The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.169

v1.c24.169

Xenophon, in his romance of the life of Cyrus, entitled *Cyropaedia* (I, 1, 4), declares that Cyrus ‘brought under his rule Bactrians and Indians,’ as forming a part of his wide-spread empire. In the same work (VIII, 6, 20–21) he furthermore says that Cyrus, after reducing Babylon, ‘started on the campaign in which he is reported to have brought into subjection all the nations from Syria to the Erythraean Sea’ (i.e. the Indian Ocean); and for that reason he repeats that ‘the Erythraean Sea bounded the empire of Cyrus on the east⁴.’ This reference, though indefinite, certainly contains a direct allusion to control over the regions bordering on the Indian Ocean; but it would be unwarranted to interpret it as indicating any sovereignty over the mouth of the Indus, such as could be claimed in regard to the Persian sea-route to India in the time of Darius and his successors.