Indica

1.1. The lands beyond the river Indus, toward the west as far as the river Cophen, are settled by the Astacenians and the Assacenians, peoples of India.

1.2. But they are neither great in body, like those settled within the Indus, nor as brave in spirit, nor as dark in colour as the greater number of the Indians.

1.3. These peoples were long ago subject to the Assyrians; then under the Medes they obeyed the Persians, and they paid tribute from their land to Cyrus the son of Cambyses, the tribute that Cyrus had laid upon them.

1.4. The Nysaeans, however, are not a people of India, but are descended from those who came with Dionysus into the land of the Indians: perhaps from the Greeks among them who were left disabled in the wars that Dionysus waged against the Indians, and perhaps from the native peoples as well.

1.5. Those who were willing Dionysus settled together with the Greeks, and he named the country Nysaea after the mountain Nysa, and the city itself Nysa.

1.6. And the mountain near the city, in whose foothills Nysa is settled, is called Merus, that is “Thigh,” on account of the circumstance that befell him at his very birth.

1.7. These are the stories the poets have told of Dionysus, and let those expound them who are learned among the Greeks or the barbarians.

1.8. Among the Assacenians is Massaca, a great city, where the seat of power of the land of Assacia also lies; and another city, Peucelaitis, itself large too, not far from the Indus. These places are settled beyond the river Indus toward the west, as far as the Cophen.2.1. The lands east of the Indus I take to be the land of the Indians, and these people I take to be the Indians. The boundary of the land of the Indians toward the north wind is the mountain Taurus.

2.2. But it is no longer called Taurus in this land. The Taurus begins from the sea by Pamphylia and Lycia and Cilicia, and it stretches as far as the eastern sea, cutting through the whole of Asia.

2.3. In different places the mountain is called by different names: here Parapamisus, there Emodus; elsewhere it is called Imaus, and perhaps it has yet other names besides.

2.4. But the Macedonians who campaigned with Alexander called it the Caucasus—a different Caucasus, this, not the Scythian one—so that the report might spread that Alexander had advanced even beyond the Caucasus.

2.5. On the western side of the land of the Indians the river Indus shuts it off, as far as the great sea, where it discharges by two mouths, the mouths not joined to one another—

2.6. not like the five mouths of the Ister, which are continuous, but like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian Delta is formed: in this same way the river Indus too forms the Delta of the land of the Indians, no smaller than the Egyptian one; and this is called Patala in the language of the Indians.

2.7. On the side toward the south wind and the midday the great sea itself shuts off the land of the Indians, and on the eastern side too the same sea shuts it off.

2.8. The parts toward the south, by Patala and the mouths of the Indus, were seen by Alexander and the Macedonians and many Greeks; but toward the east Alexander did not advance beyond the river Hyphasis.

2.9. A few writers have recorded the country as far as the river Ganges, and the places where the mouths of the Ganges are, and the city of Palimbothra, the greatest of the Indian cities, upon the Ganges.3.1. For my part, let Eratosthenes of Cyrene be more to be trusted than any other, since the measurement of the earth was Eratosthenes’ concern.

3.2. He says that from the mountain Taurus, where the sources of the Indus are, going along the river Indus itself as far as the great sea and the mouths of the Indus, the side of the land of the Indians extends for thirteen thousand stades.

3.3. The side opposite to this he makes the one running from the same mountain along the eastern sea—no longer equal to that side, since a headland juts far out into the open sea, the headland reaching out about three thousand stades. So the eastern side of the land of the Indians would, on his reckoning, extend for sixteen thousand stades. This he takes for the breadth of the land of the Indians.

3.4. As for the length from west to east, he says that as far as the city of Palimbothra it has been measured with measuring cords, for there is a royal road; and this extends for ten thousand stades.

3.5. The parts beyond are no longer reported with the same accuracy. Those who have set down the reports say that, together with the headland that juts out into the open sea, it extends about a further ten thousand stades; so the length of the land of the Indians would be about twenty thousand stades.

3.6. Ctesias of Cnidus says that the land of the Indians is equal to the rest of Asia—which is nonsense; and Onesicritus says it is a third part of the whole earth. Nearchus says it is a four months’ journey across the plain of the land of the Indians.

3.7. For Megasthenes the breadth of the land of the Indians, from east to west, is what the others make its length; and Megasthenes says that where it is shortest it is sixteen thousand stades.

3.8. The distance from north to south he takes for its length, and it extends for twenty-two thousand three hundred stades where it is narrowest.

3.9. There are as many rivers in the land of the Indians as in all the rest of Asia there are not. The greatest are the Ganges and the Indus, after which the land is named—both of them greater than the Egyptian Nile and the Scythian Ister, and greater still if their waters should be joined into one. To me it seems that the Acesines too is greater than both the Ister and the Nile, there where, having taken up at once the Hydaspes and the Hydraotes and the Hyphasis, it discharges into the Indus, so that there its breadth is even thirty stades. And it may well be that there are many other still greater rivers flowing in the land of the Indians.4.1. But I cannot affirm anything with certainty about the lands beyond the river Hyphasis, since Alexander did not advance beyond the Hyphasis.

4.2. Of the two greatest rivers themselves, the Ganges and the Indus, Megasthenes has recorded that the Ganges far surpasses the other in size, and so have all the others who make mention of the Ganges;

4.3. for it rises already great from its sources, and takes into itself the river Cainas and the Erannoboas and the Cossoanus, all navigable; and then the river Sonus and the Sittocatis and the Solomatis, these too navigable;

4.4. and then the Condochates and the Sambus and the Magon and the Agoranis and the Omalis. And into it discharge the Commenases, a great river, and the Cacuthis, and the Andomatis, which flows from the Indian people of the Madyandini,

4.5. and besides these the Amystis, which passes by the city Catadupe, and the Oxymagis in the people called the Pazalae. And the Errenysis too joins the Ganges among the Mathae, an Indian people.

4.6. Of these Megasthenes says that none falls short of the Maeander, there where the Maeander is navigable.

4.7. So the breadth of the Ganges, where it is narrowest, is a hundred stades; and in many places it spreads into marsh, so that the land on the farther side cannot be seen, low-lying as it is and nowhere rising into hills.

4.8. With the Indus it is the same. The Hydraotes, which among the Cambistholi has received the Hyphasis among the Astrybae and the Saranges from the Cecei and the Neudrus from the Attaceni, discharges into the Acesines.

4.9. The Hydaspes, among the Oxydracae, bringing with it the Sinarus among the Arispae, likewise discharges into the Acesines.

4.10. The Acesines among the Malli joins the Indus; and the Toutapus too, a great river, discharges into the Acesines. Filled with all these, the Acesines, prevailing by its own name, discharges into the Indus still under its own name.

4.11. The Cophen, in Peucelaitis, bringing with it the Malantus and the Soastus and the Garroea, discharges into the Indus.

4.12. Above these the Parenus and the Saparnus, not far apart, discharge into the Indus; and the Soanus, from the hill country of the Abissareans, discharges into it without any other river joined to it. Of these Megasthenes says that most are navigable.

4.13. There is no reason, then, to disbelieve concerning the Indus and the Ganges, nor that the Ister and the Nile are not to be compared with them.

4.14. Into the Nile we know that no river discharges; rather, channels are cut from it throughout the land of Egypt.

4.15. The Ister rises small from its sources, and takes in many rivers, but not equal in number to the Indian rivers that discharge into the Indus and the Ganges, and very few of them navigable—of which I myself have seen and know two, the Enus and the Saus.

4.16. The Enus joins the Ister on the borders of the land of the Noricans and the Rhaetians, and the Saus by the Paeonians. The place where the rivers meet is called Tauronus. And if anyone knows of yet another navigable river among those discharging into the Ister, he does not, I think, know many.5.1. Whoever wishes to state the cause of the number and size of the Indian rivers, let him state it; for my part, let even these things be set down as I have heard them.

5.2. For Megasthenes has recorded the names of many other rivers besides, which discharge beyond the Ganges and the Indus into the eastern and southern sea; so that he says the Indian rivers are in all fifty-eight, every one of them navigable.

5.3. But it does not seem to me that even Megasthenes traversed much of the land of the Indians—though more, indeed, than those who came with Alexander the son of Philip; for he says that he met with Sandracottus, the greatest of the kings of the Indians, and with Porus, who was greater still than he.

5.4. This Megasthenes, then, says that the Indians never made war upon any other men, nor any other men upon the Indians,

5.5. but that Sesostris the Egyptian, after subduing the greater part of Asia and advancing with an army as far as Europe,

5.6. turned back and returned home; and that Idanthyrsus the Scythian, setting out from Scythia, subdued many peoples of Asia and overran the land of Egypt also as its conqueror;

5.7. and that Semiramis the Assyrian set about preparing an expedition against the Indians, but died before she could put her plans into effect. But Alexander, he says, alone made war upon the Indians.

5.8. And before Alexander there is much story told of Dionysus, that he too campaigned against the Indians and subdued the Indians; but of Heracles there is not much.

5.9. Of the expedition of Dionysus the city of Nysa is no slight memorial, and the mountain Merus, and the ivy that grows on this mountain, and the Indians themselves setting out to their battles to the sound of drums and cymbals, and their dappled clothing, like that of the bacchants of Dionysus; but of Heracles there are not many memorials.

5.10. As for the rock Aornos, which Alexander took by force, the claim that Heracles was not able to capture it seems to me a Macedonian boast—just as they called the Parapamisus the Caucasus, though it has nothing to do with the Caucasus.

5.11. And when they observed a certain cave among the Parapamisadae, they declared that this was the famous cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he hung as punishment for the theft of fire.

5.12. And among the Sibae too, an Indian people, because they saw the Sibae clothed in skins, they asserted that the Sibae were those left behind from the expedition of Heracles; for the Sibae also carry a club, and their cattle are branded with a club, and this too they referred to the memory of the club of Heracles.

