Public Administration in Ancient India c8.18

c8.18

Some of the other nations had an aristocratic form of government with a President at the head of the administration. At the city of Nysa, the administration was in the hands of three hundred wise men. When Alexander requested the Nysians to send with him one hundred men from their governing body, their President replied: “How, O King! can a single city, if deprived of a hundred of its best men, continue to be well-governed?”² It was reported to Alexander that “the country beyond the Hyphasis was exceedingly fertile, and that the inhabitants were good agriculturists and lived under an excellent system of internal government, for the multitude are governed by the aristocracy who exercised their authority with justice and moderation.”³