I. ALL the territory that lies west of the river Indus up to the river Cophen is
inhabited by Astacenians and Assacenians, Indian tribes. But they are not, like the
Indians dwelling within the river Indus, tall of stature, nor similarly brave in spirit,
nor as black as the greater part of the Indians. These long ago were subject to the
Assyrians; then to the Medes, and so they became subject to the Persians; and they paid
tribute to Cyrus son of Cambyses from their territory, as Cyrus commanded. The Nysaeans
are not an Indian race; but part of those who came with Dionysus to India; possibly even
of those Greeks who became past service in the wars which Dionysus waged with Indians;
possibly also volunteers of the neighbouring tribes whom Dionysus settled there together
with the Greeks, calling the country Nysaea from the mountain Nysa, and the city itself
Nysa. And the mountain near the city, on whose foothills Nysa is built, is called Merus
because of the incident at Dionysus' birth. All this the poets sang about Dionysus; and I
leave it to the narrators of Greek or Eastern history to recount them. Among the
Assacenians is Massaca, a great city, where resides the chief authority of the Assacian
land; and another city Peucela, this also a great city, not far from the Indus. These
places then are inhabited on this side of the Indus towards the west, as far as the river
Cophen.
II. But the parts from the Indus eastward, these I shall call India, and its
inhabitants Indians. The boundary of the land of India towards the north is Mount Taurus.
It is not still called Taurus in this land; but Taurus begins from the sea over against
Pamphylia and Lycia and Cilicia; and reaches as far as the Eastern Ocean, running right
across Asia. But the mountain has different names in different places; in one,
Parapamisus, in another Hemodus; elsewhere it is called Imaon, and perhaps has all sorts
of other names; but the Macedonians who fought with Alexander called it Caucasus; another
Caucasus, that is, not the Scythian; so that the story ran that Alexander came even to the
far side of the Caucasus. The western part of India is bounded by the river Indus right
down to the ocean, where the river runs out by two mouths, not joined together as are the
five mouths of the Ister; but like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is
formed; thus also the Indian delta is formed by the river Indus, not less than the
Egyptian; and this in the Indian tongue is called Pattala. Towards the south this ocean
bounds the land of India, and eastward the sea itself is the boundary. The southern part
near Pattala and the mouths of the Indus were surveyed by Alexander and Macedonians, and
many Greeks; as for the eastern part, Alexander did not traverse this beyond the river
Hyphasis. A few historians have described the parts which are this side of the Ganges and
where are the mouths of the Ganges and the city of Palimbothra, the greatest Indian city
on the Ganges.
III. I hope I may be allowed to regard Eratosthenes of Cyrene as worthy of special
credit, since he was a student of Geography. He states that beginning with Mount Taurus,
where are the springs of the river Indus, along the Indus to the Ocean, and to the mouths
of the Indus, the side of India is thirteen thousand stades in length. The opposite side
to this one, that from the same mountain to the Eastern Ocean, he does not reckon as
merely equal to the former side, since it has a promontory running well into the sea; the
promontory stretching to about three thousand stades. So then he would make this side of
India, to the eastward, a total length of sixteen thousand stades. This he gives, then, as
the breadth of India. Its length, however, from west to east, up to the city of
Palimbothra, he states that he gives as measured by reed-measurements; for there is a
royal road; and this extends to ten thousand stades; beyond that, the information is not
so certain. Those, however, who have followed common talk say that including the
promontory, which runs into the sea, India extends over about ten thousand stades; but
farther north its length is about twenty thousand stades. But Ctesias of Cnidus affirms
that the land of India is equal in size to the rest of Asia, which is absurd; and
Onesicritus is absurd, who says that India is a third of the entire world; Nearchus, for
his part, states that the journey through the actual plain of India is a four months'
journey. Megasthenes would have the breadth of India that from east to west which others
call its length; and he says that it is of sixteen thousand stades, at its shortest
stretch. From north to south, then, becomes for him its length, and it extends twenty-two
thousand three hundred stades, to its narrowest point. The Indian rivers are greater than
any others in Asia; greatest are the Ganges and the Indus, whence the land gets its name;
each of these is greater than the Nile of Egypt and the Scythian Ister, even were these
put together; my own idea is that even the Acesines is greater than the Ister and the
Nile, where the Acesines having taken in the Hydaspes, Hydraotes, and Hyphasis, runs into
the Indus, so that its breadth there becomes thirty stades. Possibly also other greater
rivers run through the land of India.
IV. As for the yonder side of the Hyphasis, I cannot speak with confidence, since
Alexander did not proceed beyond the Hyphasis. But of these two greatest rivers, the
Ganges and the Indus, Megasthenes wrote that the Ganges is much greater than the Indus,
and so do all others who mention the Ganges; for (they say) the Ganges is already large as
it comes from its springs, and receives as tributaries the river Cainas and the Erannoboas
and the Cossoanus, all navigable; also the river Sonus and the Sittocatis and the
Solomatis, these likewise navigable. Then besides there are the Condochates and the Sambus
and Magon and Agoranis and Omalis; and also there run into it the Commenases, a great
river, and the Cacuthis and Andomatis, flowing from the Indian tribe of the Mandiadinae;
after them the Amystis by the city Catadupas, and the Oxymagis at the place called
Pazalae, and the Errenysis among the Mathae, an Indian tribe, also meet the Ganges.
Megasthenes says that of these none is inferior to the Maeander, where the Maeander is
navigable. The breath therefore of the Ganges, where it is at its narrowest, runs to a
hundred stades; often it spreads into lakes, so that the opposite side cannot be seen,
where it is low and has no projections of hills. It is the same with the Indus; the
Hydraotes, in the territory of the Cambistholians, receives the Hyphasis in that of the
Astrybae, and the Saranges from the Cecians, and the Neydrus from the Attacenians, and
flows, with these, into the Acesines. The Hydaspes also among the Oxydracae receives the
Sinarus among the Arispae and it too flows out into the Acesines. The Acesines among the
Mallians joins the Indus; and the Tutapus, a large river, flows into the Acesines. All
these rivers swell the Acesines, and proudly retaining its own name it flows into the
Indus. The Cophen, in the Peucelaetis, taking with it the Malantus, the Soastus, and the
Garroeas, joins the Indus. Above these the Parenus and Saparnus, not far from one another,
flow into the Indus. The Soanus, from the mountains of the Abissareans, without any
tributary, flows into it. Most of these Megasthenes reports to be navigable. It should not
then be incredible that neither Nile nor Ister can be even compared with Indus or Ganges
in volume of water. For we know of no tributary to the Nile; rather from it canals have
been cut through the land of Egypt. As for the Ister, it emerges from its springs a meagre
stream, but receives many tributaries; yet not equal in number to the Indian tributaries
which flow into Indus or Ganges; and very few of these are navigable; I myself have only
noticed the Enus and the Saus. The Enus on the line between Norica and Rhaetia joins the
Ister, the Saus in Paeonia. The country where the rivers join is called Taurunus. If
anybody is aware of other navigable rivers which form tributaries to the Ister, he
certainly does not know many.
V. I hope that anyone who desires to explain the cause of the number and size of the
Indian rivers will do so; and that my remarks may be regarded as set down on hearsay only.
For Megasthenes has recorded names of many other rivers, which beyond the Ganges and the
Indus run into the eastern and southern outer ocean; so that he states the number of
Indian rivers in all to be fifty-eight, and these all navigable. But not even Megasthenes,
so far as I can see, travelled over any large part of India; yet a good deal more than the
followers of Alexander son of Philip did. For he states that he met Sandracottus, the
greatest of the Indian kings, and Porus, even greater than he was. This Megasthenes says,
moreover, that the Indians waged war on no men, nor other men on the Indians, but on the
other hand that Sesostris the Egyptian, after subduing the most part of Asia, and after
invading Europe with an army, yet returned back; and Indathyrsis the Scythian who started
from Scythia subdued many tribes of Asia, and invaded Egypt victoriously; but Semiramis
the Assyrian queen tried to invade India, but died before she could carry out her
purposes; it was in fact Alexander only who actually invaded India. Before Alexander, too,
there is a considerable tradition about Dionysus as having also invaded India, and having
subdued the Indians; about Heracles there is not much tradition. As for Dionysus, the city
of Nysa is no mean memorial of his expedition, and also Mount Merus, and the growth of ivy
on this mountain then the habit of the Indians themselves setting out to battle with the
sound of drums and cymbals; and their dappled costume, like that worn by the bacchanals,
of Dionysus. But of Heracles the memorials are slight. Yet the story of the rock Aornos,
which Alexander forced, namely, that Heracles could not capture it, I am inclined to think
a Macedonian boast; just as the Macedonians called Parapamisus by the name of Caucasus,
though it has nothing to do with Caucasus. And besides, learning that there was a cave
among the Parapamisadae, they said that this was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in
which he was crucified for his theft of the fire. Among the Sibae, too, an Indian tribe,
having noticed them clad with skins they used to assert that they were relics of Heracles'
expedition. What is more, as the Sibae carried a club, and they brand their cattle with a
club, they referred this too to some memory of Heracles' club. If anyone believes this, at
least it must be some other Heracles, not he of Thebes, but either of Tyre or of Egypt, or
some great king of the higher inhabited country near India.
