were Plutiades and Diogenes, who went about from city to city, instituting schools of philosophy as the opportunity occurred. Diogenes, as if inspired by Apollo, composed and rehearsed poems, chiefly of the tragic kind, upon any subject that was proposed. The grammarians of Tarsus, whose writings we have, were Artemidorus and Diodorus. But the best writer of tragedy, among those enumerated in “The Pleiad,” was Dionysides. Rome is best able to inform us what number of learned men this city has produced, for it is filled with persons from Tarsus and Alexandreia.
Such then is Tarsus.
16. After the Cydnus follows the Pyramus,262 which flows from Cataonia. We have spoken of it before. Artemidorus says, that from thence to Soli is a voyage in a straight line of 500 stadia. Near the Pyramus is Mallus,263 situated upon a height; it was founded by Amphilochus, and Mopsus, the son of Apollo, and Mantus, about whom many fables are related. I have mentioned them in speaking of Calchas, and of the contest between Calchas and Mopsus respecting their skill in divination. Some persons, as Sophocles, transfer the scene of this contest to Sicily, which, after the custom of tragic poets, they call Pamphylia, as they call Lycia, Caria, and Troy and Lydia, Phrygia. Sophocles, among other writers, says that Calchas died there. According to the fable, the contest did not relate to skill in divination only, but also to sovereignty. For it is said, that Mopsus and Amphilochus, on their return from Troy, founded Mallus; that Amphilochus afterwards went to Argos, and being dissatisfied with the state of affairs there, returned to Mallus, where, being excluded from a share in the government, he engaged with Mopsus in single combat. Both were killed, but their sepulchres are not in sight of each other. They are shown at present at Magarsa, near the Pyramus.
Crates the grammarian was a native of this place, and Panætius is said to have been his disciple.
17. Above this coast is situated the Aleïan plain, over which Philotas conducted Alexander’s cavalry, he himself leading the phalanx from Soli along the sea-coast and the territory of Mallus to Issus, against the forces of Darius. It is said that Alexander performed sacrifices in honour of Amphilochus, on account of their common affinity to Argos. Hesiod says that Amphilochus was killed by Apollo at Soli; according to others, at the Aleïan plain; and others again say, in Syria, upon his quitting the Aleïan plain on account of the quarrel.
18. Mallus is followed by Ægææ, a small town264 with a shelter for vessels; then the Amanides Gates, (Gates of Amanus,265) with a shelter for vessels. At these gates terminates the mountain Amanus,266 which extends from the Taurus, and lies above Cilicia towards the east. It was successively in the possession of several tyrants, who had strongholds; but, in our time, Tarcondimotus, who was a man of merit, became master of all; for his good conduct and bravery, he received from the Romans the title of King, and transmitted the succession to his posterity.
19. Next to Ægææ is Issus, a small town with a shelter for vessels, and a river, the Pinarus.267 At Issus the battle was fought between Alexander and Darius. The bay is called the Issic Bay. The city Rhosus268 is situated upon it, as also the city Myriandrus, Alexandreia,269 Nicopolis, Mopsuestia,270 and the Gates,271 as they are called, which are the boundary between Cilicia and Syria.
In Cilicia are the temple of the Sarpedonian Artemis and an oracle. Persons possessed with divine inspiration deliver the oracles.
20. After Cilicia, the first Syrian city is Seleucia-in-Pieria;272 near it the river Orontes273 empties itself. From Seleucia to Soli is a voyage in a straight line of nearly 1000 stadia.
21. Since the Cilicians of the Troad, whom Homer mentions, are situated at a great distance from the Cilicians without the Taurus, some writers declare that the leaders of the latter colony were Cilicians of the Troad, and point to Thebe and Lyrnessus in Pamphylia, places bearing the same name as those in the Troad; other authors are of a contrary opinion, and (considering the Cilicians of the Troad as descendants of those from beyond the Taurus) point to an Aleïan plain (in support of their hypothesis).
22. Having described the parts of the before-mentioned Chersonesus without the Taurus, I must add these particulars.
Apollodorus, in his work on the catalogue of the ships mentioned in Homer, relates, that all the allies of the Trojans, who came from Asia, inhabited, according to the poet, the peninsula of which at its narrowest part is the isthmus between the innermost recess of the bay at Sinope and Issus. The exterior sides (of this peninsula), which is of a triangular shape, are unequal. Of these, one extends from Cilicia to Chelidoniæ, (islands,) another thence to the mouth of the Euxine, and the third from the mouth of the Euxine to Sinope.
The assertion that the allies were only those who occupied the peninsula may be proved to be erroneous by the same arguments by which we before showed that those who lived within the Halys were not the only allies. For the places about Pharnacia, where we said the Halizoni lived, are situated without the Halys, and also without the isthmus, for they are without the line drawn from Sinope to Issus;274 and not only without this line, but also without the true line of the isthmus drawn from Amisus to Issus; for Apollodorus incorrectly describes the isthmus and the line of its direction, substituting one line for another (the line drawn from Sinope to Issus for the line drawn from Amisus to Issus).
But the greatest absurdity is this, that after having said that the peninsula was of a triangular shape, he speaks of three exterior sides. For in speaking of exterior sides, he seems to except the line of the isthmus itself, considering it still a side, although not an exterior side, from its not being upon the sea. But if this line were so shortened that the extremities of the (exterior) sides falling upon Issus and Sinope nearly coincided, the peninsula might in that case be said to be of a triangular shape; but as his own line (from Sinope to Issus) is 3000 stadia in length, it would be ignorance, and not a knowledge of chorography, to call such a four-sided figure a triangle. Yet he published a work on Chorography, in the metre of comedy, (Iambic metre,) entitled “The Circuit of the Earth.”
