarum flatus, nostra vero bruma lenes ibi aurae, mare navigabile. gentes ei urbesque innumerae, si quis omnes persequi velit. etenim patefacta est non modo Alexandri Magni armis regumque qui successere ei, circumvectis etiam in Hyrcanium mare et Caspium Seleuco et Antiocho praefectoque classis eorum Patrocle, verum et aliis auctoribus Graecis, qui cum regibus Indicis morati, sicut Megasthenes et Dionysius a Philadelpho missus, ex ea causa vires quoque gentium prodidere. > In this region, the appearance of the heavens is totally changed, and quite different is the rising of the stars; there are two summers in the year, and two harvests, while the winter intervenes between them during the time that the Etesian winds are blowing: during our winter too, they enjoy light breezes, and their seas are navigable. In this country there are nations and cities which would be found to be quite innumerable, if a person should attempt to enumerate them. For it has been explored not only by the arms of Alexander the Great and of the kings who succeeded him, by Seleucus and Antiochus, who sailed round even to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea, and by Patrocles, the admiral of their fleet, but has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations. Still, however, there is no possibility of being rigorously exact, so different are the accounts given, and often of a nature so incredible. The followers of Alexander the Great have stated in their writings, that there were no less than five thousand cities in that portion of India which they vanquished by force of arms, not one of which was smaller than that of Cos; > — John Bostock & Henry Thomas Riley 1855, The Natural History of Pliny - [Previous: 6.57](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6.57) - [Next: 6.59](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6.59) - [Up: 6](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6) ## Translations (1) - [The Natural History of Pliny](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder~en-bostock-riley.6.21.2) — John Bostock & Henry Thomas Riley 1855, English ## Linked texts (2) - [Chandragupta Maurya and His Times](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.mookerji-1943.c5.80) — Radhakumud Mookerji, English - [Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.motichandra-1945.c5.77) — Moti Chandra, English --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6.58](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder.6.58) · Pramāṇa