VI. This then must be regarded as a digression, so that too much credence may not be
given to the stories which certain persons have related about the Indians beyond the
Hyphasis; for those who served under Alexander are reasonably trustworthy up to the
Hyphasis. For Megasthenes tells us this also about an Indian river; its name is Silas, it
flows from a spring of the same name as the river through the territory of the Sileans,
the people also named both from river and spring; its water has the following peculiarity;
nothing is supported by it, nothing can swim in it or float upon it, but everything goes
straight to the bottom; so far is this water thinner and more aery than any other. In the
summer there is rain through India; especially on the mountains, Parapamisus and Hemodus
and the Imaus, and from them the rivers run great and turbulent. The plains of India also
receive rain in summer, and much part of them becomes swamp; in fact Alexander's army
retired from the river Acesines in midsummer, when the river had overflowed on to the
plains; from these, therefore, one can gauge the flooding of the Nile, since probably the
mountains of Ethiopia receive rain in summer, and from them the Nile is swollen and
overflows its banks on to the land of Egypt the Nile therefore also runs turbid this time
of the year, as it probably would not be from melting snow; nor yet if its stream was
dammed up by the seasonal winds which blow during the summer; and besides, the mountains
of Ethiopia are probably not snowcovered, on account of the heat. But that they receive
rain as India does is not outside the bounds of probability; since in other respects India
is not unlike Ethiopia, and the Indian rivers have crocodiles like the Ethiopian and
Egyptian Nile; and some of the Indian rivers have fish and other large water animals like
those of the Nile, save the river-horse: though Onesicritus states that they do have the
river-horse also. The appearance of the inhabitants, too, is not so far different in India
and Ethiopia; the southern Indians resemble the Ethiopians a good deal, and, are black of
countenance, and their hair black also, only they are not as snub-nosed or so
woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; but the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians in
appearance.
VII. Megasthenes states that there are one hundred and eighteen Indian tribes. That
there are many, I agree with Megasthenes; but I cannot conjecture how he learnt and
recorded the exact number, when he never visited any great part of India, and since these
different races have not much intercourse one with another. The Indians, he says, were
originally nomads, as are the non-agricultural Scythians, who wandering in their waggons
inhabit now one and now another part of Scythia; not dwelling in cities and not
reverencing any temples of the gods; just so the Indians also had no cities and built no
temples; but were clothed with the skins of animals slain in the chase, and for food ate
the bark of trees; these trees were called in the Indian tongue Tala, and there grew upon
them, just as on the tops of palm trees, what look like clews of wool. They also used as
food what game they had captured, eating it raw, before, at least, Dionysus came into
India. But when Dionysus had come, and become master of India, he founded cities, and gave
laws for these cities, and became to the Indians the bestower of wine, as to the Greeks,
and taught them to sow their land, giving them seed. It may be that Triptolemus, when he
was sent out by Demeter to sow the entire earth, did not come this way; or perhaps before
Triptolemus this Dionysus whoever he was came to India and gave the Indians seeds of
domesticated plants; then Dionysus first yoked oxen to the plough and made most of the
Indians agriculturists instead of wanderers, and armed them also with the arms of warfare.
Further, Dionysus taught them to reverence other gods, but especially, of course, himself,
with clashings of cymbals and beating of drums and dancing in the Satyric fashion, the
dance called among Greeks the 'cordax'; and taught them to wear long hair in honour of the
god, and instructed them in the wearing of the conical cap and the anointings with
perfumes; so that the Indians came out even against Alexander to battle with the sound of
cymbals and drums.
VIII. When departing from India, after making all these arrangements, he made Spatembas
king of the land, one of his Companions, being most expert in Bacchic rites; when
Spatembas died, Budyas his son reigned in his stead; the father was King of India
fifty-two years, and the son twenty years; and his son, again, came to the throne, one
Cradeuas; and his descendants for the most part received the kingdom in succession, son
succeeding father; if the succession failed, then the kings were appointed for some
pre-eminence. But Heracles, whom tradition states to have arrived as far as India, was
called by the Indians themselves 'Indigenous.' This Heracles was chiefly honoured by the
Surasenians, an Indian tribe, among whom are two great cities, Methora and Cleisobora, and
the navigable river Iobares flows through their territory. Megasthenes also says that the
garb which this Heracles wore was like that of the Theban Heracles, as also the Indians
themselves record; he also had many sons in his country, for this Heracles too wedded many
wives; he had only one daughter, called Pandaea; as also the country in which she was
born, and to rule which Heracles educated her, was called Pandaea after the girl; here she
possessed five hundred elephants given by her father, four thousand horsemen, and as many
as a hundred and thirty thousand foot-soldiers. This also some writers relate about
Heracles; he traversed all the earth and sea, and when he had rid the earth of evil
monsters he found in the sea a jewel much affected by women. And thus, even to our day,
those who bring exports from India to our country purchase these jewels at great price and
export them, and all Greeks in old time, and Romans now who are rich and prosperous, are
more eager to buy the sea pearl, as it is called in the Indian tongue for that Heracles,
the jewel appearing to him charming, collected from all the sea to India this kind of
pearl, to adorn his daughter. And Megasthenes says that this oyster is taken with nets;
that it is a native of the sea, many oysters being together, like bees; and that the pearl
oysters have a king or queen, as bees do. Should anyone by chance capture the king, he can
easily surround the rest of the oysters; but should the king slip through, then the others
cannot be taken; and of those that are taken, the Indians let their flesh rot, but use the
skeleton as an ornament. For among the Indians this pearl sometimes is worth three times
its weight in solid gold, which is itself dug up in India.
IX. In this country where Heracles' daughter was queen, the girls are marriageable at
seven years, and the men do not live longer than forty years. About this there is a story
among the Indians, that Heracles, to whom when in mature years this daughter was born,
realizing that his own end was near, and knowing of no worthy husband to whom he might
bestow his daughter, himself became her husband when she was seven, so that Indian kings,
their children, were left behind. Heracles made her then marriageable, and hence all the
royal race of Pandaea arose, with the same privilege from Heracles. But I think, even if
Heracles was able to accomplish anything so absurd, he could have lengthened his own life,
so as to mate with the girl when of maturer years. But really if this about the age of the
girls in this district is true, it seems to me to tend the same way as the men's age,
since the oldest of them die at forty years. For when old age comes on so much sooner and
death with age, maturity will reasonably be earlier, in proportion to the end; so that at
thirty the men might be on the threshold of old age, and at twenty, men in their prime,
and manhood at about fifteen, so that the women might reasonably be marriageable at seven.
For that the fruits ripen earlier in this country than elsewhere, and perish earlier, this
Megasthenes himself tells us. From Dionysus to Sandracottus the Indians counted a hundred
and fifty-three kings, over six thousand and forty-two years, and during this time thrice
[Movements were made] for liberty . . . this for three hundred years; the other for a
hundred and twenty years; the Indians say that Dionysus was fifteen generations earlier
than Heracles; but no one else ever invaded India, not even Cyrus son of Cambyses, though
he made an expedition against the Scythians, and in all other ways was the most energetic
of the kings in Asia; but Alexander came and conquered by force of arms all the countries
he entered; and would have conquered the whole world had his army been willing. But no
Indian ever went outside his own country on a warlike expedition, so righteous were they.
X. This also is related; that Indians do not put up memorials to the dead; but they
regard their virtues as sufficient memorials for the departed, and the songs which they
sing at their funerals. As for the cities of India, one could not record their number
accurately by reason of their multitude; but those of them which are near rivers or near
the sea, they build of wood; for if they were built of brick, they could not last long
because of the rain, and also because their rivers overflow their banks and fill the
plains with water. But such cities as are built on high and lofty places, they make of
brick and clay. The greatest of the Indian cities is called Palimbothra, in the district
of the Prasians, at the confluence of the Erannoboas and the Ganges; the Ganges, greatest
of all rivers; the Erannoboas may be the third of the Indian rivers, itself greater than
the rivers of other countries; but it yields precedence to the Ganges, when it pours into
it its tributary stream. And Megasthenes says that the length of the city along either
side, where it is longest, reaches to eighty stades its breadth to fifteen; and a ditch
has been dug round the city, six plethra in breadth, thirty cubits high; and on the wall
are five hundred and seventy towers, and sixty-four gates. This also is remarkable in
India, that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians
agree with the Lacedaemonians. Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform
the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a
slave.
XI. The Indians generally are divided into seven castes. Those called the wise men are
less in number than the rest, but chiefest in honour and regard. For they are under no
necessity to do any bodily labour; nor to contribute from the results of their work to the
common store; in fact, no sort of constraint whatever rests upon these wise men, save to
offer the sacrifices to the gods on behalf of the people of India. Then whenever anyone
sacrifices privately, one of these wise men acts as instructor of the sacrifice, since
otherwise the sacrifice would not have proved acceptable to the gods. These Indians also
are alone expert in prophecy, and none, save one of the wise men, is allowed to prophesy.
And they prophesy about the seasons of the year, or of any impending public calamity: but
they do not trouble to prophesy on private matters to individuals, either because their
prophecy does not condescend to smaller things, or because it is undignified for them to
trouble about such things. And when one has thrice made an error in his prophecy, he does
not suffer any harm, except that he must for ever hold his peace; and no one will ever
persuade such a one to prophesy on whom this silence has been enjoined. These wise men
spend their time naked, during the winter in the open air and sunshine, but in summer,
when the sun is strong, in the meadows and the marsh lands under great trees; their shade
Nearchus computes to reach five plethra all round, and ten thousand men could take shade
under one tree; so great are these trees. They eat fruits in their season, and the bark of
the trees; this is sweet and nutritious as much as are the dates of the palm. Then next to
these come the farmers, these being the most numerous class of Indians; they have no use
for warlike arms or warlike deeds, but they till the land; and they pay the taxes to the
kings and to the cities, such as are self-governing; and if there is internal war among
the Indians, they may not touch these workers, and not even devastate the land itself; but
some are making war and slaying all comers, and others close by are peacefully ploughing
or gathering the fruits or shaking down apples or harvesting. The third class of Indians
are the herdsmen, pasturers of sheep and cattle, and these dwell neither by cities nor in
the villages. They are nomads and get their living on the hillsides, and they pay taxes
from their animals; they hunt also birds and wild game in the country.
