The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.221

v1.c24.221

Finally, for the sake of completeness, it may be noted that India appears as one of the limits of the Persian Empire under Darius in the apocryphal Greek version of the Book of Ezra known as I Esdras. The passage (III, 1–2) runs as follows: 'Now King Darius made a great feast unto all his subjects, and unto all that were born in his house, and unto all the princes of Media and of Persia, and to all the satraps and captains and governors that were under him, from India unto Ethiopia, in the hundred twenty and seven provinces⁴.' Inasmuch, however, as the apologue of the Three Pages, in which this reference is embodied, seems to be subsequent to the age of Alexander, we must regard the passage as merely a general tradition concerning the extent of the Achaemenian Empire without insisting upon the chronological allusion to Darius I¹.