The Classical Accounts of India c12.s2: II. Incidental Notices

The Classical Accounts of India c12.s2

Language: English

II. Incidental Notices

In the Third Book of his Geography Eratosthenes divides the inhabited world into two parts by a line drawn from west to east, parallel to the equatorial line......As an evidence of this he argues that the most southerly capes of India rise opposite to the regions about Meroe, and from the capes on to the most northerly regions of India at the Caucasus Mountains,⁴¹ Patrocles says the distance is fifteen thousand stadia; but the distance from Meroe to the parallel of Athens is surely about the same, and therefore the northerly parts of India, since they join the Caucasus Mountains, come to an end in this parallel.⁴²

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II. 1. 4. Hipparchus controverts this view, urging the futility of the proofs on which it rests. Patrocles, he says, is unworthy of trust, opposed as he is by two competent authorities, Deimachus and Megasthenes, who state that in some places the distance from the southern sea is 20,000 stadia. and in others 30,000. Such, he says, is the account they give, and it agrees with the ancient charts of the country

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II. 1 7. Again, Hipparchus, in the 2nd volume of his commentary, charges Eratosthenes himself with throwing discredit on Patrocles for differing from Megasthenes about the length of India on its northern side, Megasthenes making it 16,000 stadia, and Patrocles 1000 less.

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II. iii. 4. He (Posidonios) also narrates how a certain Eudoxus of Cyzicus....travelled into Egypt in the reign of Euergetes II. (Physcon); and being a learned man and much interested in the peculiarities of different countries, he made interest with the king and his ministers on the subject, but especially for exploring the Nile. It chanced that a certain Indian was brought to the king by the (coast) guard of the Arabian Gulf. They reported that they had found him in a ship alone, and half dead: but they neither knew who he was nor where he came from, as he spoke a language they could not understand. He was placed in the hands of preceptors appointed to teach him the Greek language, on acquiring which he related how he had started from the coast of India, but lost his course, and reached Egypt alone, all his companions having perished with hunger; but that if he were restored to his country he would point out to those sent with him by the king the route by sea to India. Eudoxus was of the number thus sent. He set sail with a good supply of presents, and brought back with him in exchange aromatics and precious stones, some of which the Indians collect from amongst the pebbles of the rivers, others they dig out of the earth, where they have been formed by the moisture, as crystals are formed with us. (He fancied he had made his fortune), however, he was greatly deceived, for Euergetes took possession of the whole treasure. On the death of that prince, his widow, Cleopatra, assumed the reins of Government, and Eudoxus was again despatched with a richer cargo than before. On his journey back, he was carried by the winds above Ethiopia, and being thrown on certain (unknown) regions, he conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles which they were without; receiving in exchange a supply of water, and guides for the journey He also wrote down several words of their language, and having found the end of a prow, with a horse carved on it, which he was told formed part of the wreck of a vessel coming from the west, he took it with him, and proceeded on his homeward course. He arrived safely in Egypt, where no longer Cleopatra, but her son, ruled, but he was again stripped of everything on the accusation of having appropriated to his own use a large portion of the merchandise sent out.

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II v 12 The entrance of a Roman army into Arabia Felix under the command of my friend and companion Aelius Gallus, and the traffic of the Alexandrian merchants whose vessels pass up the Nile and Arabian Gulf to India, have rendered us much better acquainted with these countries than our predecessors were. I was with Gallus at the time he was prefect of Egypt, and accompanied him as far as Syene and the frontiers of Ethiopia, and I found that about one hundred and twenty ships sail from Myos-Hormos to India, although in the time of the Ptolemies scarcely any one would venture on this voyage and the commerce with the Indies.

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II. v. 14. That in configuration it (the habitable earth) resembles a *Chlamys* is also clear from the fact that at either end of its length the extremities taper to a point. Owing to the encroachment of the sea, it also loses something in breadth. This we know from those who have sailed round its eastern and western points. They inform us that the island called Taprobane is much to the south of India, but that it is nevertheless inhabited, and is situated opposite to the island of the Egyptians and the Cinnamon country, as the temperature of their atmospheres is similar.

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II. v. 32. After these mountaineers come the people dwelling beyond the Taurus. First among these is India, a nation greater and more flourishing than any other; they extend as far as the eastern sea and southern part of the Atlantic. In the most southern part of this sea opposite to India is situated the island of Taprobane, which is not less than Britain.

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1l. v. 5. Alexander too erected altars as boundaries of his Indian campaign in those parts of the Indies he arrived at, which were situated farthest towards the east, in imitation of Hercules and Bacchus.

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V 11. 6 The salt mines in India mentioned by Clitarchus.

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XI. v. 7. They (the Aorsi and Siraces) were thus (by their possession of the larger part of the Caspian Sea) enabled to transport on camels the merchandise of India and Babylonia, receiving it from Armenians and Medes. They wore gold also in their dress in consequence of their wealth The Aorsi live on the banks of the Tanais, and the Siraces on those of the Achardeus, which rises in Caucasus and discharges itself into the Maeotis.