XII The fourth class is of artisans and shopkeepers; these are workers, and pay tribute
from their works, save such as make weapons of war; these are paid by the community. In
this class are the shipwrights and sailors, who navigate the rivers. The fifth class of
Indians is the soldiers' class, next after the farmers in number; these have the greatest
freedom and the most spirit. They practise military pursuits only. Their weapons others
forge for them, and again others provide horses; others too serve in the camps, those who
groom their horses and polish their weapons, guide the elephants, and keep in order and
drive the chariots. They themselves, when there is need of war, go to war, but in time of
peace they make merry; and they receive so much pay from the community that they can
easily from their pay support others. The sixth class of Indians are those called
overlookers. They oversee everything that goes on in the country or in the cities; and
this they report to the King, where the Indians are governed by kings, or to the
authorities, where they are independent. To these it is illegal to make any false report;
nor was any Indian ever accused of such falsification. The seventh class is those who
deliberate abbut the community together with the King, or, in such cities as are
self-governing, with the authorities. In number this class is small, but in wisdom and
uprightness it bears the palm from all others; from this class are selected their
governors, district governors, and deputies, custodians of the treasures, officers of army
and navy, financial officers, and overseers of agricultural works. To marry out of any
class is unlawful -- as, for instance, into the farmer class from the artisans, or the
other way; nor must the same man practise two pursuits; nor change from one class into
another, as to turn farmer from shepherd, or shepherd from artisan. It is only permitted
to join the wise men out of any class; for their business is not an easy one, but of all
most laborious.
XIII. Most wild animals which the Greeks hunt the Indians hunt also, but these have a
way of hunting elephants unlike all other kinds of hunting, just as these animals are
unlike other animals. It is this they choose a place that is level and open to the sun's
heat, and dig a ditch in a circle, wide enough for a great army to camp within it. They
dig the ditch five fathoms broad, and four deep. The earth which they throw out of the
ditch they heap on either side of the ditch, and so use it as a wall; then they make
shelters for themselves, dug out of the wall on the outside of the ditch, and leave small
windows in them; through these the light comes in, and also they watch the animals coming
in and charging into the enclosure. Then within the enclosure they leave some three or
four of the females, those that are tamest, and leave only one entrance by the ditch,
making a bridge over it; and here they heap much earth and grass so that the animals
cannot distinguish the bridge, and so suspect any guile. The hunters then keep themselves
out of the way, hiding under the shelters dug in the ditch. Now the wild elephants do not
approach inhabited places by daylight, but at night they wander all about and feed in
herds, following the largest and finest of their number, as cows do the bulls. And when
they approach the ditch and hear the trumpeting of the females and perceive them by their
scent, they rush to the walled enclosure; and when, working round the outside edge of the
ditch, they find the bridge, they push across it into the enclosure. Then the hunters,
perceiving the entry of the wild elephants, some smartly remove the bridge, others
hurrying to the neighbouring villages report that the elephants are caught in the
enclosure; and the inhabitants on hearing the news mount the most spirited, and at the
same time most disciplined elephants, and then drive them towards the enclosure, and when
they have driven them thither they do not at once join battle, but allow the wild
elephants to grow distressed by hunger and to be tamed by thirst. But when they think they
are sufficiently distressed, then they erect the bridge again, and enter the enclosure;
and at first there is a fierce battle between the tamed elephants and the captives, and
then, as one would expect, the wild elephants are tamed, distressed as they are by a
sinking of their spirits and by hunger. Then the riders dismounting from the tamed
elephants tie together the feet of the now languid wild ones; then they order the tamed
elephants to punish the rest by repeated blows, till in their distress they fall to earth;
then they come near them and throw nooses round their necks; and climb on them as they lie
there. And that they may not toss their drivers nor do them any injury, they make an
incision in their necks with a sharp knife, all round, and bind their noose round the
wound, so that by reason of the sore they keep their heads and necks still. For were they
to turn round to do mischief, the wound beneath the rope chafes them. And so they keep
quiet, and perceiving that they are conquered, they are led of by the tamed elephants by
the rope.
XIV. Such elephants as are not yet full grown or from some defect are not worth the
acquiring, they allow to depart to their own laim, Then they lead of their captives to the
villages and first of all give them green shoots and grass to eat; but they, from want of
heart, are not willing to eat anything; so the Indians range themselves about them and
with songs and drums and cymbals, beating and singing, lull them to sleep. For if there is
an intelligent animal, it is the elephant. Some of them have been known, when their
drivers have perished in battle, to have caught them up and carried them to burial; others
have stood over them and protected them. Others, when they have fallen, have actively
fought for them; one, indeed, who in a passion slew his driver, died from remorse and
grief. I myself have seen an elephant clanging the cymbals, and others dancing; two
cymbals were fastened to the player's forelegs, and one on his trunk, and he rhythmically
beat with his trunk the cymbal on either leg in turn; the dancers danced in circle, and
raising and bending their forelegs in turn moved also rhythmically, as the player with the
cymbals marked the time for them. The elephants mate in spring, as do oxen and horses,
when certain pores about the temples of the females open and exhale; the female bears its
offispring sixteen months at the least, eighteen at most; it has one foal, as does a mare;
and this it suckles till its eighth year. The longest-lived elephants survive to two
hundred years; but many die before that by disease; but as far as mere age goes, they
reach this age. If their eyes are affected, cow's milk injected cures them; for their
other sicknesses a draught of dark wine, and for their wounds swine's flesh roast, and
laid on the spot, are good. These are the Indian remedies for them.
XV. The Indians regard the tiger as much stronger than the elephant. Nearchus writes
that he had seen a tiger's skin, but no tiger; the Indians record that the tiger is in
size as great as the largest horse, and its swiftness and strength without parallel, for a
tiger, when it meets an elephant, leaps on to the head and easily throttles it. Those,
however, which we see and call tigers are dappled jackals, but larger than ordinary
jackals. Nay, about ants also Nearchus says that he himself saw no ant, of the sort which
some writers have described as native of India; he saw, however, several of their skins
brought into the Macedonian camp.Megasthenes, however confirms the accounts given about
these ants; that ants do dig up gold, not indeed for the gold, but as they naturally
burrow, that they may make holes, just as our small ants excavate a small amount of earth;
but these, which are bigger than foxes, dig up earth also proportionate to their size; the
earth is auriferous, and thus the Indians get their gold. Megasthenes, however, merely
quotes hearsay, and as I have no certainty to write on the subject, I readily dismiss this
subject of ants. But Nearchus describes, as something miraculous, parrots, as being found
in India, and describes the parrot, and how it utters a human voice. But I having seen
several, and knowing others acquainted with this bird, shall not dilate on them as
anything remarkable; nor yet upon the size of the apes, nor the beauty of some Indian
apes, and the method of capture. For I should only say what everyone knows, except perhaps
that apes are anywhere beautiful. And further Nearchus says that snakes are hunted there,
dappled and swift; and that which he states Peithon son of Antigenes to have caught, was
upwards of sixteen cubits; but the Indians (he proceeds) state that the largest snakes are
much larger than this. No Greek physicians have discovered a remedy against Indian
snake-bite; but the Indians themselves used to cure those who were struck. And Nearchus
adds that Alexander had gathered about him Indians very skilled in physic, and orders were
sent round the camp that anyone bitten by a snake was to report at the royal pavilion. But
there are not many illnesses in India, since the seasons are more temperate than with us.
If anyone is seriously ill, they would inform their wise men, and they were thought to use
the divine help to cure what could be cured.
XVI. The Indians wear linen garments, as Nearchus says, the linen coming from the trees
of which I have already made mention. This linen is either brighter than the whiteness of
other linen, or the people's own blackness makes it appear unusually bright. They have a
linen tunic to the middle of the calf, and for outer garments, one thrown round about
their shoulders, and one wound round their heads. They wear ivory ear-rings, that is, the
rich Indians; the common people do not use them. Nearchus writes that they dye their
beards various colours; some therefore have these as white-looking as possible, others
dark, others crimson, others purple, others grass-green. The more dignified Indians use
sunshades against the summer heat. They have slippers of white skin, and these too made
neatly; and the soles of their sandals are of different colours, and also high, so that
the wearers seem taller. Indian war equipment differs; the infantry have a bow, of the
height of the owner; this they poise on the ground, and set their left foot against it,
and shoot thus; drawing the bowstring a very long way back; for their arrows are little
short of three cubits, and nothing can stand against an arrow shot by an Indian archer,
neither shield nor breastplate nor any strong armour. In their left hands they carry small
shields of untanned hide, narrower than their bearers, but not much shorter. Some have
javelins in place of bows. All carry a broad scimitar, its length not under three cubits;
and this, when they have a hand-to-hand fight -- and Indians do not readily fight so among
themselves -- they bring down with both hands in smiting, so that the stroke may be an
effective one. Their horsemen have two javelins, like lances, and a small shield smaller
than the infantry's. The horses have no saddles, nor do they use Greek bits nor any like
the Celtic bits, but round the end of the horses' mouths they have an untanned stitched
rein fitted; in this they have fitted, on the inner side, bronze or iron spikes, but
rather blunted; the rich people have ivory spikes; within the mouth of the horses is a
bit, like a spit, to either end of which the reins are attached. Then when they tighten
the reins this bit masters the horse, and the spikes, being attached thereto, prick the
horse and compel it to obey the rein.
XVII. The Indians in shape are thin and tall and much lighter in movement than the rest
of mankind. They usually ride on camels, horses, and asses; the richer men on elephants.