He is still liable to the same charge of ignorance, even if we should suppose the isthmus to be contracted to its least dimensions, and follow writers who erroneously estimate the distance at one-half of the sum, namely 1500 stadia, to which it is reduced by Artemidorus; but even this would not by any means reduce the thus contracted space to the figure of a triangle.
Besides, Artemidorus has not correctly described the exterior sides; one side, he says, extends from Issus to the Chelidoniæ islands, although the whole Lycian coast, and the country opposite to Rhodes as far as Physcus, lies in a straight line with, and is a continuation of it; the continent then makes a bend at Physcus, and forms the commencement of the second or western side, extending to the Propontis and Byzantium.
23. Ephorus had said that this peninsula was inhabited by sixteen tribes, three of which were Grecian, and the rest barbarous, with the exception of the mixed nations; he placed on the sea-coast Cilicians, Pamphylians, Lycians, Bithynians, Paphlagonians, Mariandyni, Troes, and Carians; and in the interior, Pisidians, Mysians, Chalybes, Phrygians, and Milyæ.275 Apollodorus, when discussing this position, says there is a seventeenth tribe, the Galatians, who are more recent than the time of Ephorus; that of the sixteen tribes mentioned, the Greeks were not settled (in the peninsula) at the period of the Trojan war, and that time has produced great intermixture and confusion among the barbarous nations. Homer, he continues, recites in his Catalogue the Troes, and those now called Paphlagonians, Mysians, Phrygians, Carians, Lycians, Meionians, instead of Lydians and other unknown people, as Halizoni and Caucones; nations besides not mentioned in the Catalogue but elsewhere, as Ceteii, Solymi, the Cilicians from the plain of Thebe, and Leleges. But the Pamphylians, Bithynians, Mariandyni, Pisidians, and Chalybes, Milyæ, and Cappadocians are nowhere mentioned by the poet; some because they did not then inhabit these places, and some because they were surrounded by other tribes, as Idrieis and Termilæ by Carians, Doliones and Bebryces by Phrygians.
24. But Apollodorus does not seem to have carefully examined the statements of Ephorus, for he confounds and misrepresents the words of Homer. He ought first to have inquired of Ephorus why he placed the Chalybes within the peninsula, who were situated at a great distance from Sinope, and Amisus towards the east. Those who describe the isthmus of this peninsula to be on the line drawn from Issus to the Euxine, lay down this line as a sort of meridian line, which some suppose to pass through Sinope, others through Amisus; but no one through the Chalybes, for such a line would be altogether an oblique line. For the meridian passing through the Chalybes, drawn through the Lesser Armenia, and the Euphrates, would comprise (on the east) the whole of Cappadocia, Commagene, Mount Amanus, and the Bay of Issus. But if we should grant (to Ephorus) that this oblique line is the direction of the isthmus, most of these places, Cappadocia in particular, would be included, and (the kingdom of) Pontus, properly so called, which is a part of Cappadocia on the Euxine; so that if we were to admit the Chalybes to be a part of the peninsula, with more reason we ought to admit the Cataonians, the two nations of Cappadocians, and the Lycaonians, whom even he himself has omitted. But why has he placed in the interior the Chalybes, whom the poet, as we have shown, calls Halizoni? It would have been better to divide them, and to place one portion of them on the sea-coast, and another in the inland parts. The same division ought to be made of the Cappadocians and Cilicians. But Ephorus does not even mention the former, and speaks only of the Cilicians on the sea-coast. The subjects, then, of Antipater of Derbe, the Homonadeis, and many other tribes contiguous to the Pisidians,
“men, who know not the sea, nor have ever eaten food seasoned with salt,”276
where are they to be placed? Nor does he say whether the Lydians and the Meonians are two nations or the same nation, or whether they live separately by themselves or are comprehended in another tribe. For it was impossible for Ephorus to be ignorant of so celebrated a nation, and does he not, by passing it over in silence, appear to omit a most important fact?
25. But who are “the mixed nations”? For we cannot say that he either named or omitted others, besides those already mentioned, whom we should call mixed nations. Nor, indeed, should we say that they were a part of those nations whom he has either mentioned or omitted. For if they were a mixed people, still the majority constituted them either Greeks or Barbarians. We know nothing of a third mixed people.
26. But how (according to Ephorus) are there three tribes of Greeks who inhabit the peninsula? Is it because anciently the Athenians and Ionians were the same people? In that case the Dorians and the Æolians should be considered as the same nation, and then there would be (only) two tribes (and not three, inhabiting the peninsula). But if, following modern practice, we are to distinguish nations according to dialects, there will be four nations, as there are four dialects. But this peninsula is inhabited, especially if we adopt the division by Ephorus, not only by Ionians, but also by Athenians, as we have shown in the account of each particular place.
It was worth while to controvert the positions of Ephorus, Apollodorus however disregards all this, and adds a seventeenth to the sixteen nations, namely, the Galatians; although it is well to mention this, yet it is not required in a discussion of what Ephorus relates or omits; Apollodorus has assigned as the reason of the omission, that all these nations settled in the peninsula subsequently to the time of Ephorus.
27. Passing then to Homer, Apollodorus is correct in saying that there was a great intermixture and confusion among the barbarous nations, from the Trojan war to the present time, on account of the changes which had taken place; for some nations had an accession of others, some were extinct or dispersed, or had coalesced together.