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XI vii. 2. Aristobulus says that Hyrcania has forests, and produces the oak, but not the pitch pine, nor the fir, nor the pine, but that India abounds with these trees.

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XI. vii. 3. Aristobulus avers that the Oxus was the largest river, except those in India, which he had seen in Asia. He says also that it is navigable with ease....and that large quantities of Indian merchandise are conveyed by it to the Hyrcanian (Caspian) Sea, and are transferred from thence into Albania by the Cyrus, and through the adjoining countries to the Euxine.

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XI. xii. 4. Eratosthenes says that the fir does grow even in India, and that Alexander built his ships of that wood.

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XI. viii 9. He (Eratosthenes) assigns the following distances from the Caspian Gates to India:—

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| | | Stadia. |
| To Hecatompylos . . . . . . | . . | 1,960 |
| To Alexandreia in the Country of the Arioi | . . | 4,530 |
| Thence to Prophthasia in Dranga . . | . . | 1,600 |
| (or according to others 1500) | | |
| Thence to the city Arachotus . . . . | . . | 4,120 |
| Thence to Ortospana to the junction of the three roads from Bactra . . . . . . | . . | 2,000 |
| Thence to the confines of India . . | . . | 1,000 |
| which together amount to . . | . . | 15,300⁴² |

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We must regard as continuous with this distance, in a straight line, the length of India reckoned from the Indus to the Eastern Sea.

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XI. xi. 1. The Greeks who occasioned its (Bactra’s) revolt became so powerful by means of its fertility and advantages of the country that they became masters of Ariana and India, according to Apollodorus of Artemita.⁴³ Their chiefs, particularly Menander (if he really crossed the Hypanis to the east and reached Isamus),⁴⁴ conquered more nations than Alexander. These conquests were achieved partly by Menander, partly by Demetrius, son of Euthydemus, king of the Bactrians. They got possession not only of Patalene but of the kingdom of Saraostus, and Sigerdis,⁴⁵ which constitute the remainder of the coast. Apollodorus, in short, says that Bactriana is the ornament of all Ariana. They extended their empire even as far as the Seres and Phryni.⁴⁶

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XI. xi. 6 It is not generally admitted that persons have passed round by sea from India to Hyrcania, but Patrocles asserts it may be done.⁴⁷

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XVI. iv. 2. The extreme parts (of Arabia), towards the south and opposite to Ethiopia, are watered by summer showers, and are sowed twice, like the land in India.

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XVI. iv. 24. Merchandise is conveyed from Leuce Come to Petra, thence to Rhinocolura in Phoenicia near Egypt, and thence to other nations But at present the greater part is transported by the Nile to Alexandria. It is brought down from Arabia and India to Myos Hormos, it is then conveyed on camels to Coptus of the Thebais, situated on a canal of the Nile, and to Alexandria.

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XVI. iv. 25. Cassia (is) the growth of bushes in Arabia, yet some writers say that the greater part of the Cassia is brought from India.

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XVI. iv. 27. Alexander might be adduced to bear witness to the wealth of the Arabians, for he intended, it is said, after his return from India to make Arabia the seat of empire.

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*These brief notices have been culled from Falconer's version.*

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¹ See later, XV, i 73

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² Cape Comorin

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³ Or, by a slight emendation of the text, “in terms of the schoenus”.

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⁴ i e 19,000 stadia

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⁵ The reference is to II i 4 ff , part of which has been quoted later in this section under “Incidental Notices ”

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⁶ In II i 14 Strabo gives the length of Taprobane as “more than five thousand stadia”.

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FOOTNOTES

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⁷ i.e cotton

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⁸ Probably silk is meant

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⁹ i e. sugar-cane

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¹⁰ The reference is, of course, to the Banyan tree

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¹¹ This river is usually referred to by the Greek writers as Hydraotis, but Hyraotis more closely corresponds to the Sanskrit name Airavati.

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¹² i c. ox-head

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¹⁸ The Hydaspes and Acesines

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¹⁴ Or "nephew"

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¹⁵ i e, to turn back from the Hypanis

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¹⁶ Cf para 28 above

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¹⁷ See para 8

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¹⁸ See para 8.

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¹⁹ About 120 ft

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²⁰ Perhaps the more natural interpretation of the Greek passage would be, "the farmers cultivate it for wages, on condition of receiving a fourth part of the produce," whether "wages" and "fourth part" are appositional, or "on condition of" means, as it might, "in addition to" But Diodorus Siculus (2 40 5) says, ("the rentals of the country they pay to the king ... but apart from the rental they pay a fourth part into the royal treasury"). (Note by H L. Jones in support of his translation)

Cites (3)

Ἰνδικά — Μεγασθένης, Ancient Greek
Patrocles, Υπομνήματα — Πατροκλῆς, Ancient Greek
Historiae Philippicae — Pompeius Trogus, Latin