For the elephant in India is a royal mount; then next in dignity is a four-horse chariot,
and camels come third; to ride on a single horse is low. Their women, such as are of great
modesty, can be seduced by no other gift, but yield themselves to anyone who gives an
elephant; and the Indians think it no disgrace to yield thus on the gift of an elephant,
but rather it seems honourable for a woman that her beauty should be valued at an
elephant. They marry neither giving anything nor receiving anything; such girls as are
marriageable their fathers bring out and allow anyone who proves victorious in wrestling
or boxing or running or shows pre-eminence in any other manly pursuit to choose among
them. The Indians eat meal and till the ground, except the mountaineers; but these eat the
flesh of game. This must be enough for a description of the Indians, being the most
notable things which Nearchus and Megasthenes, men of credit, have recorded about them.
But as the main subject of this my history was not to write an account of the Indian
customs but the way in which Alexander's navy reached Persia from India, this must all be
accounted a digression.
XVIII. For Alexander, when his fleet was made ready on the banks of the Hydaspes,
collected together all the Phoenicians and all the Cyprians and Egyptians who had followed
the northern expedition. From these he manned his ships, picking out as crews and rowers
for them any who were skilled in seafaring. There were also a good many islanders in the
army, who understood these things, and Ionians and Hellespontines. As commanders of
triremes were appointed, from the Macedonians, Hephaestion son of Amyntor, and Leonnatus
son of Eunous, Lysimachus son of Agathocles, and Asclepiodorus son of Timander, and Archon
son of Cleinias, and Demonicus son of Athenaeus, Archias son of Anaxidotus, Ophellas son
of Seilenus, Timanthes son of Pantiades; all these were of Pella. From Amphipolis these
were appointed officers: Nearchus son of Androtimus, who wrote the account of the voyage;
and Laomedon son of Larichus, and Androsthenes son of Callistratus; and from Orestis.
Craterus son of Alexander, and Perdiccas son of Orontes. Of Eordaea, Ptolemaeus son of
Lagos and Aristonous son of Peisaeus; from Pydna, Metron son of Epicharmus and Nicarchides
son of Simus. Then besides, Attalus son of Andromenes, of Stympha Peucestas son of
Alexander, from Mieza; Peithon son of Crateuas, of Alcomenae; Leonnatus son of Antipater,
of Aegae; Pantauchus son of Nicolaus, of Aloris; Mylleas son of Zoilus, of Beroea; all
these being Macedonians. Of Greeks, Medius son of Oxynthemis, of Larisa; Eumenes son of
Hieronymus, from Cardia; Critobulus, son of Plato, of Cos; Thoas son of Menodorus, and
Maeander, son of Mandrogenes, of Magnesia; Andron son of Cabeleus, of Teos; of Cyprians,
Nicocles son of Pasicrates, of Soh; and Nithaphon son of Pnytagoras, of Salamis. Alexander
appointed also a Persian trierarch, Bagoas son of Pharnuces; but of Alexander's own ship
the helmsman was Onesicritus of Astypalaea; and the accountant of the whole fleet was
Euagoras son of Eucleon, of Corinth. As admiral was appointed Nearchus, son of Androtimus,
Cretan by race, and he lived. in Amphipolis on the Strymon. And when Alexander had made
all these dispositions, he sacrificed to the gods, both the gods of his race and all of
whom the prophets had warned him, and to Poseidon and Amphitrite and the Nereids and to
Ocean himself and to the river Hydaspes, whence he started, and to the Acesines, into
which the Hydaspes runs, and to the Indus, into which both run; and he instituted contests
of art and of athletics, and victims for sacrifice were given to all the army, according
to their detachments.
XIX. Then when he had made all ready for starting the voyage, Alexander ordered
Craterus to march by the one side of the Hydaspes with his army, cavalry and infantry
alike; Hephaestion had already started along the other, with another army even bigger than
that under Craterus. Hephaestion took with him the elephants, up to the number of two
hundred. Alexander himself took with him all the peltasts, as they are called, and all the
archers, and of the cavalry, those called 'Companions'; in all, eight thousand. But
Craterus and Hephaestion, with their forces, were ordered to march ahead and await the
fleet. But he sent Philip, whom he had made satrap of this country, to the banks of the
river Acesines, Philip also with a considerable force; for by this time a hundred and
twenty thousand men of fighting age were following him, together with those whom he
himself had brought from the sea-coast; and with those also whom his officers, sent to
recruit forces, had brought back; so that he now led all sorts of Oriental tribes, and
armed in every sort of fashion. Then he himself loosing his ships sailed down the Hydaspes
to the meeting-place of Acesines and Hydaspes. His whole fleet of ships was eighteen
hundred, both ships of war and merchantmen, and horse transports besides and others
bringing provisions together with the troops. And how his fleet descended the rivers, and
the tribes he conquered on the descent, and how he endangered himself among the Mallians,
and the wound he there received, then the way in which Peucestas and Leonnatus defended
him as he lay there -- all this I have related already in my other history, written in the
Attic dialect. This my present work, however, is a story of the voyage, which Nearchus
successfully undertook with his fleet starting from the mouths of the Indus by the Ocean
to the Persian Gulf, which some call the Red Sea.
XX. On this Nearchus writes thus: Alexander had a vehement desire to sail the sea which
stretches from India to Persia; but he disliked the length of the voyage and feared lest,
meeting with some country desert or without roadsteads, or not properly provided with the
fruits of the earth, his whole fleet might be destroyed; and this, being no small blot on
his great achievements, might wreck all his happiness; but yet his desire to do something
unusual and strange won the day; still, he was in doubt whom he should choose, as equal to
his designs; and also as the right man to encourage the personnel of the fleet, -- sent as
they were on an expedition of this kind, so that they should not feel that they were being
sent blindly to manifest dangers. And Nearchus says that Alexander discussed with him whom
he should select to be admiral of this fleet; but as mention was made of one and another,
and as Alexander rejected some, as not willing to risk themselves for his sake, others as
chicken-hearted, others as consumed by desire for home, and finding some objection to
each; then Nearchus himself spoke and pledged himself thus : '0 King, I undertake to lead
your fleet! And may God help the emprise! I will bring your ships and men safe to Persia,
if this sea is so much as navigable and the undertaking not above human powers.'
Alexander, however, replied that he would not allow one of his friends to run such risks
and endure such distress; yet Nearchus, did not slacken in his request, but besought
Alexander earnestly; till at length Alexander accepted Nearchus' willing spirit, and
appointed him admiral of the entire fieet, on which the part of the army which was
detailed to sail on this voyage and the crews felt easier in mind, being sure that
Alexander would never have exposed Nearchus to obvious danger unless they also were to
come through safe. Then the splendour of the whole preparations and the smart equipment of
the ships, and the outstanding enthusiasm of the commanders of the triremes about the
different services and the crews had uplifted even those who a short while ago were
hesitating, both to bravery and to higher hopes about the whole affair; and besides it
contributed not a little to the general good spirits of the force that Alexander himself
had started down the Indus and had explored both outlets, even into the Ocean, and had
offered victims to Poseidon, and all the other sea gods, and gave splendid gifts to the
sea. Then trusting as they did in Alexander's generally remarkable good fortune, they felt
that there was nothing that he might not dare, and nothing that he could not carry
through.
XXI. Now when the trade winds had sunk to rest, which continue blowing from the Ocean
to the land all the summer season, and hence render the voyage impossible, they put to
sea, in the archonship at Athens of Cephisodorus, on the twentieth day of the month
Boedromion, as the Athenians reckon it; but as the Macedonians and Asians counted it, it
was ... the eleventh year of Alexander's reign. Nearchus also sacrificed, before weighing
anchor, to Zeus the Saviour, and he too held an athletic contest. Then moving out from
their roadstead, they anchored on the first day in the Indus river near a great canal, and
remained there two days; the district was called Stura; it was about a hundred stades from
the roadstead. Then on the third day they started forthand sailed to another canal, thirty
stades' distance, and this canal was already-salt; for the sea came up into it, especially
at full tides, and then at the ebb the water remained there, mingled with the river water.
This place was called Caumara. Thence they sailed twenty stades and anchored at Coreestis,
still on the river. Thence they started again and sailed not so very far, for they saw a
reef at this outlet of the river Indus, and the waves were breaking violently on the
shore, and the shore itself was very rough. But where there was a softer part of the reef,
they dug a channel, five stades long, and brought the ships down it, when the flood tide
came up from the sea. Then sailing round, to a distance of a hundred and fifty stades,
they anchored at a sandy island called Crocala, and stayed there through the next day; and
there lives here an Indian race called Arabeans, of whom I made mention in my larger
history; and that they have their name from the river Arabis, which runs through their
country and finds its outlet in the sea, forming the boundary between this country and
that of the Oreitans. From Crocala, keeping on the right hand the hill they call Irus,
they sailed on, with a low-lying island on their left; and the island running parallel
with the shore makes a narrow bay. Then when they had sailed through this, they anchored
in a harbour with good anchorage; and as Ne'archus considered the harbour a large and fine
one, he called it Alexander's Haven. At the heads of the harbour there lies an island,
about two stades away, called Bibacta; the neighbouring region, however, is called
Sangada. This island, forming a barrier to the sea, of itself makes a harbour. There
constant strong winds were blowing off the ocean. Nearchus therefore, fearing lest some of
the natives might collect to plunder the camp, surrounded the place with a stone wall. He
stayed there thirty-three days; and through that time, he says, the soldiers hunted for
mussels, oysters, and razor-fish, as they are called; they were all of unusual size. much
larger than those of our seas. They also drank briny water.