But he is mistaken in assigning two reasons why the poet does not mention some nations, namely, either because the place was not then occupied by the particular people, or because they were comprehended in another tribe. Neither of these reasons could induce him to be silent respecting Cappadocia or Cataonia, or Lycaonia itself, for we have nothing of the kind in history relating to these countries. It is ridiculous to be anxious to find excuses why Homer has omitted to speak of Cappadocia [Cataonia] and Lycaonia, and not to inform us why Ephorus omitted them, particularly as the proposed object of Apollodorus was to examine and discuss the opinions of Ephorus; and to tell us why Homer mentions Mæonians instead of Lydians, and also not to remark that Ephorus has not omitted to mention either Lydians or Mæonians.277
28. Apollodorus remarks, that Homer mentions certain unknown nations, and he is right in specifying Caucones, Solymi, Ceteii, Leleges, and the Cilicians from the plain of Thebe; but the Halizones are a fiction of his own, or rather of those who, not knowing who the Halizones were, frequently altered the mode of writing the name, and invented the existence of mines of silver and of many other mines, all of which are abandoned.
With this vain intention they collected the stories related by the Scepsian, (Demetrius,) and taken from Callisthenes and other writers, who did not clear them from false notions respecting the Halizones; for example, the wealth of Tantalus and of the Pelopidæ was derived, it is said, from the mines about Phrygia and Sipylus; that of Cadmus from the mines about Thrace and Mount Pangæum; that of Priam from the gold mines at Astyra, near Abydos (of which at present there are small remains, yet there is a large quantity of matter ejected, and the excavations are proofs of former workings); that of Midas from the mines about Mount Bermium; that of Gyges, Alyattes, and Crœsus, from the mines in Lydia and the small deserted city between Atarneus and Pergamum, where are the sites of exhausted mines.278
29. We may impute another fault to Apollodorus, that although he frequently censures modern writers for introducing new readings at variance with the meaning of Homer, yet in this instance he not only neglects his own advice, but actually unites together places which are not so represented (by Homer).
(For example), Xanthus the Lydian says, that after the Trojan times the Phrygians came from Europe (into Asia) and the left (western) side of the Euxine, and that their leader Scamandrius conducted them from the Berecynti and Ascania. Apollodorus adds, that Homer mentions the same Ascania as Xanthus,
“Phorcys and the divine Ascanius led the Phrygians from the distant Ascania.”279
If this be so, the migration (from Europe to Asia) must be later than the Trojan war; but in the Trojan war the auxiliaries mentioned by the poet came from the opposite continent, from the Berecynti and Ascania. Who then were the Phrygians,
when Priam says,
And how came Priam to send for the Phrygians from among the Berecynti, between whom and himself no compact existed, and pass over the people who were contiguous to him, and whose ally he formerly had been?
Apollodorus, after having spoken of the Phrygians in this manner, introduces an account concerning the Mysians which contradicts this. He says that there is a village of Mysia called Ascania, near a lake of the same name,281 out of which issues the river Ascanius, mentioned by Euphorion:282
and by Alexander of Ætolia:
“they who dwell on the stream of Ascanius, on the brink of the Ascanian lake, where lived Dolion, the son of Silenus and Melia.”
The district, he says, about Cyzicus, on the road to Miletopolis, is called Dolionis and Mysia.
If this is the case, and if it is confirmed by existing places and by the poets, what prevented Homer, when he mentioned this Ascania, from mentioning the Ascania also of which Xanthus speaks?
I have already spoken of these places in the description of Mysia and Phrygia, and shall here conclude the discussion.
1. It remains for me to describe the island Cyprus, which adjoins this peninsula on the south. I have already said, that the sea comprised between Egypt, Phœnice, Syria, and the remainder of the coast as far as that opposite to Rhodes, consists, so to say, of the Egyptian and Pamphylian seas and the sea along the Bay of Issus.
In this sea lies the island Cyprus, having its northern side approaching to Cilicia Tracheia, and here also it approaches nearest to the continent; on the east it is washed by the Bay of Issus, on the west by the Pamphylian sea, and on the south by that of Egypt. The latter sea is confluent on the west with the Libyan and Carpathian seas. On its southern and eastern parts is Egypt, and the succeeding tract of coast as far as Seleucia and Issus. On the north is Cyprus, and the Pamphylian sea.
The Pamphylian sea is bounded on the north by the extremities of Cilicia Tracheia, of Pamphylia, and of Lycia as far as the territory opposite to Rhodes; on the west, by the island of Rhodes; on the east, by the part of Cyprus near Paphos, and the Acamas; on the south, it unites with the Egyptian sea.
2. The circumference of Cyprus is 3420 stadia, including the winding of the bays. Its length from Cleides283 to the Acamas,284 to a traveller on land proceeding from east to west, is 1400 stadia.
The Cleides are two small islands lying in front of Cyprus on the eastern side, at the distance of 700 stadia from the Pyramus.285
The Acamas is a promontory with two paps, and upon it is a large forest. It is situated at the western part of the island, but extends towards the north, approaching very near Selinus in Cilicia Tracheia, for the passage across is only 1000 stadia; to Side in Pamphylia the passage is 1600 stadia, and to the Chelidoniæ (islands) 1900 stadia.
The figure of the whole island is oblong, and in some places on the sides, which define its breadth, there are isthmuses.
We shall describe the several parts of the island briefly, beginning from the point nearest to the continent.
3. We have said before, that opposite to Anemyrium, a promontory of Cilicia Tracheia, is the extremity of Cyprus, namely, the promontory of Crommyon,286 at the distance of 350 stadia.
From the cape, keeping the island on the right hand, and continent on the left, the voyage to the Cleides in a straight line towards north and east is a distance of 700 stadia.