5.13. But if anyone believes these things, this would be some other Heracles—not the Theban or the Tyrian or the Egyptian one, but some great king settled in the upper country not far from the land of the Indians.6.1. Let this be a digression in my account, to show that the things which some have recorded about the Indians beyond the river Hyphasis do not appear trustworthy; for as far as the Hyphasis those who took part in Alexander’s expedition are not altogether untrustworthy.

6.2. For this too Megasthenes tells of an Indian river: that its name is the Silas, and that it flows from a spring named after the river through the country of the Sileans, who are themselves named after the river and the spring, and that its water has the following property.

6.3. There is nothing that the water can support; nothing can swim in it nor float upon it, but everything sinks to the bottom—so much more lacking in substance than all other water is that water, and more like air.

6.4. The land of the Indians has rain in summer, chiefly the mountains—Parapamisus and Emodus and the Imaic mountain—and from these the rivers flow great and turbid.

6.5. The plains of the Indians too have rain in summer, so that much of them spreads into marsh. And the army of Alexander fled from the river Acesines in mid-summer, when the water overflowed

6.6. into the plains; so that from these things one may infer the behaviour of the Nile too: that it is likely the mountains of the Ethiopians have rain in summer, and that from them the Nile is filled and overflows its banks into the land of Egypt.

6.7. So this river too flows turbid at that season, as it would not if it flowed from melting snow, nor if its water were dammed back by the Etesian winds that blow at the summer season; and besides, the mountains of the Ethiopians would not be snow-covered, on account of the heat.

6.8. That they should have rain, like those of the Indians, is not beyond likelihood, since in other respects too the land of the Indians is not unlike Ethiopia; and the Indian rivers, like the Nile of Ethiopia and Egypt, bear crocodiles, and some of them bear fishes and other sea-creatures such as the Nile bears, except the river-horse; though Onesicritus says they bear river-horses too.

6.9. The appearance of the men, too, is not altogether unlike between the Indians and the Ethiopians. For the Indians toward the south wind resemble the Ethiopians somewhat more: they are black to look upon, and their hair is black, except that they are not snub-nosed nor woolly-haired in the same way as the Ethiopians; while those farther north are most like the Egyptians in body.7.1. Megasthenes says that the Indian peoples are in all a hundred and twenty,

7.2. less two. That there are many Indian peoples I too agree with Megasthenes; but the exact truth I cannot guess how he learned and set down, since he traversed no great part of the land of the Indians, and there is no intermingling of all the peoples with one another.

7.3. In old times the Indians were nomads, like those of the Scythians who are not tillers of the soil, who wander in their wagons and exchange now one part of Scythia, now another, dwelling in no cities and reverencing no shrines of the gods.

7.4. So the Indians too had no cities and no shrines built for the gods, but clothed themselves in the skins of the wild beasts they killed, and fed on the bark of trees. These trees are called in the Indian tongue tala, and on them, just as in the crowns of date-palms, there grow things like balls of wool.

7.5. They fed also on such of the wild beasts as they caught, eating them raw—until Dionysus came into the land of the Indians.

7.6. But when Dionysus came, and grew strong among the Indians, he founded cities and gave laws to the cities, and became the giver of wine to the Indians as to the Greeks, and taught them to sow the land, giving them the seed himself—

7.7. either because Triptolemus did not come this way when he was sent forth by Demeter to sow all the earth, or because this Dionysus, coming to the land of the Indians before Triptolemus, gave them the seed of the cultivated crop.

7.8. Dionysus was the first to yoke oxen to the plough, and he made tillers of most of the Indians instead of nomads, and armed them with the weapons of war.

7.9. And he taught them to reverence the gods, others and above all himself, with clashing of cymbals and beating of drums; and he taught them the satyric dance,

7.10. which among the Greeks is called the cordax, and taught the Indians to wear their hair long for the god, and to wear the headband, and instructed them in the anointing with perfumes.8.1. When he departed from the land of the Indians, after he had ordered all these things, he appointed as king of the country Spatembas, the most given to revelry of his companions; and when Spatembas died, his son Budyas succeeded to the kingship.

8.2. The father reigned over the Indians fifty-two years, and the son twenty years. And the son of this man, Cradeuas, succeeded to the kingship,

8.3. and from then on for the most part the kingship passed by descent, son receiving it from father; and if the line failed, then the Indians appointed their kings by merit.

8.4. Heracles, who the story says came to the Indians, is said by the Indians themselves to have been born of their own earth.

8.5. This Heracles is honoured especially by the Surasenians, an Indian people, among whom are two great cities, Methora and Cleisobora; and the navigable river Iobares flows through their country.

8.6. The dress which this Heracles wore Megasthenes says was like that of the Theban Heracles, as the Indians themselves relate. He had very many male children in the land of the Indians—for this Heracles too came to marriage with many wives—but only one daughter. The girl’s name was Pandaea, and so was the country’s

8.7. where she was born and over which Heracles set her to rule, named after the girl. And she had from her father five hundred elephants, four thousand horse, and a hundred and thirty thousand foot.

8.8. And some of the Indians tell this too about Heracles: that he traversed all land and sea and cleansed them of whatever was evil, and found in the sea a new kind of women’s adornment,

8.9. which even to this day those who bring wares from the land of the Indians to us carry away, buying it eagerly,

8.10. and which of old the Greeks, and now the Romans, those who are wealthy and prosperous, buy with still greater eagerness—the sea-pearl, so called in the language of the Indians. For Heracles, when this ornament appeared beautiful to him, gathered the pearl from every sea to the land of the Indians, to be an adornment for his daughter.

8.11. And Megasthenes says that the shell of it is hunted with nets, and that many shells feed together in one place, like bees; and that the pearls too have a king or queen, as the bees do.

8.12. Whoever by good fortune catches that one, easily encloses the rest of the swarm of pearls too; but if the king escapes them, then the others can no longer be caught. Those they catch they let the flesh rot away, and use the bony part for adornment.

8.13. And among the Indians the pearl is worth three times its weight in refined gold; and this too is dug up in the land of the Indians.9.1. In that country, where the daughter of Heracles was queen, the women come to marriageable age at seven years, and the men live at most forty years.

9.2. And about this there is a story told among the Indians. Heracles, whose daughter was born to him late, when he learned that his own end was near and had no man to whom he might give his daughter worthily of himself, united with the girl himself when she was seven years old, so that a race of Indian kings should be left from him and her. So Heracles made her ripe for marriage;

9.3. and from then on this whole race over which Pandaea ruled has had this same privilege from Heracles.

9.4. But it seems to me that, if Heracles was able to accomplish things so strange, he might also have shown himself longer-lived, so as to unite with the girl when she was of due age.

9.5. But indeed, if the facts about the ripeness of the girls here come to the same thing as the fact about the men’s age, that the oldest of them die at forty,

9.6. then for those upon whom old age comes so much faster, and death together with old age, surely the prime of life too blossoms earlier, in proportion to the end.

9.7. So that at thirty their men would be already aged before their time, at twenty youths past their first bloom, and the height of youth about fifteen years; and the women’s ripeness for marriage would by the same reckoning fall at about seven years.

9.8. For this same Megasthenes has recorded that the fruits in this country ripen faster than elsewhere, and decay faster.

9.9. From Dionysus down to Sandracottus the Indians counted a hundred and fifty-three kings, and six thousand and forty-two years; and in this time three times to liberty—one of these for three hundred years, and one for a hundred and twenty years. And the Indians say that Dionysus was older than Heracles by fifteen generations.

9.10. And they say that no other man invaded the land of the Indians in war, not even Cyrus the son of Cambyses, although Cyrus marched against the Scythians and was in other respects the most restlessly active of the kings of Asia.

9.11. But Alexander came and overcame all by his arms, all whom he reached; and he would have overcome all, had his army been willing.

9.12. Nor did any of the Indians ever go outside his own country in war, by reason of their justice.10.1. It is said also that the Indians make no memorials for their dead, but hold the virtues of the men sufficient as a memorial for the departed, and the songs that are sung over them.

10.2. It would not be possible to record exactly the number of the Indian cities, by reason of their multitude. Those by the rivers and the sea are made of wood;

10.3. for if made of brick they could not last long, on account both of the water from heaven and because the rivers, overflowing their banks, fill the plains with water.

10.4. But those that are settled in high and elevated places, and these bare of trees, are made of brick and clay.

10.5. The greatest city among the Indians is the one called Palimbothra, in the land of the Prasii, where are the junctions of the river Erannoboas and the Ganges—the Ganges, the greatest of rivers; and the Erannoboas would be the third of the Indian rivers, though it too is greater than those elsewhere. But it gives way to the Ganges, once it has discharged its water into it.

10.6. And Megasthenes says that the city extends in length, on each side where it is settled at its longest, to eighty stades, and in breadth to fifteen.

10.7. A moat is thrown about the city, six plethra in breadth and thirty cubits in depth; and the wall has five hundred and seventy towers and sixty-four gates.

10.8. And this too is a great thing in the land of the Indians, that all Indians are free, and that no Indian is a slave. In this the Lacedaemonians and the Indians come to the same point.

10.9. Yet for the Lacedaemonians the helots are slaves and do the work of slaves; but for the Indians there is no slave at all, much less any Indian a slave.11.1. All the Indians are divided into seven classes, more or less. One of these is the wise men, fewer in number than the rest, but in repute and honour the most esteemed;

11.2. for they are under no necessity to do any work with the body, nor to contribute anything from their labours to the common store. In short, no other necessity at all is laid upon the wise men, except to offer the sacrifices to the gods on behalf of the community of the Indians.

11.3. And whoever sacrifices privately has one of these wise men as his guide in the sacrifice, since otherwise his offering would not be acceptable to the gods.

11.4. These men alone of the Indians are skilled in divination, and it is not permitted to any other to divine except to a wise man.

