The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.205

v1.c24.205

² The early Greek geographer Hecataeus, who flourished in the reign of Darius, seems to have possessed considerable information regarding the Indus valley, which may have come to him from Scylax himself. Cf. *Fragments 174–179*, in *Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum*, ed. C. Müller, I, 12, Paris, 1841, especially *Fragm.* 175, where Hecataeus says that a tribe called the Opiai ‘dwell by the Indus River, and there there is a royal fort. Thus far the Opiai extend, and beyond there is a desert as far as the Indians.’ If ‘royal fort’ means a fort of the Great King, as is likely, we have evidence here for the presence of a Persian frontier garrison on the Indus.