In the interval is the city Lapathus,287 with a harbour and dockyards; it was founded by Laconians and Praxander. Opposite to it was Nagidus. Then follows Aphrodisium;288 here the island is narrow, for over the mountains to Salamis289 are 70 stadia. Next is the sea-beach of the Achæans; here Teucer, the founder of Salamis in Cyprus, being it is said banished by his father Telamon, first disembarked. Then follows the city Carpasia,290 with a harbour. It is situated opposite to the promontory Sarpedon.291 From Carpasia there is a transit across the isthmus of 30 stadia to the Carpasian islands and the southern sea; next are a promontory and a mountain. The name of the promontory is Olympus, and upon it is a temple of Venus Acræa, not to be approached nor seen by women.
Near and in front lie the Cleides, and many other islands; next are the Carpasian islands, and after these Salamis, the birth-place of Aristus the historian; then Arsinoë, a city with a harbour; next Leucolla, another harbour; then the promontory Pedalium, above which is a hill, rugged, lofty, and table-shaped, sacred to Venus; to this hill from Cleides are 680 stadia. Then to Citium292 the navigation along the coast is for the greater part difficult and among bays. Citium has a close harbour. It is the birth-place of Zeno, the chief of the Stoic sect, and of Apollonius the physician. Thence to Berytus are 1500 stadia. Next is the city Amathus,293 and between Citium and Berytus, a small city called Palæa, and a pap-shaped mountain, Olympus; then follows Curias,294 a promontory of a peninsular form, to which from Throni295 are 700 stadia; then the city Curium,296 with a harbour, founded by Argives.
Here we may observe the negligence of the author, whether Hedylus, or whoever he was, of the elegiac lines which begin,
“We hinds, sacred to Phœbus, hither came in our swift course; we traversed the broad sea, to avoid the arrows of our pursuers.”
He says, that the hinds ran down from the Corycian heights, and swam across from the Cilician coast to the beach near Curias, and adds,
“That it was a cause of vast surprise to men to think how we scoured the trackless waves, aided by the vernal Zephyrs.”
For it is possible (by doubling the cape) to sail round from Corycus to the beach of Curias, but not with the assistance of the west wind, nor by keeping the island on the right, but on the left hand; and there is no (direct) passage across.
At Curium is the commencement of the voyage towards the west in the direction of Rhodes; then immediately follows a promontory, whence those who touch with their hands the altar of Apollo are precipitated. Next are Treta,297 Boosura,298 and Palæpaphus, situated about 10 stadia from the sea, with a harbour and an ancient temple of the Paphian Venus; then follows Zephyria,299 a promontory with an anchorage, and another Arsinoë, which also has an anchorage, a temple, and a grove. At a little distance from the sea is Hierocepis.300 Next is Paphos, founded by Agapenor, with a harbour and temples, which are fine buildings. It is distant from Palæpaphus 60 stadia by land. Along this road the annual sacred processions are conducted, when a great concourse both of men and women resort thither from other cities. Some writers say, that from Paphos to Alexandreia are 3600 stadia. Next after Paphos is the Acamas; then after the Acamas the voyage is easterly to Arsinoë a city, and to the grove of Jupiter; then Soli301 a city, where there is a harbour, a river, and a temple of Venus and Isis. It was founded by Phalerus and Acamas, who were Athenians. The inhabitants are called Solii. Stasanor, one of the companions of Alexander, was a native of Soli, and was honoured with a chief command. Above Soli in the interior is Limenia a city, then follows the promontory of Crommyon.
4. But why should we be surprised at poets, and those particularly who study modes of expression only, when we compare them with Damastes? The latter gives the length of the island from north to south, from Hierocepia, as he says, to Cleides.
Nor does even Eratosthenes give it exactly. For, when he censures Damastes, he says that Hierocepia is not on the north, but on the south. Yet neither is it on the south, but the west, since it lies on the western side, where are situated Paphos and Acamas.
Such then is the position of Cyprus.
5. It is not inferior in fertility to any one of the islands, for it produces good wine and oil, and sufficient corn to supply the wants of the inhabitants. At Tamassus there are abundant mines of copper, in which the calcanthus is found, and rust of copper, useful for its medicinal properties.
Eratosthenes says, that anciently the plains abounded with timber, and were covered with forests, which prevented cultivation; the mines were of some service towards clearing the surface, for trees were cut down to smelt the copper and silver. Besides this, timber was required for the construction of fleets, as the sea was now navigated with security and by a large naval force; but when even these means were insufficient to check the growth of timber in the forests, permission was given to such as were able and inclined, to cut down the trees and to hold the land thus cleared as their own property, free from all payments.
6. Formerly the Cyprian cities were governed by tyrants, but from the time that the Ptolemaïc kings were masters of Egypt, Cyprus also came into their power, the Romans frequently affording them assistance. But when the last Ptolemy that was king, brother of the father of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt in our time, had conducted himself in a disorderly manner, and was ungrateful to his benefactors, he was deposed, and the Romans took possession of the island, which became a Prætorian province by itself.
The chief author of the deposition of the king was Pub. Claudius Pulcher, who having fallen into the hands of the Cilician pirates, at that time at the height of their power, and a ransom being demanded of him, despatched a message to the king, entreating him to send it for his release. The king sent a ransom, but of so small an amount, that the pirates disdained to accept it, and returned it, but they dismissed Pulcher without any payment. After his escape, he remembered what he owed to both parties; and when he became tribune of the people, he had sufficient influence to have Marcus Cato sent to deprive the king of the possession of Cyprus. The latter put himself to death before the arrival of Cato, who, coming soon afterwards, took possession of Cyprus, sold the king’s property, and conveyed the money to the public treasury of the Romans.
