The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.10

c14.10

¹ According to Ktesias (Persica 6) Cyrus died of a wound inflicted on him by an Indian soldier belonging to a corps allied against him with the Derbices, people living to the east of the Caspian sea, and who had brought to them the elephants of war. But Ktesias is contradicted by Xenophon (Cyrop., VIII, 7, 3-38) who makes Darius die in his place, by Herodotos (I, 214) who says that he was killed in a battle against the Massagetes and by Berose (Fr., 29, 6-7) who makes him die in a war against the Dahai of Parthia. The incertitude, therefore, is very great, although some parts of this information are irreconciliable. The fact reported by Ktesias can lead only to the inference that the presence of a corps of Indian soldiers with elephants in a region to the east of the Caspian was not considered impossible. It is true that Ktesias has often left the domain of probability in his writings but we will see that at least commerce did regularly bring Indian goods to such regions.