XXII. On the wind falling, they weighed anchor; and after sailing sixty stades they
moored off a sandy shore; there was a desert island near the shore. They used this,
therefore, as a breakwater and moored there: the island was called Domai. On the shore
there was no water, but after advancing some twenty stades inland they found good water.
Next day they sailed up to nightfall to Saranga, some three hundred stades, and moored off
the beach, and water was found about eight stades from the beach. Thence they sailed and
moored at Sacala, a desert spot. Then making their way through two rocks, so close
together that the oar-blades of the ships touched the rocks to port and starboard, they
moored at Morontobara, after sailing some three hundred stades. The harbour is spacious,
circular, deep, and calm, but its entrance is narrow. They called it, in the natives'
language, 'The Ladies' Pool,' since a lady was the first sovereign of this district. When
they had got safe through the rocks, they met great waves, and the sea running strong; and
moreover it seemed very hazardous to sail seaward of the cliffs. For the next day,
however, they sailed with an island on their port beam, so as to break the sea, so close
indeed to the beach that one would have conjectured that it was a channel cut between the
island and the coast. The entire passage was of some seventy stades. On the beach were
many thick trees, and the island was wholly covered with shady forest. About dawn, they
sailed outside the island, by a narrow and turbulent passage; for the tide was still
falling. And when they had sailed some hundred and twenty stades they anchored in the
mouth of the river Arabis. There was a fine large harbour by its mouth; but there was no
drinking water; for the mouths of the Arabis were mixed with sea-water. However, after
penetrating forty stades inland they found a water-hole, and after drawing water thence
they returned back again. By the harbour was a high island, desert, and round it one could
get oysters and all kinds of fish. Up to this the country of the Arabeans extends; they
are the last Indians settled in this direction; from here on the territory, of the
Oreitans begins.
XXIII. Leaving the outlets of the Arabis they coasted along the territory of the
Oreitans, and anchored at Pagala, after a voyage of two hundred stades, near a breaking
sea; but they were able all the same to cast anchor. The crews rode out the seas in their
vessels, though a few went in seach of water, and procured it. Next day they sailed at
dawn, and after making four hundred and thirty stades they put in towards evening at
Cabana, and moored on a desert shore. There too was a heavy surf, and so they anchored
their vessels well out to sea. It was on this part of the voyage that a heavy squall from
seaward caught the fleet, and two warships were lost on the passage, and one galley; the
men swam off and got to safety, as they were sailing quite near the land. But about
midnight they weighed anchor and sailed as far as Cocala, which was about two hundred
stades from the beach off which they had anchored. The ships kept the open sea and
anchored, but Nearchus disembarked the crews and bivouacked on shore; after all these
toils and dangers in the sea, they desired to rest awhile. The camp was entrenched, to
keep off the natives. Here Leonnatus, who had been in charge of operations against the
Oreitans, beat in a great battle the Oreitans, along with others who had joined their
enterprise. He slew some six thousand of them, including all the higher officers; of the
cavalry with Leonnatus, fifteen fell, and of his infantry, among a few others,
Apollophanes satrap of Gadrosia. This I have related in my other history, and also how
Leonnatus was crowned by Alexander for this exploit with a golden coronet before the
Macedonians. There provision of corn had been gathered ready, by Alexander's orders, to
victual the host; and they took on board ten days' rations. The ships which had suffered
in the passage so far they repaired; and whatever troops Nearchus thought were inclined to
malinger he handed over to Leonnatus, but he himself recruited his fleet from Leonnatus'
soldiery.
XXIV. Thence they set sail and progressed with a favouring wind; and after a passage of
five hundred stades the anchored by a torrent, which ,was called Tomerus. There was a
lagoon at the mouths of the river, and the depressions near the bank were inhabited by
natives in stifling cabins. These seeing the convoy sailing up were astounded, and lining
along the shore stood ready to repel any who should attempt a landing. They carried thick
spears, about six cubits long; these had no iron tip, but the same result was obtained by
hardening the point with fire. They were in number about six hundred. Nearchus observed
these evidently standing firm and drawn up in order, and ordered the ships to hold back
within range, so that their missiles might reach the shore; for the natives' spears, which
looked stalwart, were good for close fighting, but had no terrors against a volley. Then
Nearchus took the lightest and lightest-armed troops, such as were also the best swimmers,
and bade them swim off as soon as the word was given. Their orders were that, as soon as
any swimmer found bottom, he should await his mate, and not attack the natives till they
had their formation three deep; but then they were to raise their battle cry and charge at
the double. On the word, those detailed for this service dived from the ships into the
sea, and swam smartly, and took up their formation in orderly manner, and having made a
phalanx, charged, raising, for their part, their battle cry to the God of War, and those
on shipboard raised the cry along with them; and arrows and missiles from the engines were
hurled against the natives. They, astounded at the flash of the armour, and the swiftness
of the charge, and attacked by showers of arrows and missiles, half naked as they were,
never stopped to resist but gave way. Some were killed in flight; others were captured;
but some escaped into the hills. Those captured were hairy, not only their heads but the
rest of their bodies; their nails were rather like beasts' claws; they used their nails
(according to report) as if they were iron tools; with these they tore asunder their
fishes, and even the less solid kinds of wood; everything else they cleft with sharp
stones; for iron they did not possess. For clothing they wore skins of animals, some even
the thick skins of the larger fishes.
XXV. Here the crews beached their ships and repaired such as had suffered. On the sixth
day from this they set sail, and after voyaging about three hundred stades they came to a
country which was the last point in the territory of the Oreitans: the district was called
Malana. Such Oreitans as live inland, away from the sea, dress as the Indians do, and
equip themselves similarly for warfare; but their dialect and customs differ. The length
of the coasting voyage along the territory of the Arabeis was about a thousand, stades
from the point of departure; the length of the Oreitan coast sixteen hundred. As they
sailed along the land of India for thence onward the natives are no longer Indians
--Nearchus states that their shadows were not cast in the same way; but where they were
making for the high seas and steering a southerly course, their shadows appeared to fall
southerly too; but whenever the sun was at midday, then everything seemed shadowless. Then
such of the stars as they had seen hitherto in the sky, some were completely hidden,
others showed themselves low down towards the earth; those they had seen continually
before were now observed both setting, and then at once rising again. I think this tale of
Nearchus' is likely; since in Syene of Egypt, when the sun is at the summer solstice,
people show a well where at midday one sees no shade; and in Meroe, at the same season, no
shadows are cast. So it seems reasonable that in India too, since they are far southward,
the same natural phenomena may occur, and especially in the Indian Ocean, just because it
particularly runs southward. But here I must leave this subject.
XXVI. Next to the Oreitans, more inland, dwelt the Gadrosians, whose country Alexander
and his army had much pains in traversing; indeed they suffered more than during all the
rest of his expedition: all this I have related in my larger history. Below the
Gadrosians, as you follow the actual coast, dwell the people called the Fish-eaters. The
fleet sailed past their country. On the first day they unmoored about the second watch,
and put in at Bagisara; a distance along the coast of about six hundred stades. There is a
safe harbour there, and a village called Pasira, some sixty stades from the sea; the
natives about it are called Pasireans. The next day they weighed anchor earlier than usual
and sailed round a promontory which ran far seaward, and was high, and precipitous. Then
they dug wells; and obtained only a little water, and that poor and for that day they rode
at anchor, because there was heavy surf on the beach. Next day they put in at Colta after
a voyage of two hundred stades. Thence they departed at dawn, and after voyaging six
hundred stades anchored at Calyba. A village is on the shore, a few date-palms grew near
it, and there were dates, still green, upon them. About a hundred stades from the beach is
an island called Carnine. There the villagers brought gifts to Nearchus, sheep and fishes;
the mutton, he says, had a fishy taste, like the flesh of the sea-birds, since even the
sheep feed on fish; for there is no grass in the place. However, on the next day they
sailed two hundred stades and moored off a beach, and a village about thirty stades from
the sea; it was called Cissa, an Carbis was the name of the strip of coast. There they
found a few boats, the sort which poor fishermen might use; but the fishermen themselves
they did not find, for they had run away as soon as they saw the ships anchoring. There
was no corn there, and the army had spent most of its store; but they caught and embarked
there some goats, and so sailed away. Rounding a tall cape running some hundred and fifty
stades into the sea, they put in at a calm harbour; there was water there, and fishermen
dwelt near; the harbour was called Mosarna.
XXVII. Nearchus tells us that from this point a pilot sailed with them, a Gadrosian
called Hydraces. He had promised to take them as far as Carmania; from thence on the
navigation was not difficult, but the districts were better known, up to the Persian Gulf.
From Mosarna they sailed at night, seven hundred and fifty stades, to the beach of
Balomus. Thence again to Barna, a village, four hundred stades, where there were many
date-palms and a garden; and in the garden grew myrtles and abundant flowers, of which
wreaths were woven by the natives. There for the first time they saw garden-trees, and men
dwelling there not entirely like animals. Thence they coasted a further two hundred stades
and reached Dendrobosa and the ships kept the roadstead at anchor. Thence about midnight
they sailed and came to a harbour Cophas, after a voyage of about four hundred stades;
here dwelt fishermen, with small and feeble boats; and they did not row with their oars on
a rowlock, as the Greeks do, but as you do in a river, propelling the water on this side
or that like labourers digging I the soil. At the harbour was abundant pure water. About
the first watch they weighed anchor and arrived at Cyiza, after a passage of eight hundred
stades, where there was a desert beach and a heavy surf. Here, therefore, they anchored,
and each ship took its own meal. Thence they voyaged five hundred stades and arrived at a
small town built near the shore on a hill. Nearchus, who imagined that the district must
be tilled, told Archias of Pella, son of Anaxidotus, who was sailing with Nearchus, and
was a notable Macedonian, that they must surprise the town, since he had no hope that the
natives would give the army provisions of their good-will; while he could not capture the
town by force, but this would require a siege and much delay; while they in the meanwhile
were short of provisions. But that the land did produce corn he could gather from the
straw which they saw lying deep near the beach. When they had come to this resolve,
Nearchus bade the fleet in general to get ready as if to go to sea; and Archias, in his
place, made all ready for the voyage; but Nearchus himself was left behind with a single
ship and went off as if to have a look at the town.