11.5. They divine concerning the seasons of the year, and whether any calamity is overtaking the community; but the private affairs of individuals they do not trouble to divine, either because their divination does not reach to lesser matters, or because they hold it not worth the labour.

11.6. Whoever errs three times in his divining suffers no other harm, but it is laid upon him to be silent thereafter; and there is no one who will compel that man to speak, upon whom silence has been adjudged.

11.7. These wise men live naked, in winter out in the open in the sun, and in summer, when the sun prevails, in the meadows and marshes under great trees, whose shade Nearchus says reaches five plethra in circuit, and ten thousand men might be shaded under a single tree—so great are these trees.

11.8. They feed on the fruits in season and on the bark of the trees, the bark being sweet and nourishing, no less than the dates of the palms.

11.9. Second after these are the farmers, the most numerous of the Indians. They have neither weapons of war nor any concern with deeds of war, but they work the land, and they pay the taxes to the kings and to the cities that are independent.

11.10. And if war should break out among the Indians against one another, it is not lawful for them to lay hands on those who work the land, nor to ravage the land itself; but while some make war and slay one another as they may, the others near them plough or gather the vintage or prune or reap in peace.

11.11. Third among the Indians are the herdsmen, both shepherds and oxherds. These dwell neither in cities nor in the villages, but are nomads and live among the mountains; and they pay tribute from their flocks, and they hunt through the country birds and wild beasts.12.1. The fourth is the class of craftsmen and traders. These are public servants, and pay tribute from their works, except those who make the weapons of war. These even receive pay from the common store. In this class are the shipwrights and the sailors who voyage on the rivers.

12.2. The fifth class among the Indians is the warriors, second in number after the farmers, and enjoying the greatest freedom and good cheer. These practise the works of war alone.

12.3. Others make their weapons for them, and others provide their horses, and others serve them in the camp—who tend their horses and clean their weapons and lead their elephants and order their chariots and drive them.

12.4. They themselves, so long as it is necessary to make war, make war; and when peace comes they make merry. And so much pay comes to them from the common store that they can easily support others from it. Sixth among the Indians are those called the overseers.

12.5. These oversee what is done throughout the country and in the cities, and report it to the king, where the Indians are governed by a king, or to the magistrates, where they are independent. And it is not lawful for these to report anything false, nor has any Indian ever been charged with lying.

12.6. Seventh are those who deliberate about the common affairs together with the king, or in the cities that are independent, together with the magistrates.

12.7. In number this class is small, but in wisdom and justice it is chosen out above all the rest. From it are selected their rulers, and all who are governors of districts and deputies and treasurers and commanders of the army, and admirals and stewards and superintendents of the works of farming.

12.8. To marry out of another class is not lawful—for instance, for the farmers to marry from the craftsmen, or the reverse. Nor is it lawful for the same man to practise two trades, nor to change from one class to another—for a farmer, say, to become a herdsman, or a herdsman a craftsman.

12.9. This alone is granted them, that a man of any class may become a wise man, since the affairs of the wise men are not soft but of all the most laborious.13.1. The Indians hunt the other wild beasts as the Greeks do, but their hunting of elephants is like nothing else, since these beasts too are like no other beasts.

13.2. They choose out a level and sun-scorched place and dig a trench around it in a circle, large enough for a great army to encamp within. The trench they make five fathoms in breadth and four in depth.

13.3. The earth which they cast out of the digging they heap up on either lip of the trench

13.4. and use it for a wall; and on the mound on the outer lip of the trench they make for themselves dug-out huts, and in these they leave openings, through which the light comes in to them and through which they watch the beasts approaching and being driven into the enclosure.

13.5. There within the enclosure they set three or four of the tamest females, and they leave a single entrance over the trench, bridging the trench; and over this they heap much earth and grass, so that the bridge may not be plain to the beasts, and they suspect no trick.

13.6. They themselves keep out of the way, hidden in the huts on the trench; and the wild elephants do not approach the inhabited places by day, but by night they wander everywhere and feed in herds, following the greatest and noblest of their number, as cattle follow the bulls.

13.7. So when they draw near the enclosure, hearing the voice of the females and catching their scent, they rush at a run toward the fenced place; and going round the lips of the trench, when they come upon the bridge they are thrust along it into the enclosure.

13.8. The men, perceiving the entrance of the wild elephants, quickly take away the bridge; and some of them run off to the nearby villages to announce that the elephants are held in the enclosure. The others, hearing this, mount the strongest and tamest of their elephants and drive them toward the enclosure; but when they have driven up they do not at once join battle, but let the wild elephants be worn down with hunger and subdued by thirst.

13.9. And when these seem to them to be in a bad way, then they set the bridge again and drive toward the enclosure; and at first a fierce battle sets in between the tame elephants and the captured ones.

13.10. Then in due course the wild ones are overcome, worn down by despair and hunger.

13.11. And the men, getting down from the elephants, bind the feet of the wild ones, now exhausted, at the tips; then they order the tame elephants to chastise them with many blows, until those, worn out, fall to the ground. Standing by, they throw nooses about their necks, and mount upon them as they lie.

13.12. And so that they may not throw their riders or do any other mischief, they cut their neck in a circle with a sharp knife, and bind the noose along the cut, so that they keep their head and neck still on account of the wound;

13.13. for if they should turn about in mischief, the wound is chafed by the rope. So they keep still, and recognizing that they are beaten,14.1. they are now led by the tame ones. Such of them as are young, or by reason of bad condition not worth keeping, these they let go to their own haunts.

14.2. Leading the captured ones to the villages, they give them first green reed and grass to eat;

14.3. but they, from despair, are unwilling to eat anything; and the Indians, standing around them, with songs and the beating of drums and cymbals soothe them to sleep and sing them charms.

14.4. For the elephant is a clever beast if any is; and some of them have already taken up their riders who fell in battle and carried them out to burial, others have shielded them as they lay, others have fought in defence of fallen men, and one that killed its rider in anger died of remorse and despair.

14.5. I myself have seen an elephant clashing cymbals, and others dancing, a cymbal being fastened to its two forelegs and another to what is called the trunk;

14.6. and it struck the cymbal on its trunk in turn against either leg in rhythm, while the others danced in a circle, and lifting and bending their forelegs in turn they too moved in rhythm, as the cymbal-player led them.

14.7. The elephant mates in the spring season, like an ox or horse, when in the females the breathing-holes by the temples open and breathe out. It carries its young the least sixteen months, the most eighteen. It bears one, like a horse, and rears it on milk to the eighth year.

14.8. Of elephants, those that live longest live to two hundred years, though many die before their time of disease.

14.9. The cure for their eyes is cow’s milk poured in; for their other diseases, dark wine to drink; and for their wounds, roasted pig’s flesh laid on as a plaster.15.1. The Indians reckon the tiger far stronger than the elephant. Nearchus says he saw the skin of a tiger, but not the tiger itself; the Indians told him that the tiger is in size like the largest horse, but in swiftness and strength like nothing else to be compared.

15.2. For when it comes upon an elephant, it leaps upon the elephant’s head and easily throttles it.

15.3. But those that we ourselves see and call tigers are dappled jackals, larger than the other jackals.

15.4. As for the ants, Nearchus says that he himself did not see an ant of the kind that some have described as occurring in the land of the Indians, but that he saw many of their skins brought into the Macedonian camp.

15.5. Megasthenes records that the account of the ants is true: that these are the ones that dig up the gold, not for the gold’s sake, but because by nature they dig into the earth to make their holes, as our own little ants dig up a little of the earth.

15.6. But those—for they are larger than foxes—dig the earth in proportion to their size; and the earth is gold-bearing, and from this the Indians get their gold.

15.7. But Megasthenes tells it by hearsay, and since I have nothing more accurate than this to record, I willingly let the tale of the ants go.

15.8. Of parrots Nearchus speaks as of some marvel, that they occur in the land of the Indians, and what sort of bird the parrot is, and how it utters a human voice.

15.9. But since I myself have seen many, and know of others acquainted with the bird, I shall say nothing of it as though it were a marvel; nor will I speak of the size of the apes, or that the apes among the Indians are beautiful, or how they are hunted. For these things I would only be telling what is well known—except, indeed, that the apes are somehow beautiful.

15.10. Nearchus says too that snakes were caught, dappled and swift, and in size—one which he says Peithon the son of Antigenes took—about sixteen cubits; but the Indians themselves say that the largest snakes are far greater than these.

15.11. None of the Greek physicians had found any remedy for one bitten by an Indian snake; but the Indians themselves cured those that were struck. And on this Nearchus says that Alexander kept gathered about himself such of the Indians as were wisest in healing, and it had been proclaimed throughout the camp that whoever was bitten should come to the king’s tent.

15.12. These same men were healers also of the other diseases and ailments. But not many ailments occur among the Indians, because the seasons there are temperate; and if anything more serious overtook them, they consulted the wise men, and these, not without a god, seemed to heal whatever could be healed.16.1. The Indians use linen clothing, as Nearchus says, of flax from the trees, of which I have already spoken. And this flax is either brighter in colour than any other flax, or it appears brighter because the men themselves are dark.

16.2. They have a linen tunic reaching to the middle of the shin, and a cloth, part thrown about the shoulders, part wound about the head.

16.3. The Indians who are very prosperous wear earrings of ivory; for not all Indians wear them.

16.4. Nearchus says that the Indians dye their beards now one colour, now another: some, that they may appear as white as can be; others dark blue; some red, some even purple, and others of a green hue.

16.5. Such of the Indians as are not careless of their appearance carry parasols against the summer. They wear shoes of white leather, these too elaborately worked; and the soles of their shoes are of various colours and built up high, to make them appear taller.

16.6. The armament of the Indians is not all of one kind, but their foot-soldiers carry a bow as long as the man who carries it; and setting this down upon the ground and bracing it with the left foot, they shoot, drawing the string far back—

16.7. for their arrow is little short of three cubits, and nothing withstands what is shot by an Indian bowman, neither shield nor breastplate nor anything stronger.