From this time the island became, as it is at present, a Prætorian province. During a short intervening period Antony had given it to Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoë, but upon his death all his arrangements were annulled.
SUMMARY.
The Fifteenth Book contains India and Persia.
1. The parts of Asia which remain to be described are those without the Taurus, except Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycia; extending from India to the Nile, and situated between the Taurus and the exterior Southern Sea.302
Next to Asia is Africa, which I shall describe hereafter. At present I shall begin from India, the first and the largest country situated towards the east.
2. The reader must receive the account of this country with indulgence, for it lies at a very great distance, and few persons of our nation have seen it; those also who have visited it have seen only some portions of it; the greater part of what they relate is from report, and even what they saw, they became acquainted with during their passage through the country with an army, and in great haste. For this reason they do not agree in their accounts of the same things, although they write about them as if they had examined them with the greatest care and attention. Some of these writers were fellow-soldiers and fellow-travellers, as those who belonged to the army which, under the command of Alexander, conquered Asia; yet they frequently contradict each other. If, then, they differ so much respecting things which they had seen, what must we think of what they relate from report?
3. Nor do the writers who, many ages since Alexander’s time, have given an account of these countries, nor even those who at present make voyages thither, afford any precise information.
Apollodorus, for instance, author of the Parthian History, when he mentions the Greeks who occasioned the revolt of Bactriana from the Syrian kings, who were the successors of Seleucus Nicator, says, that when they became powerful they invaded India. He adds no discoveries to what was previously known, and even asserts, in contradiction to others, that the Bactrians had subjected to their dominion a larger portion of India than the Macedonians; for Eucratidas (one of these kings) had a thousand cities subject to his authority. But other writers affirm that the Macedonians conquered nine nations situated between the Hydaspes303 and the Hypanis,304 and obtained possession of five hundred cities, not one of which was less than Cos Meropis,305 and that Alexander, after having conquered all this country, delivered it up to Porus.
4. Very few of the merchants who now sail from Egypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have proceeded as far as the Ganges; and, being ignorant persons, were not qualified to give an account of places they have visited. From one place in India, and from one king, namely, Pandion, or, according to others,306 Porus, presents and embassies were sent to Augustus Cæsar. With the ambassadors came the Indian Gymno-Sophist, who committed himself to the flames at Athens,307 like Calanus, who exhibited the same spectacle in the presence of Alexander.
5. If, then, we set aside these stories, and direct our attention to accounts of the country prior to the expedition of Alexander, we shall find them still more obscure. It is probable that Alexander, elated by his extraordinary good fortune, believed these accounts.
According to Nearchus, Alexander was ambitious of conducting his army through Gedrosia,308 when he heard that Semiramis and Cyrus had undertaken expeditions against India (through this country), although both had abandoned the enterprise, the former escaping with twenty, and Cyrus with seven men only. For he considered that it would be a glorious achievement for him to lead a conquering army safe through the same nations and countries where Semiramis and Cyrus had suffered such disasters. Alexander, therefore, believed these stories.
6. But how can we place any just confidence in the accounts of India derived from such expeditions as those of Cyrus and Semiramis? Megasthenes concurs in this opinion; he advises persons not to credit the ancient histories of India, for, except the expeditions of Hercules, of Bacchus, and the later invasion of Alexander, no army was ever sent out of their country by the Indians, nor did any foreign enemy ever invade or conquer it. Sesostris the Egyptian (he says), and Tearco the Ethiopian, advanced as far as Europe; and Nabocodrosor, who was more celebrated among the Chaldæans than Hercules among the Greeks, penetrated even as far as the Pillars,309 which Tearco also reached; Sesostris conducted an army from Iberia to Thrace and Pontus; Idanthyrsus the Scythian overran Asia as far as Egypt; but not one of these persons proceeded as far as India, and Semiramis died before her intended enterprise was undertaken. The Persians had sent for the Hydraces310 from India, a body of mercenary troops; but they did not lead an army into that country, and only approached it when Cyrus was marching against the Massagetæ.
7. Megasthenes, and a few others, think the stories respecting Hercules and Bacchus to be credible, but the majority of writers, among whom is Eratosthenes, regard them as incredible and fabulous, like the Grecian stories. Dionysus, in the Bacchæ of Euripides, makes this boasting speech:
In Sophocles, also, a person is introduced speaking the praises of Nysa,312 as being a mountain sacred to Bacchus:
“whence I beheld the famed Nysa, the resort of the Bacchanalian bands, which the horned Iacchus makes his most pleasant and beloved retreat, where no bird’s clang is heard,”
and so on. [He is called also Merotraphes.]313
Homer also mentions Lycurgus the Edonian in these words,
“who formerly pursued the nurses of the infuriate Bacchus along the sacred mountain Nysa.”314
So much respecting Bacchus. But with regard to Hercules, some persons say, that he penetrated to the opposite extremities on the west only, while others maintain that he also advanced to those of the east.
8. From such stories as those related above, they gave the name of Nysæans to some imaginary nation, and called their city Nysa, founded by Bacchus; a mountain above the city they called Meron, alleging as a reason for imposing these names that the ivy and vine grow there, although the latter does not perfect its fruit; for the bunches of grapes, in consequence of excessive rains, drop off before they arrive at maturity.
They say, also, that the Sydracæ (Oxydracæ) are descendants of Bacchus, because the vine grows in their country, and because their kings display great pomp in setting out on their warlike expeditions, after the Bacchic manner; whenever they appear in public, it is with beating of drums, and are dressed in flowered robes, which is the common custom among the other Indians.
