The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.22

c18.22

¹ The fragments of Megasthenes have been collected and edited by Schwanbeck under the title of *Megasthenis Indika* (Bonn, 1846); and translated by McCrindle in *Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian* (Trübner, London, 1877). Arrian (*Indika*, 17) rightly brackets Nearchos and Megasthenes as trustworthy persons (δοκίμω ἄνδρε). Strabo, who was disgusted by some of the travellers' tales repeated by Megasthenes, unjustly stigmatizes him as a liar. The information collected by Megasthenes was supplemented by the works of other writers, of whose books fragments have been preserved by the authors to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of Megasthenes. For a list of these authors see Schwanbeck, op. cit., Index I. McCrindle's books, six in number, give a nearly complete collection of the passages in Greek and Roman authors treating of ancient India.