The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.116

c12.116

² Arr. *Anab.* VII, 1, 5-6, λέγουσιν. (On Arrian’s use of this word see E. Schwartz, *Aristobulus* in PW, and E. Kornemann, *Die Alexandergeschichte des Königs Ptolemaios I* 1935 pp. 21-30.) Arrian’s source here cannot be Callisthenes, who was dead, or Onesicritus or Megasthenes, who gave versions of their own (see in text), or the Cleitarchean vulgate, because Diodorus, Curtius, and Justin alike know nothing of a conversation between Alexander and any gymnosophists; and if Kornemann *op. cit.* p. 158 be right, it cannot be Aristobulus. Only Nearchus and Ptolemy therefore remain. Nearchus told the story of Calanus (Arr. VII, 3, 6), whoever else did also; but whether Arrian’s source he Nearchus, or Ptolemy, or both, the *fact* of the meeting is very well attested indeed, even if Kornemann (p. 158) be right that the *conversation* had received some Stoic-Cynic colouring before it reached Arrian.