When Alexander took, on the first assault, Aornos,315 a fortress on a rock, the foot of which is washed by the Indus near its source, his flatterers exaggerated this act, and said that Hercules thrice assailed this rock and was thrice repulsed.
They pretended that the Sibæ316 were descended from the people who accompanied Hercules in his expedition, and that they retained badges of their descent; that they wore skins like Hercules, and carried clubs, and branded with the mark of a club their oxen and mules. They confirm this fable with stories about Caucasus317 and Prometheus, for they transferred hither from Pontus these tales, on the slight pretence that they had seen a sacred cave among the Paropamisadæ.318 This they alleged was the prison of Prometheus, that Hercules came hither to release Prometheus, and that this mountain was the Caucasus, to which the Greeks represent Prometheus as having been bound.
9. That these are the inventions of the flatterers of Alexander is evident, first, because the writers do not agree with one another, some of whom speak of these things; others make no mention of them whatever. For it is not probable, that actions so illustrious, and calculated to foster pride and vanity, should be unknown, or if known, that they should not be thought worthy of record, especially by writers of the greatest credit.
Besides, the intervening people, through whose country the armies of Bacchus and Hercules must have marched in their way to India, do not exhibit any proofs of their passage through the country. The kind of dress, too, of Hercules is much more recent than the memorials of Troy, an invention of those who composed the Heracleia (or exploits of Hercules,) whether it were Peisander or some one else who composed it. But the ancient wooden statues do not represent Hercules in that attire.
10. Under such circumstances, therefore, we must receive everything that approaches nearest to probability. I have already discussed this subject to the extent of my ability at the beginning of this work;319 I shall now assume those opinions as clearly proved, and shall add whatever may seem to be required for the sake of perspicuity.
It appeared from the former discussion, that in the summary given by Eratosthenes, in the third book of his Geography, is contained the most credible account of the country considered as India at the time of its invasion by Alexander.
At that period the Indus was the boundary of India and of Ariana,320 situated towards the west, and in the possession of the Persians, for afterwards the Indians occupied a larger portion of Ariana, which they had received from the Macedonians.
The account of Eratosthenes is as follows:—
11. The boundaries of India, on the north, from Ariana to the Eastern Sea,321 are the extremities of Taurus, to the several parts of which the natives give, besides others, the names of Paropamisus, Emodus, and Imaus,322 but the Macedonians call them Caucasus; on the west, the river Indus; the southern and eastern sides, which are much larger than the others, project towards the Atlantic Sea, and the figure of the country becomes rhomboïdal,323 each of the greater sides exceeding the opposite by 3000 stadia; and this is the extent of the extremity, common to the eastern and southern coast, and which projects beyond the rest of that coast equally on the east and south.
The western side, from the Caucasian mountains to the Southern Sea, is estimated at 13,000 stadia, along the river Indus to its mouth; wherefore the eastern side opposite, with the addition of the 3000 stadia of the promontory, will be 16,000 stadia in extent. This is both the smallest and greatest breadth of India.324 The length is reckoned from west to east. The part of this extending (from the Indus) as far as Palibothra325 we may describe more confidently; for it has been measured by Schœni,326 and is a royal road of 10,000 stadia. The extent of the parts beyond depends upon conjecture derived from the ascent of vessels from the sea by the Ganges to Palibothra. This may be estimated at 6000 stadia.
The whole, on the shortest computation, will amount to 16,000 stadia, according to Eratosthenes, who says that he took it from the register of the Stathmi (or the several stages from place to place),327 which was received as authentic, and Megasthenes agrees with him. But Patrocles says, that the sum of the whole is less by 1000 stadia. If again we add to this distance the extent of the extremity which advances far towards the east, the greatest length of India will be 3000 stadia; this length is reckoned from the mouths of the river Indus along the coast, in a line with the mouths to the above-mentioned extremity and its eastern limits. Here the people called Coniaci328 live.
12. From what has been said, we may perceive how the opinions of the other writers differ from one another. Ctesias says that India is not less than the rest of Asia; Onesicritus regards it as the third part of the habitable world; Nearchus says that it is a march of four months through the plain only. The computations of Megasthenes and Deïmachus are more moderate, for they estimate the distance from the Southern Sea to Caucasus329 at above 20,000 stadia. Deïmachus says that in some places it exceeds 30,000 stadia.
We have replied to these writers in the early part of this work.330 At present it is sufficient to say that these opinions are in favour of the writers who, in describing India, solicit indulgence if they do not advance anything with confidence.
13. The whole of India is watered by rivers, some of which empty themselves into the two largest, the Indus and the Ganges; others discharge themselves into the sea by their own mouths. But all of them have their sources in the Caucasus. At their commencement their course is towards the south; some of them continue to flow in the same direction, particularly those which unite with the Indus; others turn to the east, as the Ganges. This, the largest of the Indian rivers, descends from the mountainous country, and when it reaches the plains, turns to the east, then flowing past Palibothra, a very large city, proceeds onwards to the sea in that quarter, and discharges its waters by a single mouth. The Indus falls into the Southern Sea, and empties itself by two mouths, encompassing the country called Patalene, which resembles the Delta of Egypt.
By the exhalation of vapours from such vast rivers, and by the Etesian winds, India, as Eratosthenes affirms, is watered by summer rains, and the plains are overflowed. During the rainy season flax,331 millet, sesamum, rice, and bosmorum332 are sowed; and in the winter season, wheat, barley, pulse, and other esculent fruits of the earth with which we are not acquainted. Nearly the same animals are bred in India as in Ethiopia and Egypt, and the rivers of India produce all the animals of those countries, except the hippopotamus, although Onesicritus asserts that even this animal is found in them.
