Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India.

  • Megasthenes
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    69/246 (page 51)
    with Mm. [Patrokles, however, makes the length less by 1000 stadia.] Conf. Arr. Ind. iii. 1-5. Fragm. V* Strabo, II. i. 7,—p- 69. Of the Size of India. Again, Hipparchos, in the 2nd volume of his commentary, charges Eratosthenes himself with throwing discredit on Patrokles for differing from Megasthenes about the length of India on its northern side, Megasthenes making it 16,000 stadia, and Patrokles 1000 less. Fragm. VI. Strabo, XY. i. 12,—pp. 689-690. Of the Size of India, [From this, one can readily see how the ac- counts of the other writers vary from one an- other. Thus Ktesias says that India is not of less size than the rest of Asia; Onesikritos regards it as the third part of the habitable world; and ISTearchos says it takes one four months to traverse the plain only.] Megasthenes and Deimachos incline to be more moderate in their estimate, for according to them the distance from the Southern Sea to Kaukasos is over 20,000 stadia.—-[Deimachos, however, allows that the distance in some places exceeds 30,000 stadia. Of these notice has been taken in an earlier part of the work,]