16.8. On their left arms they have small shields of raw oxhide, narrower than those who carry them, but in length not much shorter. Some have javelins instead of bows.

16.9. All carry a broad sword, in length not more than three cubits; and this, when they come to close combat—which the Indians do not easily fall into against one another—they bring down with both hands, so that the blow may be strong.

16.10. Their horsemen have two javelins, like the javelins called saunia, and a smaller shield than the foot-soldiers. Their horses are not saddled, nor bridled with bits like the Greek or Celtic ones,

16.11. but around the end of the mouth they have a band of raw oxhide stitched on and fastened round, and in it bronze or iron spikes, not very sharp, turned inward; the rich have spikes of ivory. In the mouth the horses have a piece of iron, like a spit, from which the reins are hung;

16.12. so when they draw the rein, the spit controls the horse, and the spikes, hung as they are from it, prick it and allow it to do nothing but obey the rein.17.1. In body the Indians are lean and tall, and much lighter than other men. For carriage most of the Indians have camels and horses and asses, and the prosperous have elephants.

17.2. For the elephant is a royal carriage among the Indians; second in honour is the four-horse chariot, and third the camel. To ride upon a single horse is held of no account.

17.3. Their women, such as are very chaste, would not go astray for any other fee; but a woman who is given an elephant lies with the giver; and the Indians do not hold it shameful to lie with a man for an elephant, but it seems even an honour to the women that their beauty should be reckoned worth an elephant.

17.4. They marry neither giving nor taking anything; but such girls as are already ripe for marriage their fathers bring forward into public view, for the one who has won the wrestling or boxing or running, or been judged best in some other manly contest, to choose among them.

17.5. The Indians are eaters of grain and tillers of the soil, all save those of them who dwell in the mountains; these eat the flesh of wild beasts.

17.6. Let it suffice to have set forth these things about the Indians, the most notable that Nearchus and Megasthenes, two men of repute, have recorded.

17.7. And since it was not the purpose of this work to record the customs of the Indians, but rather how the fleet was carried round for Alexander from the Indians to Persia, let this be a digression in my account.18.1. For when the fleet had been made ready for Alexander on the banks of the Hydaspes, he chose out such as were Phoenicians and Cyprians and Egyptians who had followed him in the upland march, and from these he manned the ships, choosing for them as crews and rowers all who were skilled in the works of the sea.

18.2. There were also in the army not a few islanders who knew these things, and Ionians and men of the Hellespont.

18.3. As trierarchs were set over them, of the Macedonians: Hephaestion the son of Amyntor, and Leonnatus the son of Anteas, and Lysimachus the son of Agathocles, and Asclepiodorus the son of Timander, and Archon the son of Cleinias, and Demonicus the son of Athenaeus, and Archias the son of Anaxidotus, and Ophelas the son of Seilenus, and Timanthes the son of Pantiades. These were men of Pella. And from Amphipolis these led ships:

18.4. Nearchus the son of Androtimus, who wrote the account of the coasting voyage; and Laomedon the son of Larichus, and Androsthenes the son of Callistratus;

18.5. and from Orestis, Craterus the son of Alexander, and Perdiccas the son of Orontes; of the Eordaeans, Ptolemy the son of Lagus and Aristonous the son of Pisaeus; and from Pydna, Metron the son of Epicharmus and Nicarchides the son of Simus.

18.6. Besides these, Attalus the son of Andromenes, of Tymphaea, and Peucestas the son of Alexander, of Mieza, and Peithon the son of Crateuas, of Alcomenae, and Leonnatus the son of Antipater, of Aegae, and Pantauchus the son of Nicolaus, of Alorus, and Mylleas the son of Zoilus, of Beroea. These all were Macedonians.

18.7. Of the Greeks: Medius the son of Oxythemis, of Larissa; Eumenes the son of Hieronymus, of Cardia; Critobulus the son of Plato, of Cos; and Thoas the son of Menodorus, and Maeander the son of Mandrogenes, of Magnesia.

18.8. Andron the son of Cabeleus, of Teos; and of the Cyprians, Nicocles the son of Pasicrates, of Soli, and Nithaphon the son of Pnytagoras, of Salamis. And he had also a Persian as trierarch, Bagoas the son of Pharnuches.

18.9. The helmsman of Alexander’s own ship was Onesicritus of Astypalaea, and the secretary of the whole fleet was Euagoras the son of Eucleon, of Corinth.

18.10. As admiral over them was set Nearchus the son of Androtimus; by birth Nearchus was a Cretan, but he dwelt in Amphipolis on the Strymon.

18.11. When all this had been ordered by Alexander, he sacrificed to the gods, both those of his fathers and those whom the oracle prescribed to him, and to Poseidon and Amphitrite and the Nereids and to Ocean himself, and to the river Hydaspes, from which he was setting out, and to the Acesines, into which the Hydaspes discharges, and to the Indus, into which both discharge;

18.12. and contests of music and of athletics were held for him, and victims for sacrifice were given out to the whole army by companies.19.1. When all had been made ready by him for the departure, he ordered Craterus to advance along one side of the Hydaspes with an army of foot and horse; and on the other side Hephaestion went forward for him, with another army still larger than that drawn up under Craterus. And Hephaestion led the elephants for him, about two hundred in number.

19.2. He himself led with him those called the shield-bearers, and all the archers, and of the horsemen those called the Companions, in all about eight thousand.

19.3. The forces under Craterus and Hephaestion had been ordered to go forward and wait for the fleet.

19.4. And Philip, who was his satrap of this country, he sent to the banks of the river Acesines, with a large army too.

19.5. For by now even a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men followed him, counting those whom he himself had brought up from the sea, and those whom the men sent to gather an army had come bringing—leading with him peoples of every kind of barbarian, and armed in every fashion.

19.6. He himself, setting out with the ships, sailed down the Hydaspes as far as the junction of the Acesines and the Hydaspes.

19.7. The ships were in all eight hundred, both the warships and all the round merchant vessels, and others for carrying horses, and others bringing provisions for the army.

19.8. Now how the fleet sailed down the rivers for him, and what peoples he subdued on the coasting voyage, and how he himself came into danger among the Malli, and the wound he was wounded among the Malli, and how Peucestas and Leonnatus shielded him when he fell—all this I have already told in my other work, the one written in the Attic dialect.

19.9. But this present account is my narrative of the coasting voyage which Nearchus made with the fleet, setting out from the mouths of the Indus and going along the great sea as far as the Persian Gulf, which some call the Red Sea.20.1. By Nearchus this account is given of these matters: that Alexander had a longing to sail round the sea from the Indians as far as Persia,

20.2. but shrank from it both because of the length of the voyage and lest, falling in with some desert country or one without anchorage or ill-supplied for the seasons, his fleet should be destroyed, and this no slight stain coming upon his great deeds should blot out all his good fortune; yet his desire to do always something new and strange prevailed over him.

20.3. But he was at a loss whom he might choose for the enterprise as not unequal to it, and at the same time how he might rid the men in the ships, being sent on such an expedition, of the fear that they were being sent out carelessly into manifest danger.

20.4. Nearchus says that Alexander took counsel with him as to whom he might appoint to lead the fleet; and as one and another came to his mind, he rejected some as unwilling to risk themselves for him, others as soft in spirit, others as held fast by longing for home, and against each

20.5. he had some objection or other. Then Nearchus himself stood forth and said: “My king, I undertake to lead the fleet; and if the divine power lends its aid, I will bring you the ships and the men safe to Persia, if indeed this sea is navigable and the work not beyond human judgement.”

20.6. Alexander said in words that he was unwilling to cast any of his own friends into so great a hardship and so great a danger; but Nearchus all the more for this would not give way, but persisted.

20.7. So Alexander was pleased at Nearchus’ eagerness, and appointed him to command the whole fleet.

20.8. And then still more was that part of the army which was assigned to this coasting voyage, and the crews, of cheerful mind, since they thought that Alexander would never have given up Nearchus to manifest danger, had they not been destined to come through safe.

20.9. The great splendour, too, that was in the equipment and the array of the ships, and the conspicuous zeal of the trierarchs about the crews and complements, roused even those who were altogether faint-hearted to eagerness and to better hopes for the whole enterprise.

20.10. It contributed much, too, to the army’s good cheer that Alexander himself had set out down both mouths of the Indus and sailed out into the open sea, and had cut victims to Poseidon and all the other sea-gods, and bestowed magnificent gifts upon the sea.

20.11. And, trusting in Alexander’s otherwise marvellous good fortune, they held that there was nothing he might not dare and bring to pass.21.1. When the Etesian winds had died down—which throughout the whole summer season blow from the open sea toward the land, and make the voyage there impossible—then they set out, in the archonship of Cephisodorus at Athens, on the twentieth of the month Boedromion, as the Athenians reckon; but as the Macedonians and the men of Asia reckoned, in the eleventh year of Alexander’s reign.

21.2. And Nearchus too sacrificed, before the departure, to Zeus the Saviour, and he too held a contest of athletics. Setting out from the naval station on the first day, they anchored along the river Indus by a great canal, and remained there two days; the place was named Stura, a hundred stades from the naval station.

21.3. On the third day, setting out, they sailed to another canal, thirty stades distant, this one already salt; for the sea ran up into it, chiefly at the flood tides, though even at the ebbs the water remained mixed with the river. The place was named Caumara.

21.4. From there, sailing down twenty stades, they anchored at Coreestis, still upon the river. From there, setting out, they sailed not far;

21.5. for a reef appeared to them at the mouth of the Indus there, and the waves roared against the shore, and this shore was rough.

21.6. But where the reef was soft, there they made a channel of five stades, and brought the ships through, when the flood came in from the sea.

21.7. Sailing round a hundred and fifty stades, they anchored at the sandy island of Crocala, and remained there the rest of the day.

