Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/27

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STRABO'S SOURCES AND THEIR VALUE
3

cessors of Seleukos Nikator, says that when they became powerful they invaded India. He adds no new information to what was previously known, and even asserts, in contradiction to others, that the Baktrians had subjected to their dominion a larger portion of India than had the Macedonians; for Eukratidas (one of these kings) had a thousand cities subject to his authority. But other writers affirm that the Macedonians conquered the nine nations situated between the Hydaspes (Jihlam) and the Hypanis (Bias), and obtained possession of five hundred cities, not one of which was less than Kos in Meropis (an island in the Ægean Sea), and that Alexander, after having conquered all this country, delivered it up to Poros.

COIN OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

Very few of the merchants who now sail from Egypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have sailed around as far as the Ganges; and, being ignorant persons, are 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, Poros, presents and embassies were sent to Augustus Cæsar. With the ambassadors came the Indian sophist (or ascetic), who committed himself to the flames at Athens, like Kalanos, who exhibited the same spectacle in the presence of Alexander.

If we set these stories aside and direct our attention to accounts of the country prior to the expedition

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