XXVIII. As Nearchus approached the walls, the natives brought him, in a friendly way,
gifts from the city; tunny-fish baked in earthen pans; for there dwell the westernmost of
the Fish-eating tribes, and were the first whom the Greeks had seen cooking their food;
and they brought also a few cakes and dates from the palms. Nearchus said that he accepted
these gratefully; and desired to visit the town, and they permitted him to enter. But as
soon as he passed inside the gates, he bade two of the archers to occupy the postern,
while he and two others, and the interpreter, mounted the wall on this side and signalled
to Archias and his men as had been arranged: that Nearchus should signal, and Archias
understand and do what had been ordered. On seeing the signal the Macedonians beached
their ships with all speed; they leapt in haste into the sea, while the natives, astounded
at this manoeuvre, ran to their arms. The interpreter with Nearchus cried out that they
should give corn to the army, if they wanted to save their city; and the natives replied
that they had none, and at the same time attacked the wall. But the archers with Nearchus
shooting from above easily held them up. When, however, the natives saw that their town
was already occupied and almost on the way to be enslaved, they begged Nearchus to take
what corn they had and retire, but not to destroy the town. Nearchus, however, bade
Archias to seize the gates and the neighbouring wall; but he sent with the natives some
soldiers to see whether they would without any trick reveal their corn. They showed freely
their flour, ground down from the dried fish; but only a small quantity of corn and
barley. In fact they used as flour what they got from the fish; and loaves of corn flour
they used as a delicacy. When, however, they had shown all they had, the Greeks
provisioned themselves from what was there, and put to sea, anchoring by a headland which
the inhabitants regarded as sacred to the Sun: the headland was called Bageia.
XXIX. Thence, weighing anchor about midnight, they voyaged another thousand stades to
Talmena, a harbour giving good anchorage. Thence they went to Canasis, a deserted town,
four hundred stades farther; here they found a well sunk; and near by were growing wild
date-palms. They cut out the hearts of these and ate them; for the army had run short of
food. In fact they were now really distressed by hunger, and sailed on therefore by day
and night, and anchored off a desolate shore. But Nearchus, afraid that they would
disembark and leave their ships from faint-heartedness, purposely kept the ships in the
open roadstead. They sailed thence and anchored at Canate, after a voyage of seven hundred
and fifty stades. Here there are a beach and shallow channels. Thence they sailed eight
hundred stades, anchoring at Troea; there were small and poverty-stricken villages on the
coast. The inhabitants deserted their huts and the Greeks found there a small quantity of
corn, and dates from the palms. They slaughtered seven camels which had been left there,
and ate the flesh of them. About daybreak they weighed anchor and sailed three hundred
stades, and anchored at Dagaseira; there some wandering tribe dwelt. Sailing thence they
sailed without stop all night andday, and after a voyage of eleven hundred stades they got
past the country of the Fish-eaters, where they had been much distressed by want of food.
They did not moor near shore, for there was a long line of surf, but at anchor, in the
open. The length of the voyage along the coast of the Fish-eaters is a little above ten
thousand stades. These Fish-eaters live on fish; and hence their name; only a few of them
fish, for only a few have proper boats and have any skill in the art of catching fish; but
for the most part it is the receding tide which provides their catch. Some have made nets
also for this kind of fishing; most of them about two stades in length. They make the nets
from the bark of the date-palm, twisting the bark like twine. And when the sea recedes and
the earth is left, where the earth remains dry it has no fish, as a rule; but where there
are hollows, some of the water remains, and in this a large number of fish, mostly small,
but some large ones too. They throw their nets over these and so catch them. They eat them
raw, just as they take them from the water, that is, the more tender kinds; the larger
ones, which are tougher, they dry in the sun till they are quite sere and then pound them
and make a flour and bread of them; others even make cakes of this flour. Even their
flocks are fed on the fish, dried; for the country has no meadows and produces no grass.
They collect also in many places crabs and oysters and shell-fish. There are natural salts
in the country; from these they make oil. Those of them who inhabit the desert parts of
their country, treeless as it is and with no cultivated parts, find all their sustenance
in the fishing but a few of them sow part of their district, using the corn as a relish to
the fish, for the fish form their bread. The richest among them have built huts; they
collect the bones of any large fish which the sea casts up, and use them in place of
beams. Doors they make from any flat bones which they can pick up. But the greater part of
them, and the poorer sort, have huts made from the fishes' backbones.
XXX. Large whales live in the outer ocean, and fishes much larger than those in our
inland sea. Nearchus states that when they left Cyiza, about daybreak they saw water being
blown upwards from the sea as it might be shot upwards by the force of a waterspout. They
were astonished, and asked the pilots of the convoy what it might be and how it was
caused; they replied that these whales as they rove about the ocean spout up the water to
a great height; the sailors, however, were so startled that the oars fell from their
hands. Nearchus went and encouraged and cheered them, and whenever he sailed past any
vessel, he signalled them to turn the ship's bow on towards the whales as if to give them
battle; and raising their battle cry with the sound of the surge to row with rapid strokes
and with a great deal of noise. So they all took heart of grace and sailed together
according to signal. But when they actually were nearing the monsters, then they shouted
with all the power of their throats, and the bugles blared, and the rowers made the utmost
splashings with their oars. So the whales, now visible at the bows of the ships, were
scared, and dived into the depths; then not long afterwards they came up astern and
spouted the sea-water on high. Thereupon joyful applause welcomed this unexpected
salvation, and much praise was showered on Nearchus for his courage and prudence. Some of
these whales go ashore at different parts of the coast; and when the ebb comes, they are
caught in the shallows; and some even were cast ashore high and dry; thus they would
perish and decay, and their flesh rotting off them would leave the bones convenient to be
used by the natives for their huts. Moreover, the bones in their ribs served for the
larger beams for their dwellings; and the smaller for rafters; the jawbones were the
doorposts, since many of these whales reached a length of five-and-twenty fathoms.
XXXI. While they were coasting along the territory of the Fish-eaters, they heard a
rumour about an island,' which lies some little distance from the mainland in this
direction, about a hundred stades, but is uninhabited. The natives said that it was sacred
to the Sun and was called Nosala, and that no human being ever of his own will put in
there; but that anyone who ignorantly touched there at once disappeared. Nearchus,
however, says that one of his galleys with an Egyptian crew was lost with all hands not
far from this island, and that the pilots stoutly averred about it that they had touched
ignorantly on the island and so had disappeared. But Nearchus sent a thirty-oar to sail
round the island, with orders not to put in, but that the crew should shout loudly, while
coasting round as near as they dared; and should call on the lost helmsman by name, or any
of the crew whose name they knew. As no one answered, he tells us that he himself sailed
up to the island, and compelled his unwilling crew to put in; then he went ashore and
exploded this island fairy-tale. They heard also another current story about this island,
that one of the Nereids dwelt there; but the name of this Nereid was not told. She showed
much friendliness to any sailor who approached the island; but then turned him into a fish
and threw him into the sea. The Sun then became irritated with the Nereid, and bade her
leave the island; and she agreed to remove thence, but begged that the spell on her be
removed; the Sun consented; and such human beings as she had turned into fishes he pitied,
and turned them again from fishes into human beings, and hence arose the people called
Fish-eaters, and so they descended to Alexander's day. Nearchus shows that all this is
mere legend; but I have no commendation for his pains and his scholarship; the stories are
easy enough to demolish; and I regard it as tedious to relate these old tales and then
prove them all false.
XXXII. Beyond these Fish-eaters the Gadrosians inhabit the interior, a poor and sandy
territory; this was where Alexander's army and Alexander himself suffered so seriously, as
I have already related in my other book. But when the fleet, leaving the Fish-eaters, put
in at Carmania, they anchored in the open, at the point where they first touched Carmania;
since there was a long and rough line of surf parallel with the coast. From there they
sailed no further due west, but took a new course and steered with their bows pointing
between north and west. Carmania is better wooded than the country of the Fisheaters, and
bears more fruits; it has more grass, and is well watered. They moored at an inhabited
place called Badis, in Carmania; with many cultivated trees growing, except the olive
tree, and good vines; it also produced corn. Thence they set out and voyaged eight hundred
stades, and moored off a desert shore; and they sighted a long cape jutting out far into
the ocean; it seemed as if the headland itself was a day's sail away. Those who had
knowledge of the district said that this promontory belonged to Arabia, and was called
Maceta; and that thence the Assyrians imported cinnamon and other spices. From this beach
of which the fleet anchored in the open roadstead, and the promontory, which they sighted
opposite them, running out into the sea, the bay (this is my opinion, and Nearchus held
the same) runs back into the interior, and would seem to be the Red Sea. When they sighted
this cape, Onesicritus bade them take their course from it and sail direct to it, in order
not to have the trouble of coasting round the bay. Nearchus, however, replied that
Onesicritus was a fool, if he was ignorant of Alexander's purpose in despatching the
expedition. It was not because he was unequal to the bringing all his force safely through
on foot that he had despatched the fleet; but he desired to reconnoitre the coasts that
lay on the line of the voyage, the roadsteads, the islets; to explore thoroughly any bay
which appeared, and to learn of any cities which lay on the sea-coast; and to find out
what land was fruitful, and what was desert. They must therefore not spoil Alexander's
undertaking, especially when they were almost at the close of their toils, and were,
moreover, no longer in any difficulty about provisions on their coasting cruise. His own
fear was, since the cape ran a long way southward, that they would find the land there
waterless and sun-scorched. This view prevailed; and I think that Nearchus evidently saved
the expeditionary force by this decision; for it is generally held that this cape and the
country about it are entirely desert and quite denuded of water.