21.8. Near it dwells an Indian people, those called the Arabies, of whom I have made mention in my larger work, and that they are named after the river Arabis, which, flowing through their land, discharges into the sea, dividing the country of these people from that of the Oritae.

21.9. From Crocala, having on the right the mountain called Eirus, and on the left a low-lying island, they sailed on; and the island, stretched along the shore, makes a narrow gulf.

21.10. Sailing through this, they anchored in a harbour with good anchorage. And because the harbour seemed to Nearchus great and fair, he named it Alexander’s Harbour.

21.11. There is an island at the mouth of the harbour, about two stades distant; the island was named Bibacta, and the whole place was called Sangada. The island, lying off before the open sea, itself made the harbour.

21.12. There great winds blew from the sea, and continuously; and Nearchus, fearing lest some of the barbarians band together and turn to plundering the camp, fortified the place with a wall of stone.

21.13. The stay there lasted twenty-four days. And he says that the soldiers hunted sea-mussels, and oysters too, and the so-called razor-fish, strange in their size, compared with those in this sea of ours; and that the water they drank was salt.22.1. As soon as the wind ceased they put out. And crossing about sixty stades they anchored by a sandy beach; an uninhabited island lay off the beach. Making this island a screen, they anchored;

22.2. the island was named Domae. There was no water on the beach, but going forward into the interior about twenty stades they found good water.

22.3. On the next day they made the voyage by night to Saranga, three hundred stades, and anchored by a beach; and there was water about eight stades from the beach.

22.4. Setting out from there they anchored at Sacala, a desert place. And sailing through between two rocks so close to one another that the oar-blades of the ships touched the rocks on either side, they came to anchor at Morontobara, having gone about three hundred stades.

22.5. The harbour was great and well-rounded and deep and sheltered, but the entrance into it was narrow. This in the native tongue they called the Women’s Harbour, because a woman was the first ruler of this place.

22.6. As they sailed out through the rocks, they fell in with great waves and a surging sea; but to sail round outside the rocks seemed a great task.

22.7. On the next day they sailed with an island on their left, before the open sea, so close to the shore that one would suppose the space between the shore and the island to be a channel; the whole passage through was seventy stades. And on the shore were many thick trees, and the island was shaded with woodland of every kind.

22.8. Toward dawn they sailed out beyond the island along a narrow surf-line, for the ebb still held; and having sailed a hundred and twenty stades, they anchored at the mouth of the river Arabis. And there was a great and fair harbour by the mouth; but the water was not drinkable, for the outlets of the Arabis were mingled with the sea.

22.9. But going forty stades up the stream, they found a pool, and watering from there they returned. There is an island by the harbour, high and uninhabited, and around it is a hunting of oysters and fishes of every kind. As far as this point the Arabies, the last of the Indians settled in these parts; from here on the Oritae held the country.23.1. Setting out from the mouths of the Arabis, they sailed along the country of the Oritae. And they anchored at Pagala, having sailed about two hundred stades, by a surf-line. But the place was exposed for anchors. So the crews rode at anchor in the ships, while others went out for water and watered.

23.2. On the next day, putting out at daybreak and sailing about four hundred stades, they came toward evening to Cabana, and anchored by a desert shore. There the surf was rough, and so they moored the ships out at sea.

23.3. During this voyage a great wind caught the ships from the sea, and two warships were lost in the passage, and a light boat; but the men saved themselves by swimming, since the voyage was made not far from the land.

23.4. About midnight, putting out, they sailed as far as Cocala, which was two hundred stades distant from the shore whence they had set out. The ships rode at anchor; but Nearchus landed the crews and bivouacked them by the land, since, having toiled long upon the sea, they longed to rest. And he threw a camp around them, for guard against the barbarians.

23.5. In this place Leonnatus, to whom the affairs of the Oritae had been entrusted by Alexander, won a great battle against the Oritae and those who joined them in the work. He killed of them six thousand, and all their leaders; of those with Leonnatus there died fifteen horsemen, and of the foot, besides not many others, Apollophanes the satrap of the Gadrosians.

23.6. These things have been recorded in my other work, and how Leonnatus was for this crowned by Alexander with a golden crown.

23.7. There grain had been heaped up by command of Alexander for the provisioning of the army, and they took aboard the ships provisions for ten days.

23.8. And such of the ships as had been damaged in the voyage up to this point they repaired; and such of the sailors as seemed to Nearchus to have shirked in the work he gave to Leonnatus to lead by land, while he himself filled up his crews from the soldiers under Leonnatus.24.1. Setting out from there they sailed with a fair wind, and having gone five hundred stades they anchored by a winter torrent; the river was named Tomerus.

24.2. There was a lagoon at the mouth of the river, and the low ground by the shore was inhabited by men in stifling huts. These, when they saw the ships sailing up, were amazed, and stretching themselves along the shore drew up to fight against those landing.

24.3. They carried thick lances, in size about six cubits; the point was not of iron, but the sharpened end, hardened in fire, served the same purpose. They were in number about six hundred.

24.4. When Nearchus saw these standing their ground and drawn up, he ordered the ships to lie to within bowshot, so that the arrows from them might reach the land; for the barbarians’ lances, terrible at close quarters, were harmless against missiles.

24.5. He himself ordered such of the soldiers as were lightest and lightest-armed and most skilled at swimming to swim ashore at a signal.

24.6. Their orders were that, as each man landed and stood in the water, he should wait for the man who would be his neighbour, and not charge upon the barbarians before the phalanx was drawn up three deep; then they were to advance at a run, raising the war-cry.

24.7. At once those appointed for this flung themselves from the ships into the sea, and swam swiftly, and stood in order, and forming a phalanx of themselves advanced at a run, raising the war-cry to Enyalius, while those on the ships shouted with them, and arrows and missiles from the engines were carried against the barbarians.

24.8. And they, struck with terror at the gleam of the arms and the swiftness of the onset, and pelted with arrows and the other missiles, being half-naked men, did not turn even a little to defence, but gave way. Some were killed there in flight, others were taken; and some escaped to the mountains.

24.9. Those taken were shaggy both in other respects and on their heads, and beast-like in their nails; for with their nails they were said to make use of them as of iron, and with these to split open their fishes and to work the softer kinds of wood. Other things they cut with sharp stones, for iron they had none. For clothing they wore the skins of wild beasts, and some the thick hides of the great fishes.25.1. There they hauled up the ships and repaired such of them as were damaged. On the sixth day they set out, and having sailed about three hundred stades they came to a place which was the last of the land of the Oritae; the place was named Malana.

25.2. The Oritae who dwell inland from the sea are dressed like the Indians, and equip themselves for war in the same way; but their language is different, and so are their customs.

25.3. The length of the coasting voyage along the country of the Arabies was about a thousand stades from where they set out, and along the land of the Oritae sixteen hundred.

25.4. As they coasted along the land of the Indians—for from here on the people are no longer Indians—Nearchus says that their shadows did not behave the same way.

25.5. But whenever they had advanced far over the sea toward the south, the shadows too appeared turned toward the south; and whenever the sun was at the middle of the day, then everything was seen by them to be empty of shadow.

25.6. And of the stars which before they had observed high in the sky, some were altogether invisible, and others appeared close by the very earth, setting and at once rising again, those that had formerly been ever-visible.

25.7. And these things Nearchus seems to me to have recorded not improbably; for at Syene in Egypt too, when the sun is at the summer turning, there is an appointed well, and this appears shadowless at midday; and at Meroe everything is shadowless at the same season.

25.8. It is likely, then, that among the Indians too, settled as they are toward the south, the same things should occur, and most of all by the Indian sea, the more it inclines toward the south. So let this matter stand thus.26.1. Beyond the Oritae, in the interior, the Gadrosians held the land, through whose country Alexander passed with difficulty along with his army, and suffered there such hardships as not all the rest of the whole expedition together. These things I have recorded in my larger work. Below the Gadrosians,

26.2. by the sea itself, dwell those called the Fish-eaters; along whose land they sailed. On the first day, putting out about the second watch, they put in to Bagisara; the length of the voyage was six hundred stades.

26.3. There is there a harbour with good anchorage, and a village, Pasira, sixty stades distant from the sea, and its neighbours are the Pasireans.

26.4. On the next day, putting out earlier than the hour, they sailed round a headland that jutted far into the sea, this too high and steep.

26.5. Digging wells and drawing up a little bad water, they rode that day at anchor, since surf ran high upon the shore;

26.6. and on the next day they put in to Colta, having gone two hundred stades. From there, sailing at dawn six hundred stades, they anchored at Calama, a village by the shore. A few date-palms grew around it, and green dates were on them. And there was an island about a hundred stades from the shore, named Carnine.

26.7. There the villagers brought to Nearchus, as gifts of friendship, sheep and fishes; and he says that the flesh of the sheep was fishy, like that of the sea-birds, since these too feed on fish; for there is no grass in the country.

26.8. On the next day, sailing two hundred stades, they anchored by a shore and a village thirty stades distant from the sea; the village was called Cissa, and the shore was named Carbis.

26.9. There they fell in with small boats, such as the boats of fishermen who are not prosperous; but the men themselves they did not catch, for they fled when they saw the ships coming to anchor. There was no grain there, and the army’s store had for the most part failed; but taking some goats aboard the ships, they then sailed away. And sailing round a high headland, about a hundred and fifty stades reaching out into the sea, they put in to a sheltered harbour. And there was water there, and fishermen dwelt there; the harbour was named Mosarna.27.1. From there a pilot of the voyage, Nearchus says, sailed with them, named Hydraces, a Gadrosian; and Hydraces undertook to bring them as far as Carmania. And from here on the voyage was no longer difficult, but rather had good anchorages, as far as the Persian Gulf.

27.2. From Mosarna, putting out by night, they sailed seven hundred and fifty stades to the shore Balomus; from there to Barna, a village, four hundred stades, where there were many date-palms and a garden, and in the garden grew myrtles and other flowers, from which the villagers wove garlands. There first they saw cultivated trees, and men dwelling there not altogether savage.

