The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.60

c14.60

In fact, Strabo (II, 1, 15) indicates that Indian goods used to arrive easily after being transported by the Oxus up to Hyrcania, that is to say, in the region of the Caspian, the region where they spread by means of the rivers right up to the Bridge. Pliny gives the details of transit on this route. The goods of the Oxus are routed by the Icare into the Caspian (Now the Oxus flows into the sea of Aral, but its ancient bed has been found), from where they are taken to the Cyrus. Thereafter they are transported by land up to the Phase, a tributary of the Euxine, in, at the most, five days. It is true that Pliny, while describing this itinerary (VI, 19, 2) says that Varron, from whom he has borrowed this information declares that it has been gathered under Pompei, during the war of Mithridates. The information of Pliny thus goes only upto 66 B.C., but Strabo, whom Pliny has not quoted and who drew from other sources, has specifically indicated these sources in a second reference made to the same route (XI, 7, 3); they are Aristobulos, who participated in the expedition of Alexander and Patrocles, the informant who had access to secret documents established for Alexander and about whom Pliny tells us that, as the admiral of Seleukos and of Antiochos Soter, he made a periplus of the Caspian Sea (VI, 21). As nothing enables us to suppose that the route from India to the Euxine was opened to commerce precisely by the expedition of Alexander, it is clear that it has been established earlier and it became known to the Western people only on this occasion.