The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.114

c10.s4.114

it cannot be separated from names like Asigramma and Naagramma on the Indus¹ and Anouragrammon and Maagrammon in Ceylon,² and -gramma is only the Sanscrit -grāma, ‘village’, as seen in names like Rāmagrāma, Vāsavagrāma, and Udegram in Swat to-day. Similarly his Monoglosson Emporion³ in Surastrene is only a nickname given by some merchant later to record his astonishment at finding a seaport where there was not the usual medley of tongues. Pliny gives in the Indus Delta a town Xylenopolis or Xylinepolis, founded by Alexander.⁴ It was not founded by Alexander or anyone else; it is merely one of Pliny’s so common mistakes in transliteration,⁵ and in his original source was only ξυλίνη πόλις, ‘a wooden town’,⁶ some native place built of wood instead of brick, as was the Indian custom if the place was liable to be flooded.⁷ The ridiculous story given by Curtius (IX, 10, 3) that Alexander founded a number of cities in the Indus Delta, if it means anything, only means that one or two garrisons were left; Justin’s Barce (XII, 10, 6) is not worth a thought, as the number of different MS readings shows.⁸