27.3. From there, sailing round about two hundred stades, they put in to Dendrobosa, and the ships rode at anchor.

27.4. From there, about midnight putting out, they came to the harbour Cophas, having sailed about four hundred stades.

27.5. There fishermen dwelt, and they had small and wretched boats; and they rowed with their oars not at the tholepin, as is the Greek custom, but throwing up the water from this side and that, like men digging the earth. And there was much water in the harbour, and clean.

27.6. About the first watch, putting out, they put in to Cyiza, having sailed about eight hundred stades, where the shore was desert and there was surf. There then they rode at anchor, and took their meal aboard the ships.

27.7. From there, having sailed five hundred stades, they came to a small city settled on a hill not far from the shore.

27.8. And Nearchus, judging that the country was likely to be sown, said to Archias—who sailed with Nearchus, being one of the Macedonians of note—he said to him that they ought to seize the place;

27.9. for he did not think the people would willingly give grain to the army, and to take it by force was not possible without a siege and delay, and their provisions had failed them. That the land was grain-bearing, he inferred from the stubble, which they saw thick not far from the shore. When this seemed good to them, he ordered the other ships to make ready as if for the voyage, and Archias prepared for him what was needed for sailing; while he himself stayed behind with a single ship, going, as if to view the city.28.1. As he approached the walls, they brought him in friendship, as gifts of hospitality from the city, tunny baked in ovens—for these were the last of the Fish-eaters, and the first who appeared to them not eating their food raw—and a few cakes and dates of the palm.

28.2. He said he gladly received these, but wished to view the city; and they let him pass in.

28.3. When he had passed within the gates, he ordered two of the archers to hold the postern, while he himself with two others and the interpreter went up onto the wall there and signalled to the men with Archias as had been agreed. He was to signal, and Archias, taking the signal, was to do what had been ordered.

28.4. The Macedonians, seeing the signal, quickly ran the ships ashore and sprang in haste into the sea; and the barbarians, struck with terror at what was happening, ran to their arms.

28.5. The interpreter with Nearchus proclaimed that they should give grain to the army, if they wished to keep their city safe; and they said they had none, and at the same time fell upon the wall. But the archers about Nearchus held them off, shooting from above.

28.6. When they understood that their city was already taken and would presently be enslaved, then they besought Nearchus to take what grain they had and lead it away, but not to destroy the city.

28.7. Nearchus ordered Archias to seize the gates and the wall by them, while he himself sent men along with the people to see whether they showed the grain honestly.

28.8. They showed much meal ground from the baked fishes, but a little wheat and barley; for they happened to use the food from the fishes for their bread, and bread itself as a relish.

28.9. When they had shown what they had, then provisioning themselves from what was at hand, they put out, and anchored by a headland which the natives held sacred to the Sun; the name of the headland was Bageia.29.1. From there, about midnight putting out, they sailed through about a thousand stades to Talmena, a harbour with good anchorage. From there to Canasida, a deserted city, about four hundred stades, where they came upon a dug well, and wild date-palms grew. The cores of these they cut and ate; for grain had failed the army.

29.2. And being now in a bad way from hunger, they sailed both day and night, and anchored by a desert shore.

29.3. Nearchus, fearing lest, going out onto the land, they might desert the ships out of despair, kept the ships out at sea on their anchors.

29.4. From there, putting out, they anchored at Canate, having sailed about seven hundred and fifty stades. And there is a shore there, and shallow channels.

29.5. From there, having sailed eight hundred stades, they anchored at Troea; small and wretched villages were there. And the men abandoned their houses, but they found a little grain, and dates from the palms. And seven camels which were caught they cut up, and on these they fed.

29.6. Toward dawn, putting out, they sailed three hundred stades, and came to anchor at Dagaseira; there some nomad people dwelt.

29.7. From there, setting out, both night and day without resting at all, they sailed; and having gone eleven hundred stades they passed beyond the people of the Fish-eaters, having suffered there many hardships from want of necessaries.

29.8. They anchored not by the land—for the surf reached far out—but out at sea on their anchors. The length of the coasting voyage along the country of the Fish-eaters was a little more than ten thousand stades.

29.9. These Fish-eaters feed, as their very name declares, on fish—a few of them catching the fish, for only a few have boats made for this and have devised a craft for the catching of fish, but for the most part the ebb of the sea provides for them.

29.10. Some have made nets for this purpose, in size as much as two stades, most of them. They plait them from the bark of date-palms, twisting the bark like flax.

29.11. When the sea ebbs, where the land is left dry, it is for the most part empty of fish; but where it is deep, some of the water is left, and in this there are very many fish; most of them small, but some larger. These they take, casting the nets about them.

29.12. They eat raw, as they draw them from the water, the tenderest of them; but the larger and harder they dry in the sun, and when these are dried they grind them to meal and make bread; and some bake barley-cakes from this meal.

29.13. And their cattle too feed on the dried fish; for the country is desert of meadows and bears no grass.

29.14. They hunt also in many places crayfish and oysters and shellfish. Salt forms of itself in the country . . . from these they make oil.

29.15. Some of them inhabit desert places, the country treeless and barren of cultivated fruits—and for these the whole sustenance is from the fish; but a few of them sow some part of the land, and use the grain as a relish to the fish; for their grain is fish.

29.16. As for houses, the most prosperous of them make them from the bones of the sea-monsters which the sea casts up, gathering these bones and using them in place of timber. The bones that are broad they make into doors; but for the many and poorer sort the houses are made from the spines of the fishes.30.1. Great sea-monsters feed in the outer sea, and fishes much larger than in this our inner sea.

30.2. And Nearchus says that, when they were coasting from Cyiza, toward dawn they saw water of the sea borne aloft as if by force from whirlwinds,

30.3. and that, struck with terror, they asked the pilots of the voyage what it was and from what cause this thing came; and they answered that sea-monsters, moving through the sea, blow the water up into the air. And the sailors, struck with terror, let the oars fall from their hands;

30.4. but he himself went among them and exhorted and encouraged them; and to those past whom he sailed in his passage he gave order to set the ships front-on, as for a sea-battle, and, raising the war-cry together with the loud shrill note, to ply the oars thickly and with much din. So, taking courage again, they sailed together at the signal.

30.5. And when they were now near the beasts, then they raised the war-cry as loud as their throats could bear, and the trumpets sounded, and the din from the rowing was kept up as long as possible.

30.6. So the sea-monsters, now seen close by the prows of the ships, dived to the bottom in terror; and not long after, rising up by the sterns,

30.7. they came up and blew the sea aloft to a great height. Whereupon there was applause from the sailors at the unlooked-for deliverance, and praise of Nearchus for his daring and his wisdom.

30.8. Some of these sea-monsters run aground in many parts of the country, when the ebb comes on, caught in the shallows; and others are driven onto the dry land by hard storms, and so, rotting away, perish, and their flesh streaming off them leaves the bones for the men to use for their houses.

30.9. So the bones in their ribs serve as beams for their dwellings, the large ones; and the smaller as rafters; and those in their jaws as doorways, of beasts many of which reach even to twenty-five fathoms in size.31.1. While they were coasting along the country of the Fish-eaters, they heard a tale about a certain island, which lies about a hundred stades distant from the mainland here, and is empty of inhabitants.

31.2. The natives said it was sacred to the Sun and was called Nosala, and that no man was willing to put in at it; and whoever in ignorance put in became invisible.

31.3. But Nearchus says that one of their light boats, with a crew of Egyptians, became invisible not far from this island, and that the pilots of the voyage maintained about it that they must have put in, in ignorance, at the island and so become invisible.

31.4. Nearchus sent a thirty-oared ship round the island, ordering it not to put in, but to shout to the men while sailing as close as possible, calling on the helmsman by name, and on whoever else’s name was not unknown.

31.5. And when no one answered, then he says he himself sailed to the island, and forced the unwilling sailors to put in, and went ashore himself, and proved the tale about the island to be an empty fable.

31.6. He heard also another tale told: that one of the Nereids had dwelt on this island; but the name of the Nereid was not given. Whoever drew near her she would lie with, but, making him a fish from a man, would throw him into the sea.

31.7. And the Sun, vexed with the Nereid, bade her remove from the island; and she agreed that she would be removed, but begged that her affliction might be ended, and the Sun granted it;

31.8. and those men whom she had made fishes from men, taking pity on them, he made men again from fishes, and from these the race of the Fish-eaters descended down to the time of Alexander.

31.9. And that Nearchus proves these things false I for my part do not praise him for his leisure and his cleverness, since they were not at all hard to prove false; and I know it to be a wearisome thing to set down the old tales and prove them false.32.1. Above the Fish-eaters, inland, the Gadrosians dwell, in a land poor and sandy, where the army of Alexander suffered the many hardships, and Alexander himself, as I have already related in my other account.

32.2. When the fleet came down from the Fish-eaters into Carmania, there, where they first anchored in Carmania, they rode at anchor out at sea, because surf stretched rough out into the open.

32.3. From there they no longer sailed in the same way toward the setting sun, but the prows held rather toward the space between the sunset and the north.

32.4. And Carmania is better wooded and more fruitful than the land of the Fish-eaters and of the Oritae, and more grassy and better watered.

32.5. They anchored at Badis, an inhabited place of Carmania, having many cultivated trees except the olive, and good vines, and bearing grain.

32.6. Setting out from there and sailing through eight hundred stades, they anchored by a desert shore, and observed a long headland reaching far out into the open sea; the headland appeared about a day’s sail distant.

32.7. And those acquainted with those places said that this jutting headland belonged to Arabia, and was called Maceta; and that from there cinnamon and other such wares were carried to the Assyrians.

32.8. And from the shore here, where the fleet rode at anchor, and from the headland which they saw over against them reaching into the open sea, the gulf—as it seems to me, and seemed likewise to Nearchus—pours inward, which is likely the Red Sea.