The inhabitants of the south resemble the Ethiopians in colour, but their countenances and hair are like those of other people. Their hair does not curl, on account of the humidity of the atmosphere. The inhabitants of the north resemble the Egyptians.
14. Taprobane333 is said to be an island, lying out at sea, distant from the most southerly parts of India, which are opposite the Coniaci, seven days’334 sail towards the south. Its length is about 8000 stadia in the direction of Ethiopia.335 It produces elephants.
This is the account of Eratosthenes. The accounts of other writers, in addition to this, whenever they convey exact information, will contribute to form the description336 (of India).
15. Onesicritus, for example, says of Taprobane, that its magnitude is 5000 stadia, without distinction of length or breadth, and that it is distant twenty days’ sail from the continent, but that it was a voyage performed with difficulty and danger by vessels with sails ill constructed, and built with prows at each end, but without holds and keels;337 that there are other islands between this and India, but that Taprobane lies farthest to the south; that there are found in the sea, about the island, animals of the cetaceous kind, in form like oxen, horses, and other land-animals.
16. Nearchus, speaking of the accretion of earth formed by the rivers, adduces these instances. The plains of Hermes, Caÿster, Mæander, and Caïcus have these names, because they have been formed by the soil which has been carried over the plains by the rivers; or rather they were produced by the fine and soft soil brought down from the mountains; whence the plains are, as it were, the offspring of the rivers, and it is rightly said, that the plains belong to the rivers. What is said by Herodotus338 of the Nile, and of the land about it, may be applied to this country, namely, that it is the gift of the Nile. Hence Nearchus thinks that the Nile had properly the synonym of Egypt.
17. Aristobulus, however, says, that rain and snow fall only on the mountains and the country immediately below them, and that the plains experience neither one nor the other, but are overflowed only by the rise of the waters of the rivers; that the mountains are covered with snow in the winter; that the rains set in at the commencement of spring, and continue to increase; that at the time of the blowing of the Etesian winds they pour down impetuously, without intermission, night and day till the rising of Arcturus,339 and that the rivers, filled by the melting of the snow and by the rains, irrigate the flat grounds.
These things, he says, were observed by himself and by others on their journey into India from the Paropamisadæ. This was after the setting of the Pleiades,340 and during their stay in the mountainous country in the territory of the Hypasii, and in that of Assacanus during the winter. At the beginning of spring they descended into the plains to a large city called Taxila,341 thence they proceeded to the Hydaspes and the country of Porus. During the winter they saw no rain, but only snow. The first rain which fell was at Taxila. After their descent to the Hydaspes and the conquest of Porus, their progress was eastwards to the Hypanis, and thence again to the Hydaspes. At this time it rained continually, and particularly during the blowing of the Etesian winds, but at the rising of Arcturus the rains ceased. They remained at the Hydaspes while the ships were constructing, and began their voyage not many days before the setting of the Pleiades, and were occupied during the whole autumn, winter, and the ensuing spring and summer, in sailing down the river, and arrived at Patalene342 about the rising of the Dog-Star;343 during the passage down the river, which lasted ten months, they did not experience rain at any place, not even when the Etesian winds were at their height, when the rivers were full and the plains overflowed; the sea could not be navigated on account of the blowing of contrary winds, but no land breezes succeeded.
18. Nearchus gives the same account, but does not agree with Aristobulus respecting the rains in summer, but says that the plains are watered by rain in the summer, and that they are without rain in winter. Both writers, however, speak of the rise of the rivers. Nearchus says, that the men encamped upon the Acesines344 were obliged to change their situation for another more elevated, and that this was at the time of the rise of the river, and of the summer solstice.
Aristobulus gives even the measure of the height to which the river rises, namely, forty cubits, of which twenty would fill the channel beyond its previous depth up to the margin, and the other twenty are the measure of the water when it overflows the plains.
They agree also in saying that the cities placed upon mounds become islands, as in Egypt and Ethiopia, and that the inundation ceases after the rising of Arcturus, when the waters recede. They add, that the ground when half dried is sowed, after having been prepared by the commonest labourer, yet the plant comes to perfection, and the produce is good. The rice, according to Aristobulus, stands in water in an enclosure. It is sowed in beds. The plant is four cubits in height, with many ears, and yields a large produce. The harvest is about the time of the setting of the Pleiades, and the grain is beaten out like barley. It grows in Bactriana, Babylonia, Susis, and in the Lower Syria. Megillus says that it is sowed before the rains, but does not require irrigation or transplantation, being supplied with water from tanks.
The bosmorum, according to Onesicritus, is a kind of corn smaller than wheat, and grows in places situated between rivers. After it is threshed out, it is roasted; the threshers being previously bound by an oath not to carry it away unroasted from the threshing floor; a precaution to prevent the exportation of the seed.
19. Aristobulus, when comparing the circumstances in which this country resembles, and those in which it differs from, Egypt and Ethiopia, and observing that the swelling of the Nile is occasioned by rains in the south, and of the Indian rivers by rains from the north, inquires why the intermediate places have no rain; for it does not rain in the Thebaïs as far as Syene, nor at the places near Meroë, nor in the parts of India from Patalene to the Hydaspes. But the country situated above these parts,345 in which both rain and snow occur, is cultivated by the husbandman in the same manner as the country without India; for the rain and the snow supply the ground with moisture.