XXXIII. They sailed then, leaving this part of the shore, hugging the land; and after
voyaging some seven hundred stades they anchored off another beach, called Neoptana. Then
at dawn they moved off seaward, and after traversing a hundred stades, they moored by the
river Anamis; the district was called Harmozeia. All here was friendly, and produced fruit
of all sorts, except that olives did hot grow there. There they disembarked, and had a
welcome rest from their long toils, remembering the miseries they had endured by sea and
on the coast of the Fish-eaters; recounting one to another the desolate character of the
country, the almost bestial nature of the inhabitants, and their own distresses. Some of
them advanced some distance inland, breaking away from the main force, some in pursuit of
this, and some of that. There a man appeared to them, wearing a Greek cloak, and dressed
otherwise in the Greek fashion, and speaking Greek also. Those who first sighted him said
that they burst into tears, so strange did it seem after all these miseries to see a
Greek, and to hear Greek spoken. They asked whence he came, who he was; and he said that
he had become separated from Alexander's camp, and that the camp, and Alexander himself,
were not very far distant. Shouting aloud and clapping their hands they brought this man
to Nearchus; and he told Nearchus everything, and that the camp and the King himself were
distant five days' journey from the coast. He also promised to show Nearchus, the governor
of this district and did so; and Nearchus took counsel with him how to march inland to
meet the King. For the moment indeed he returned to the ship; but at dawn he had the ships
drawn up on shore, to repair any which had been damaged on the voyage; and also because he
had determined to leave the greater part of his force behind here. So he had a double
stockade built round the ships' station, and a mud wall with a deep trench, beginning from
the bank of the river and going on to the beach, where his ships had been dragged ashore.
XXXIV. While Nearchus was busied with these arrangements, the governor of the country,
who had been told that Alexander felt the deepest concern about this expedition, took for
granted that he would receive some great reward from Alexander if he should be the first
to tell him of the safety of the expeditionary force, and that Nearchus would presently
appear before the King. So then he hastened by the shortest route and told Alexander:
'See, here is Nearchus coming from the ships.' On this Alexander, though not believing
what was told him, yet, as he naturally would be, was pleased by the news itself. But when
day succeeded day, and Alexander, reckoning the time when he received the good news, could
not any longer believe it, when, moreover, relay sent after relay, to escort Nearchus,
either went a part of the route, and meeting no one, came back unsuccessful, or went on
further, and missing Nearchus' party, did not themselves return at all, then Alexander
bade the man be arrested for spreading a false tale and making things all the worse by
this false happiness; and Alexander showed both by his looks and his mind that he was
wounded with a very poignant grief. Meanwhile, however, some of those sent to search for
Nearchus, who had horses to convey him, and chariots, did meet on the way Nearchus and
Archias, and five or six others; that was the number of the party which came inland with
him. On this meeting they recognized neither Nearchus nor Archias -- so altered did they
appear; with their hair long, unwashed, covered with brine, wizened, pale from
sleeplessness and all their other distresses; when, however, they asked where Alexander
might be, the search party gave reply as to the locality and passed on. Archias, however,
had a happy thought, and said to Nearchus: 'I suspect, Nearchus, that these persons who
are traversing the same road as ours through this desert country have been sent for the
express purpose of finding us; as for their failure to recognize us, I do not wonder at
that; we are in such a sorry plight as to be unrecognizable. Let us tell them who we are
and ask them why they come hither.' Nearchus approved; they did ask whither the party was
going; and they replied: 'To look for Nearchus and his naval force.' Whereupon, 'Here am
I, Nearchus,' said he, 'and here is Archias. Do you lead on; we will make a full report to
Alexander about the expeditionary force.'
XXXV. The soldiers took them up in their cars and drove back again. Some of them ,
anxious to be beforehand with the good news, ran forward and told Alexander: 'Here is
Nearchus; and with him Archias and five besides, coming to your presence.' They could not,
however, answer any questions about the fleet. Alexander thereupon became possessed of the
idea that these few had been miraculously saved, but that his whole army had perished; and
did not so much rejoice at the safe arrival of Nearchus and Archias, as he was bitterly
pained by the loss of all his force. Hardly had the soldiers told this much, when Nearchus
and Archias approached; Alexander could only with great difficulty recognize them; and
seeing them as he did long-haired and ill-clad, his grief for the whole fleet and its
personnel received even greater surety. Giving his right hand to Nearchus and leading him
aside from the Companions and the bodyguard, for a long time he wept; but at length
recovering himself he said: 'That you come back safe to us, and Archias here, the entire
disaster is tempered to me; but how perished the fleet and the force?' 'Sir,' he replied,
'your ships and men are safe; we are come to tell with our own lips of their safety.' On
this Alexander wept the more, since the safety of the force had seemed too good to be
true; and then he enquired where the ships were anchored. Nearchus replied: 'They are all
drawn up at the mouth of the river Anamis, and are undergoing a refit.' Alexander then
called to witness Zeus of the Greeks and the Libyan, Ammon that in good truth he rejoiced
more at this news than because he had conquered all Asia since the grief he had felt at
the supposed loss of the fleet cancelled all his other good fortune.
XXXVI. The governor of the province, however, whom Alexander had arrested for his false
tidings, seeing Nearchus there on the spot, fell at his feet:
'Here,' he said, 'am I, who reported your safe arrival to Alexander; you see in what
plight I now am.' So Nearchus begged Alexander to let him go, and he was let off.
Alexander then sacrificed thank-offerings for the safety of his host, to Zeus the Saviour,
Heracles, Apollo the Averter of Evil, Poseidon and all the gods of the sea; and he held a
contest of art and of athletics, and also a procession; Nearchus was in the front row in
the procession, and the troops showered on him ribbons and flowers. At the end of the
procession Alexander said to Nearchus: 'I will not let you, Nearchus, run risks or suffer
distresses again like those of the past; some other admiral shall henceforth command the
navy till he brings it into Susa.' Nearchus, however, broke in and said: 'King, I will
obey you in all things, as is my bounden duty; but should you desire to do me a gracious
favour, do not this thing, but let me be the admiral of your fleet right up to the end,
till I bring your ships safe to Susa. Let it not be said that you entrusted me with the
difficult and desperate work, but the easy task which leads to ready fame was taken away
and put into another's hands.' Alexander checked his speaking further and thanked him
warmly to boot; and so he sent him back a signal giving him a force as escort, but a small
one, as he was going through friendly territory. Yet his journey to the sea was not
untroubled; the natives of the country round about were in possession of the strong places
of Carmania, since their satrap had been put to death by Alexander's orders, and his
successor appointed, Tlepolemus, had not established his authority. Twice then or even
thrice on the one day the party came into conflict with different bodies of natives who
kept coming up, and thus without losing any time they only just managed to get safe to the
sea-coast. Then Nearchus sacrificed to Zeus the Saviour and held an athletic meeting.
XXXVII. When therefore Nearchus had thus duly performed all his religious duties, they
weighed anchor. Coasting along a rough and desert island, they anchored off another
island, a large one, and inhabited; this was after a voyage of three hundred stades, from
their point of departure. The desert island was called Organa, and that off which they
moored Oaracta. Vines grew on it and date-palms; and it produced corn; the length of the
island was eight hundred stades. The governor of the island, Mazenes, sailed with them as
far as Susa as a volunteer pilot. They said that in this island the tomb of the first
chief of this territory was shown; his name was Erythres, and hence came the name of the
sea. Thence they weighed anchor and sailed onward, and when they had coasted about two
hundred stades along this same island they anchored off it once more and sighted another
island, about forty stades from this large one. It was said to be sacred to Poseidon, and
not to be trod by foot of man. About dawn they put out to sea, and were met by so violent
an ebb that three of the ships ran ashore and were held hard and fast on dry land, and the
rest only just sailed through the surf and got safe into deep water. The ships, however,
which ran aground were floated off when next flood came, and arrived next day where the
main fleet was. They moored at another island, about three hundred stades from the
mainland, after a voyage of four hundred stades. Thence they sailed about dawn, and passed
on their port side a desert island; its name was Pylora. Then they anchored at Sisidona, a
desolate little township, with nothing but water and fish; for the natives here were
fish-eaters whether they would or not, because they dwelt in so desolate a territory.
Thence they got water, and reached Cape Tarsias, which runs right out into the sea, after
a voyage of three hundred stades. Thence they made for Cataea, a desert island, and
low-lying; this was said to be sacred to Hermes and Aphrodite; the voyage was of three
hundred stades. Every year the natives round about send sheep and goats as sacred to
Hermes and Aphrodite, and one could see them, now quite wild from lapse of time and want
of handling.
XXXVIII. So far extends Carmania; beyond this is Persia. The length of the voyage along
the Carmanian coast is three thousand seven hundred stades. The natives' way of life is
like that of the Persians, to whom they are also neighbours; and they wear the same
military equipment. The Greeks moved on thence, from the sacred island, and were already
coasting along Persian territory; they put in at a place called Eas, where a harbour is
formed by a small desert island, which is called Cecandrus; the voyage thither is four
hundred stades. At daybreak they sailed to another island, an inhabited one, and anchored
there; here, according to Nearchus, there is pearl fishing, as in the Indian Ocean. They
sailed along the point of this island, a distance of forty stades, and there moored. Next
they anchored off a tall hill, called Ochus, in a safe harbour; fishermen dwelt on its
banks. Thence they sailed four hundred and fifty stades, and anchored off Apostana; many
boats were anchored there, and there was a village near, about sixty stades from the sea.