32.9. When they sighted this headland, Onesicritus bade them hold for it in their course, so as not to be worn out by labouring along the gulf.

32.10. But Nearchus answered that Onesicritus was a fool, if he did not know for what purpose the fleet had been sent out by Alexander.

32.11. For it was not because there was no way to bring the whole army safe through by land that he had sent out the ships, but because he wished both the shores along the coasting voyage to be examined, and the anchorages and the little islands, and whatever gulf ran in, to sail round it, and the cities by the sea, and whether any land was fruitful and any desert.

32.12. They must not, then, bring his work to nothing, being now near the end of their toils, especially as they were no longer in want of necessaries on the voyage. And he feared, since the headland reached toward the south, lest they should fall in with a country there desert and waterless and burning hot.

32.13. This view prevailed, and Nearchus seems to me by this counsel manifestly to have saved the army; for the report holds that the headland and all the country about it are desert and beset by want of water.33.1. So setting out from the shore they sailed close to the land, and having sailed about seven hundred stades they anchored at another shore; the shore was named Neoptana.

33.2. And again toward dawn they put out, and having sailed a hundred stades they anchored at the river Anamis; the place was called Harmozeia. The land here was already abundant and bearing all things, except that olives did not grow.

33.3. There they disembarked from the ships and gladly rested from their many toils, remembering all the hardships they had suffered upon the sea and by the land of the Fish-eaters—the desolation of the country, and how the men were like beasts, and reckoning up their own distresses.

33.4. And some of them went up from the sea inland, scattering from the army in search, one of one thing, another of another.

33.5. There a man appeared to them wearing a Greek cloak and otherwise dressed like a Greek, and he spoke in the Greek tongue. Those who first saw him, they say, wept; so strange did it seem to them, after such hardships, to see a Greek man and hear a Greek voice.

33.6. They asked whence he came and who he was; and he said that he had strayed from the camp of Alexander, and that the camp and Alexander himself were not far off.

33.7. Shouting and clapping their hands, they brought this man to Nearchus; and he told Nearchus everything, and that the camp and the king were five days’ journey distant from the sea.

33.8. And he said he would show the governor of this country to Nearchus, and he did so; and with him Nearchus took counsel how he might go up to the king.

33.9. For the time he returned to the ships; and toward dawn he hauled up the ships, both for repair of such of them as had been damaged in the voyage, and at the same time because it seemed best to him to leave the greater part of the army behind in this place. So he threw a double palisade around the naval station, and an earthen wall and a deep trench, beginning from the bank of the river as far as the shore where the ships were hauled up.34.1. While Nearchus was ordering these things, the governor of the country, learning how great anxiety Alexander had about this fleet, judged that he would receive some great benefit from Alexander, if he were the first to announce to him the safety of the army, and that Nearchus would come not long after into the king’s presence.

34.2. So, riding the shortest way, he announced to Alexander that this Nearchus was coming up from the ships. Then, though disbelieving the report, Alexander nevertheless rejoiced, as was natural, at the news;

34.3. but as day after day passed, and reckoning up the time of the announcement it no longer seemed to him

34.4. that what had been reported was credible, and as men were sent one after another to fetch Nearchus—some, going a little way along the road and meeting no one, came back empty; others, going farther and missing the company of Nearchus, did not

34.5. themselves return either—then Alexander ordered that man to be arrested, as having brought an empty report and made his affairs the more grievous by an idle joy; and he himself, in look and in mind, was plainly stricken with great grief.

34.6. Meanwhile some of those sent in search of Nearchus, bringing horses and carriages for his conveyance, met on the road Nearchus himself and Archias, and five or six others with them.

34.7. And meeting them they recognized neither him nor Archias—so altogether changed did they appear, with long hair and filthy and full of brine and shrivelled in body and pale from sleeplessness

34.8. and the rest of their hardship; but when they asked them where Alexander was, they told them the place, and rode on past.

34.9. But Archias, taking thought, said to Nearchus: “Nearchus, these men driving through the wilderness by the same road as ourselves are sent, I judge, for no other purpose than in search of us.

34.10. That they do not know us is no wonder; for we are in so bad a state as to be unrecognizable. Let us tell them who we are, and ask them why they ride this way.”

34.11. It seemed to Nearchus that he spoke fittingly; and they asked them where they were riding, and they answered that it was in search of Nearchus and the naval army.

34.12. And he said: “I am that Nearchus, and this is Archias. But lead us; we ourselves will report to Alexander the matters concerning the army.”35.1. Taking them up into the carriages, they drove back. And some of these men, wishing to forestall the news, ran ahead and said to Alexander: “Here is Nearchus, and with him Archias and five others are being brought to you,” but about the whole army they had nothing to answer.

35.2. From this Alexander concluded that these few had been preserved beyond hope, but that his whole army had perished; and he did not so much rejoice at the safety of Nearchus and Archias as he grieved that his whole army had been lost.

35.3. Not all had yet been said when Nearchus and Archias drew near. Alexander recognized them with difficulty and trouble; and seeing them long-haired and ill-clad, his grief for the naval army became all the more certain to him.

35.4. But giving his right hand to Nearchus and drawing him aside alone from the Companions and the shield-bearers, he wept for a long time;

35.5. and at last, recovering himself, he said: “That you at least have come back to us safe, and Archias here, this for me is some measure of comfort in the whole misfortune; but the ships and the army—in what way were they destroyed?”

35.6. And he, taking up the word, said: “My king, your ships too are safe, and your army; and we are come ourselves the messengers of their safety.”

35.7. Still more did Alexander weep, because the safety of the army seemed to him beyond hope; and he asked where the ships rode at anchor. And he said: “They are hauled up at the mouth of the river Anamis and are being repaired.”

35.8. And Alexander swore by Zeus of the Greeks and Ammon of the Libyans that he rejoiced more at this news than because he held all Asia in his possession. For the grief that was on him at the loss of the army had been a counterweight to all the rest of his good fortune.36.1. The governor of the country, whom Alexander had arrested for the falseness of his report, seeing Nearchus present, fell at his knees,

36.2. and said: “Here am I, who announced to Alexander that you had come safe; you see how I am placed.” So Nearchus begged Alexander to let the man go, and he was let go.

36.3. Alexander offered sacrifices for the safety of the army to Zeus the Saviour and to Heracles and to Apollo the Averter of Evil and to Poseidon and to all the other gods of the sea, and held a contest of athletics and music, and sent a procession; and Nearchus marched among the first in the procession, pelted with ribbons and flowers by the army.

36.4. When this was at an end, Alexander said to Nearchus: “Nearchus, I no longer wish that you should henceforth either run risk or endure hardship, but another shall lead the fleet from here on, until he brings it to Susa.”

36.5. But Nearchus, taking up the word, said: “My king, I am willing to obey you in all things, and it is my duty; but if you wish also to do me a favour, do not do this, but let me lead the army to the very end, until I bring your ships safe to Susa.

36.6. Let it not be that the hard and difficult tasks were entrusted to me by you, while the easy ones, that already hold a ready glory, should be taken from me and given into another’s hands.”

36.7. Alexander stopped him while he was still speaking, and confessed himself grateful to him. So he sent him down, giving him a small force as escort, since he went through friendly country.

36.8. But even the journey to the sea was not without toil for him; for the barbarians round about had banded together and held the strong places of the country of Carmania, since their satrap had been put to death by command of Alexander, and Tlepolemus, lately appointed, did not yet hold his power securely.

36.9. So twice and three times in the same day, as one band of barbarians after another appeared, they came to blows; and so, without resting at all, they made their way with difficulty and trouble safe to the sea. There Nearchus sacrificed to Zeus the Saviour and held a contest of athletics.37.1. When the rites had been performed by him in due order, then they put out. Coasting past a desert and rugged island, they anchored at another island, this large and inhabited, having sailed three hundred stades from where they set out.

37.2. The desert island was called Organa, and the one at which they anchored Oaracta. Vines grew in it, and date-palms, and it bore grain; the length of the island was eight hundred stades. And the governor of the island, Mazenes, sailed with them as far as Susa, a willing guide of the voyage.

37.3. In this island they said that the tomb of the first ruler of this country was shown; his name was Erythres, from whom this sea too has its name.

37.4. Setting out from there they sailed on; and having coasted along the island about two hundred stades, they anchored at it again, and observed another island, distant from this great one about forty stades. It was said to be sacred to Poseidon, and not to be set foot upon.

37.5. Toward dawn they put out, and an ebb so strong caught them that three of the ships ran aground and were held on the dry land, while the others with difficulty got through the surf and came safe into the deeps.

37.6. The ships that had run aground, when the flood came on, floated off again, and on the next day came in to where the whole fleet lay.

37.7. They anchored at another island, distant from the mainland about three hundred stades, having sailed four hundred.

37.8. From there toward dawn they sailed, passing a desert island on their left; the name of the island was Pylora. And they anchored at Sisidone, a small town and destitute of all things save water and fish; for these too were Fish-eaters by necessity, since they hold a poor land.

37.9. From there, having watered, they put in to Tarsias, a headland reaching out into the open sea, having sailed three hundred stades. From there to Cataea, a desert island, low-lying;

37.10. this was said to be sacred to Hermes and Aphrodite; the length of the voyage was three hundred stades.

37.11. To this island each year sheep and goats are sent by the people round about, sacred to Hermes and Aphrodite, and these were to be seen run wild through time and desolation.38.1. As far as this point is Carmania; the parts from here on the Persians hold. The length of the voyage along the country of the Carmanians is three thousand seven hundred stades. They live like the Persians, since they border on the Persians; and they array themselves for war in the same way.

38.2. Setting out from there they sailed now along Persia, and put in to a place called Ila, where there is a harbour by a small and desert island; the name of the island is Caïcandrus, and the voyage three hundred stades.

38.3. Toward dawn, sailing to another island, they anchored, and it was inhabited; there too, Nearchus says, pearls are fished, as in the Indian sea. Coasting along the headland of this island about forty stades, there they anchored.