It is probable from what he relates that the country is subject to shocks of earthquakes, that the ground is loose and hollow by excess of moisture, and easily splits into fissures, whence even the course of rivers is altered.
He says that when he was despatched upon some business into the country, he saw a tract of land deserted, which contained more than a thousand cities with their dependent villages; the Indus, having left its proper channel, was diverted into another, on the left hand, much deeper, and precipitated itself into it like a cataract, so that it no longer watered the country by the (usual) inundation on the right hand, from which it had receded, and this was elevated above the level, not only of the new channel of the river, but above that of the (new) inundation.
20. The account of Onesicritus confirms the facts of the rising of the rivers and of the absence of land breezes. He says that the sea-shore is swampy, particularly near the mouths of rivers, on account of the mud, tides, and the force of the winds blowing from the sea.
Megasthenes also indicates the fertility of India by the circumstance of the soil producing fruits and grain twice a year. Eratosthenes relates the same facts, for he speaks of a winter and a summer sowing, and of the rain at the same seasons. For there is no year, according to him, which is without rain at both those periods, whence ensues great abundance, the ground never failing to bear crops.
An abundance of fruit is produced by trees; and the roots of plants, particularly of large reeds, possess a sweetness, which they have by nature and by coction; for the water, both from rains and rivers, is warmed by the sun’s rays. The meaning of Eratosthenes seems to be this, that what among other nations is called the ripening of fruits and juices, is called among these coction, and which contributes as much to produce an agreeable flavour as the coction by fire. To this is attributed the flexibility of the branches of trees, from which wheels of carriages are made, and to the same cause is imputed the growth upon some trees of wool.346 Nearchus says that their fine clothes were made of this wool, and that the Macedonians used it for mattresses and the stuffing of saddles. The Serica347 also are of a similar kind, and are made of dry byssus, which is obtained from some sort of bark of plants. He says that reeds348 yield honey, although there are no bees, and that there is a tree from the fruit of which honey is procured, but that the fruit eaten fresh causes intoxication.
21. India produces many singular trees. There is one whose branches incline downwards, and whose leaves are not less in size than a shield. Onesicritus, describing minutely the country of Musicanus, which he says is the most southerly part349 of India, relates, that there are some large trees the branches of which extend to the length even of twelve cubits. They then grow downwards, as though bent (by force), till they touch the earth, where they penetrate and take root like layers. They next shoot upwards and form a trunk. They again grow as we have described, bending downwards, and implanting one layer after another, and in the above order, so that one tree forms a long shady roof, like a tent, supported by many pillars. In speaking of the size of the trees, he says their trunks could scarcely be clasped by five men.350
Aristobulus also, where he mentions the Acesines, and its confluence with the Hyarotis, speaks of trees with their boughs bent downwards and of a size that fifty, but, according to Onesicritus, four hundred horsemen might take shelter at mid-day beneath the shade of a single tree.
Aristobulus mentions another tree, not large, bearing great pods, like the bean, ten fingers in length, full of honey,351 and says that those who eat it do not easily escape with life. But the accounts of all these writers about the size of the trees have been exceeded by those who assert that there has been seen, beyond the Hyarotis,352 a tree which casts a shade at noon of five stadia.
Aristobulus says of the wool-bearing trees, that the flower pod contains a kernel, which is taken out, and the remainder is combed like wool.
22. In the country of Musicanus there grows, he says, spontaneously grain resembling wheat, and a vine that produces wine, whereas other authors affirm that there is no wine in India. Hence, according to Anacharsis, they had no pipes, nor any musical instruments, except cymbals, drums, and crotala, which were used by jugglers.
Both Aristobulus and other writers relate that India produces many medicinal plants and roots, both of a salutary and noxious quality, and plants yielding a variety of colours. He adds, that, by a law, any person discovering a deadly substance is punished with death unless he also discover an antidote; in case he discovers an antidote, he is rewarded by the king.
Southern India, like Arabia and Ethiopia, produces cinnamon, nard, and other aromatics. It resembles these countries as regards the effect of the sun’s rays, but it surpasses them in having a copious supply of water, whence the atmosphere is humid, and on this account more conducive to fertility and fecundity; and this applies to the earth and to the water, hence those animals which inhabit both one and the other are of a larger size than are found in other countries. The Nile contributes to fecundity more than other rivers, and among other animals of large bulk, produces the amphibious kind. The Egyptian women also sometimes have four children at a birth, and Aristotle says that one woman had seven children at one birth.353 He calls the Nile most fecundating and nutritive, on account of the moderate coction effected by the sun’s rays, which leave behind the nutritious part of substances, and evaporate that which is superfluous.
23. It is perhaps owing to this cause that the water of the Nile boils, as he says, with one half of the heat which other water requires. In proportion however, he says, as the water of the Nile traverses in a straight line, a long and narrow tract of country, passing through a variety of climates and of atmosphere, while the Indian rivers are poured forth into wider and more extensive plains, their course being delayed a long time in the same climate, in the same degree the waters of India are more nutritious than those of the Nile; they produce larger animals of the cetaceous kind, and in greater number (than the Nile), and the water which descends from the clouds has already undergone the process of coction.
24. This would not be admitted by the followers of Aristobulus, who say that the plains are not watered by rain. Onesicritus, however, thinks that rain-water is the cause of the peculiar properties of animals, and alleges in proof, that the colour of foreign herds which drink of it is changed to that of the native animals.
This is a just remark; but it is not proper to attribute to the power of the water merely the cause of the black complexion and the woolly hair of the Ethiopians, and yet he censures Theodectes, who refers these peculiarities to the effects of the sun, in these words,