They weighed anchor at night and sailed thence to a gulf, with a good many villages
settled round about. This was a voyage of four hundred stades; and they anchored below a
mountain, on which grew many date-pahns and other fruit trees such as flourish in Greece.
Thence they um-noored and sailed along to Gogana, about six hundred stades, to an
inhabited district; and they anchored off the torrent, called Areon, just at its outlet.
The anchorage there was uncomfortable; the entrance was narrow, just at the mouth, since
the ebb tide caused shallows in all the neighbourhood of the outlet. After this they
anchored again, at another river-mouth, after a voyage of about eight hundred stades. This
river was called Sitacus. Even here, however, they did not find a pleasant anchorage; in
fact this whole voyage along Persia was shallows, surf, and lagoons. There they found a
great supply of corn; brought together there by the King's orders, for their provisioning;
there they abode twenty-one days in all; they drew up the ships, and repaired those that
had suffered, and the others too they put in order.
XXXIX. Thence they started and reached the city of Hieratis, a populous place. The
voyage was of seven hundred and fifty stades; and they anchored in a channel running from
the river to the sea and called Heratemis. At sunrise they sailed along the coast to a
torrent called Padagrus; the entire district forms. a peninsula. There were many gardens,
and all sorts of fruit trees were growing there; the name of the place was Mesambria. From
Mesambria they sailed and after a voyage of about two hundred stades anchored at Taoce on
the river Granis. Inland from here was a Persian royal residence, about two hundred stades
from the mouth of the river. On this voyage, Nearchus says, a great whale was seen,
stranded on the shore, and some of the sailors sailed past it and measured it, and said it
was of ninety cubits' length. Its hide was scaly, and so thick that it was a cubit in
depth; and it had many oysters, limpets, and seaweeds growing on it. Nearchus also says
that they could see many dolphins round the whale, and these larger than the Mediterranean
dolphins. Going on hence, they put in at the torrent Rogonis, in a good harbour; the
length of this voyage was two hundred stades. Thence again they sailed four hundred stades
and bivouacked on the side of a torrent; its name was Brizana. Then they found difficult
anchorage; there were surf, and shallows, and reefs showing above the sea. But when the
flood tide came in, they were able to anchor; when, however,, the tide retired again, the
ships were left high and dry. Then when the flood duly returned, they sailed out, and
anchored in a river called Oroatis, greatest, according to Nearchus, of all the rivers
which on this coast run into the Ocean.
XL. The Persians dwell up to this point and the Susians next to them. Above the Susians
lives another independent tribe; these are called Uxians, and in my earlier history I have
described them as brigands. The length of the voyage along the Persian coast was four
thousand four hundred stades. The Persian land is divided, they say, into three climatic
zones. The part which lies by the Red Sea is sandy and sterile, owing to the heat. Then
the next zone, northward, has a temperate climate; the country is grassy and has lush
meadows and many
vines and all other fruits except the olive; it is rich with all sorts of gardens, has
pure rivers running through, and also lakes, and is good both for all sorts of birds which
frequent rivers and lakes, and for horses, and also pastures the other domestic animals,
and is well wooded, and has plenty of game. The next zone, still going northward, is
wintry and snowy, Nearchus. tells us of some envoys from the Black Sea who after quite a
short journey met Alexander traversing Persia and caused him no small astonishment; and
they explained to Alexander how short the journey was. I have explained that the Uxians
are neighbours to the Susians, as the Mardians they also are brigands live next the
Persians, and the Cossaeans come next to the Medes. All these tribes Alexander reduced,
coming upon them in winter-time, when they thought their country unapproachable. He also
founded cities so that they should no longer be nomads but cultivators, and tillers of the
ground, and so having a stake in the country might be deterred from raiding one another.
From here the convoy passed along the Susian territory. About this part of the voyage
Nearchus says he cannot speak with accurate detail, except about the roadsteads and the
length of the voyage. This is because the country is for the most part marshy and ruins
out well into the sea, with breakers, and is very hard to get good anchorage in. So their
voyage was mostly in the open sea. They sailed out, therefore from the mouths of the
river, where they had encamped, just on the Persian border, taking on board water for five
days; for the pilots said that they would meet no fresh water.
XLI. Then after traversing five hundred stades they anchored in the mouth of a lake,
full of fish, called Cataderbis: at the mouth was a small island called Margastana. Thence
about daybreak they sailed out and passed the shallows in columns of single ships; the
shallows were marked on either side by poles driven down, just as in the strait between
the island Leucas and Acarnania signposts have been set up for navigators so that the
ships should not ground on the shallows. However, the shallows round Leucas are sandy and
render it easy for those aground to get off; but here it is mud on both sides of the
channel, both deep and tenacious; once aground there, they could not possibly get of. For
the punt-poles sank into the mud and gave them no help, and it proved impossible for the
crews to disembark and push the ships off, for they sank up to their breasts in the ooze.
Thus then they sailed out with great difficulty and traversed six hundred stades, each
crew abiding by its ship; and then they took thought for supper. During the night,
however, they were fortunate in reaching deep sailing water and next day also, up to the
evening; they sailed nine hundred stades, and anchored in the mouth of the Euphrates near
a village of Babylonia, called Didotis; here the merchants gather together frankincense
from the neighbouring country and all other sweet-smelling spices which Arabia produces.
From the mouth of the Euphrates to Babylon Nearchus says it is a voyage of three thousand
three hundred stades.
XLII. There they heard that Alexander was departing towards Susa. They therefore sailed
back, in order to sail up the Pasitigris and meet Alexander. So they sailed back, with the
land of Susia on their left, and they went along the lake into which the Tigris runs. It
flows from Armenia past the city of Ninus, which once was a great and rich city, and so
makes the region between itself and the Euphrates; that is why it is called 'Between the
Rivers.' The voyage from the lake up to the river itself is six hundred stades, and there
is a village of Susia called Aginis; this village is five hundred stades from Susa. The
length of the voyage along Susian territory to the mouth of the Pasitigris is two thousand
stades. From there they sailed up the Pasitigris through inhabited and prosperous country.
Then they had sailed up about a hundred and fifty stades they moored there, waiting for
the scouts whom Nearchus had sent to see where the King was. He himself sacrificed to the
Saviour gods, and held an athletic meeting, and the whole naval force made merry. And when
news was brought that Alexander was now approaching they sailed again up the river; and
they moored near the pontoon bridge on which Alexander intended to take his army over to
Susa. There the two forces met; Alexander offered sacrifices for his ships and men, come
safe back again, and games were held; and whenever Nearchus appeared in the camp, the
troops pelted him with ribbons and flowers. There also Nearchus and Leonnatus were crowned
by Alexander with a golden crown; Nearchus for the safe conveying of the ships, Leonnatus
for the victory he had achieved among the Oreitans and the natives who dwelt next to them.
Thus then Alexander received safe back his navy, which had started from the mouths of the
Indus.
XLIII. On the right side of the Red Sea beyond Babylonia is the chief part of Arabia,
and of this a part comes down to the sea of Phoenicia and Palestinian Syria, but on the
west, up to the Mediterranean, the Egyptians are upon the Arabian borders. Along Egypt a
gulf running in from the Great Sea makes it clear that by reason of the gulf's joining
with the High Seas one might sail round from Babylon into this gulf which runs into Egypt.
Yet, in point of fact, no one has yet sailed round this way by reason of the heat and the
desert nature of the coasts, only a few people who sailed over the open sea. But those of
the army of Cambyses who came safe from Egypt to Susa and those troops who were sent from
Ptolemy Lagus to Seleucus Nicator at Babylon through Arabia crossed an isthmus in a period
of eight days and passed through a waterless and desert country, riding fast upon camels,
carrying water for themselves on their camels, and travelling by night; for during the day
they could not come out of shelter by reason of the heat. So far is the region on the
other side of this stretch of land, which we have demonstrated to be an isthmus from the
Arabian gulf running into the Red Sea, from being inhabited, that its northern parts are
quite desert and sandy. Yet from the Arabian gulf which runs along Egypt people have
started, and have circumnavigated the greater part of Arabia hoping to reach the sea
nearest to Susa and Persia, and thus have sailed so far round the Arabian coast as the
amount of fresh water taken aboard their vessels have permitted, and then have returned
home again. And those whom Alexander sent from Babylon, in order that, sailing as far as
they could on the right of the Red Sea, they might reconnoitre the country on this side,
these explorers sighted certain islands lying on their course, and very possibly put in at
the mainland of Arabia. But the cape which Nearchus says his party sighted running out
into the sea opposite Carmania no one has ever been able to round, and thus turn inwards
towards the far side. I am inclined to think that had this been navigable,ft and had there
been any passage, it would have been proved navigable, and a passage found, by the
indefatigable energy of Alexander. Moreover, Hanno the Libyan started out from Carthage
and passed the pillars of Heracles and sailed into the outer Ocean, with Libya on his port
side, and he sailed on towards the east, five-and-thirty days all told. But when at last
he turned southward, he fell in with every sort of difficulty, want of water, blazing
heat, and fiery streams running into the sea. But Cyrene, lying in the more desert parts
of Africa, is grassy and fertile and well-watered; it bears all sorts of fruits and
animals, right up to the region where the silphium grows; beyond this silphium belt its
upper parts are bare and sandy. Here this my history shall cease, which, as well as my
other, deals with Alexander of Macedon son of Philip.