38.4. From there they anchored by a high mountain—Ochus was the name of the mountain—in a harbour with good anchorage, and fishermen dwelt there.

38.5. And from there, having sailed four hundred and fifty stades, they anchored at Apostana; and many boats lay there at anchor, and there was a village distant sixty stades from the sea.

38.6. Putting out from there by night, they sailed into a gulf settled with many villages. The length of the voyage was four hundred stades; and they anchored by the foot of a mountain. There many date-palms grew, and all such other fruit-trees as grow in Greece.

38.7. Setting out from there they coasted to Gogana, about six hundred stades, to an inhabited country; and they anchored at the mouths of a winter torrent—its name was Areon. There they anchored with difficulty; for the entrance at the mouth was narrow, since the ebb made the parts around it shallow.

38.8. And from there again they anchored at the mouth of another river, having sailed through about eight hundred stades; the name of the river was Sitacus. But neither here did they anchor easily, and this whole voyage along Persia was through shallows and surf and shoals.

38.9. There they found much grain gathered together by command of the king, that they might provision themselves; and there they stayed in all twenty-one days, and hauling up the ships, repaired such of them as had been damaged, and tended the rest.39.1. Setting out from there they came to the city Hieratis, an inhabited place. The voyage was seven hundred and fifty stades; and they anchored in a canal led from the river into the sea, whose name was Heratemis.

39.2. At sunrise they coasted to a winter torrent, named Padargus, and the whole place was a peninsula. And in it were many gardens and fruit-trees of every kind; the name of the place was Mesambria.

39.3. Setting out from Mesambria and sailing through about two hundred stades, they anchored at Taoce, on the river Granis. And from this up the river were the royal palaces of the Persians, distant from the mouths of the river about two hundred stades.

39.4. During this coasting voyage Nearchus says that a sea-monster was seen cast up upon the shore, and that some of the sailors, sailing up to it, measured it and said it was fifty cubits.

39.5. Its skin was scaly, so deep that it stood out even a cubit; and it had oysters and limpets and much seaweed growing upon it. And he says that many dolphins were to be seen about the monster, and the dolphins larger than those in the inner sea.

39.6. Setting out from there they put in to the Rhogonis, a winter torrent, in a harbour with good anchorage; the length of the coasting voyage was two hundred stades.

39.7. From there, having sailed through four hundred stades, they bivouacked by a winter torrent; Brizana was the name of the river. There they anchored with difficulty, because there was surf and shallows, and rocks rose out of the sea. But when the flood came on, then they anchored;

39.8. and when the water ebbed, the ships were left on the dry. But when the flood, returning in its turn, came up again, then, putting out, they anchored at a river;

39.9. the name of the river was Oroatis. The greatest of the rivers, as Nearchus says, of all that on this coasting voyage discharge into the outer sea.40.1. As far as this point the Persians dwell; the parts from here on the Susians hold. And above the Susians another independent people dwells alongside them; they are called the Uxians, of whom I have said in my other work that they are robbers. The length of the coasting voyage along the country of Persia is four thousand four hundred stades.

40.2. The land of Persia is said to be divided into three by its climates. The part of it settled by the Red Sea is sandy and barren by reason

40.3. of the heat; but the parts from there going toward the north and the north wind are well-tempered in their climate, and the country is grassy, with watered meadows, and bears much vine and all other fruits, except the olive;

40.4. and it blooms with parks of every kind, and is watered by clear rivers and lakes, and is good for all the birds whose haunts are about rivers and lakes, and good for horses, and pastures the other beasts of burden, and is in many places wooded and full of game.

40.5. But the part still farther on, going toward the north, is wintry and snowy, so that Nearchus says certain envoys from the Euxine Sea, having travelled a very short road, met Alexander on the road as he went through Persia, to his astonishment, and told Alexander of the shortness of the way.

40.6. That the Uxians are neighbours to the Susians I have said, just as the Mardians dwell next to the Persians, robbers these too, and the Cossaeans next to the Medes.

40.7. And all these peoples Alexander tamed, falling upon them in the winter season, when they reckoned their country impassable.

40.8. And he founded cities, that they should be no longer nomads but tillers and workers of the soil, and should have something for which they might fear to do one another harm. From there the army passed along the land of the Susians.

40.9. And these things too Nearchus no longer reports with the same accuracy that he is able to describe, except indeed the anchorages and the length of the voyage;

40.10. for the country was for the most part full of shoals and reaching far out into the sea with surf, and so unsafe to anchor at. So their passage was for the most part out in the open sea.

40.11. They set out from the mouths of the river where they had bivouacked on the borders of Persia, and took aboard water for five days; for the pilots of the voyage said there was no water.41.1. Having been carried five hundred stades, they anchored at the mouth of a lake full of fish, whose name was Cataderbis; and there was a little island at the mouth, Margastana the name of the islet.

41.2. From there toward dawn, putting out, they were carried through the shallows in single file; on this side and that, stakes were fixed to mark out the shallows, just as in the channel between the island of Leucas and Acarnania signs are set up for sailors, that the ships may not run aground on the shoals.

41.3. But the shoals by Leucas, being sandy, allow those who run aground a quick refloating; but here on either side of the channel there is mud, deep and slimy, so that for those who ran aground there was no contrivance by which to be saved.

41.4. For the poles, sinking into the mud, were of no help to them, and for the men to get out and push the ships off into the channel was impossible; for they sank into the mud up to the breast.

41.5. So, having with difficulty got through about six hundred stades, each ship anchoring by itself, there they took thought of their meal.

41.6. By night now they sailed through the deeps, and the next day until the unyoking of the oxen at evening; and they came nine hundred stades, and came to anchor at the mouth of the Euphrates by a certain village of the land of Babylonia—its name was Diridotis—

41.7. where the merchants bring frankincense from the country round about, and all the other spices that the land of Arabia bears.

41.8. From the mouth of the Euphrates as far as Babylon Nearchus says there are about three thousand three hundred stades.42.1. There it was announced that Alexander was setting out for Susa. Whereupon they too sailed back, that, sailing up the river Pasitigris, they might join Alexander.

42.2. So they sailed the opposite way, keeping the land of Susiana on their left, and coasted past a lake, into which the river Tigris discharges,

42.3. which, flowing from Armenia past the city Ninus—once long ago great and prosperous—shuts off the land in the middle between itself and the river Euphrates, which is from this called Mesopotamia.

42.4. From the lake to the river itself is six hundred stades, where there is also a village of Susiana which they call Aginis; and this is distant from Susa about five hundred stades. The length of the coasting voyage along the land of the Susians as far as the mouth of the river Pasitigris is two thousand stades.

42.5. From there they sailed up the Pasitigris through a country inhabited and prosperous. And having sailed up about a hundred and fifty stades, they anchored, waiting for those whom Nearchus had sent to find out where the king was.

42.6. He himself sacrificed to the saving gods, and held a contest, and the whole naval army was in good cheer.

42.7. When it was announced that Alexander was now approaching, they sailed again up the river; and they anchored by the bridge of boats on which Alexander was about to bring his army across to Susa.

42.8. There the two armies were joined, and sacrifices were offered by Alexander for the safety of the ships and the men, and contests were held; and wherever Nearchus appeared among the army, he was pelted with flowers and ribbons.

42.9. There too Nearchus and Leonnatus were crowned with golden crowns by Alexander—Nearchus for the safety of the fleet, Leonnatus for the victory which he won over the Oritae and the barbarians who dwell beside the Oritae. So the army, setting out from the mouths of the Indus, came safe through to Alexander.43.1. The parts on the right of the Red Sea, beyond Babylonia, are the greater part of Arabia; and of this, part reaches down to the sea by Phoenicia and Palestine Syria, while toward the setting sun, as far as the inner sea, the Egyptians border on Arabia.

43.2. By Egypt a gulf running in from the great sea makes it plain that, in respect of the outer sea being all one water, there would be a way round by sea from Babylon into this gulf that runs in toward Egypt.

43.3. But in fact no man has ever sailed along here, by reason of the heat and the desolation, save some who were carried out in the open sea.

43.4. But those of the army of Cambyses who came safe from Egypt to Susa, and those sent by Ptolemy the son of Lagus to Seleucus Nicator at Babylon,

43.5. passing through a certain isthmus of the land of Arabia, traversed in eight days in all a waterless and desert country, driving hard upon camels and carrying water for themselves on the camels, and travelling by night; for by day they were unable to bear the open air on account of the heat.

43.6. So far is the country beyond this region—which we have shown to be an isthmus running down from the Arabian gulf to the Red Sea—from being inhabited, that the parts of it reaching farther toward the north are desert and sandy.

43.7. But men setting out from the Arabian gulf by Egypt, sailing round the greater part of Arabia in order to come to the sea by Susa and Persia, sailed along Arabia as far as the water aboard their ships held out, and then returned home again.

43.8. But those whom Alexander sent from Babylon, to sail as far as possible on the right of the Red Sea and learn the regions there, examined some islands lying along the coasting voyage,

43.9. and perhaps put in too at the mainland of Arabia; but the headland which lies over against it none was able to pass and bend round to the farther side.

43.10. But I think that, if it had been navigable and passable that way, it would have been proved navigable and passable by Alexander’s restless energy.

43.11. Hanno the Libyan, setting out from Carthage, sailed out beyond the Pillars of Heracles into the outer sea, keeping Libya on his left; and his voyage was toward the rising sun for thirty-five days in all;

43.12. but when he turned south, he met with many perplexities—want of water, and burning heat, and streams of fire pouring into the sea.

43.13. But Cyrene, settled in the more desolate parts of Libya, is grassy and well-watered and full of fruits of every kind and of cattle, as far as where the silphium grows; but beyond the silphium the upper parts of it are desert and sandy. Let this account of mine be set down,

43.14. bearing, this too, on Alexander the son of Philip, the Macedonian.