The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and KarmaniaMcCrindle, John Watson
History
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania
McCrindle, John Watson
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.; India -- History -- To 324 B.C. -- Sources
However, I shall treat of the Indians in a separate work,[82] in which I
shall set down whatever seems to be most credible in the reports supplied
by those who accompanied Alexander in his expedition, and by Nearchos
who made a voyage round the Great Sea which adjoins the Indians. I shall
then add the accounts of the country which were compiled by Megasthenes
and Eratosthenês, who are both writers of standard authority. I shall
describe the customs of the Indians and the remarkable animals which
their country is said to produce, and also the voyage which was made
by Nearchos in the outer sea.[83] In the meantime it will suffice if I
content myself with describing only what seems requisite to make the
account of Alexander’s operations clearly intelligible. Mount Tauros
divides Asia, beginning from Mykalê, the mountain which lies opposite
to the island of Samos; then forming the boundary of the country of the
Pamphylians and Kilikians, it stretches onwards to Armenia. From the
Armenians it passes into Mêdia, and runs through the country of the
Parthians and the Khorasmians. Reaching Baktria it there unites with
Mount Parapamisos, which the Macedonians of Alexander’s army called
the Kaukasos, for the purpose, it is said, of magnifying the deeds of
Alexander, for it could thus be said that he had carried his victorious
arms even beyond the Kaukasos. It is possible, however, that this
mountain range may be a continuation of that other Kaukasos which is in
Skythia, in the same way as it is a continuation of the Tauric range. For
this reason I have before this occasionally called this range Kaukasos,
and in future I mean to call it so. This Kaukasos extends as far as the
great Indian Ocean in the direction of the east.[84] All the important
rivers of Asia accordingly rise either in Mount Tauros or Mount Kaukasos,
and shape their courses some to the north, and others to the south.
Those which run northward discharge their waters either into the Maiôtic
Lake, or into the Hyrkanian Sea, which is in reality a gulf of the Great
Sea.[85] The rivers which run southward are the Euphrates, Tigris,
Indus, Hydaspês, Akesines, Hydraôtes, and Hyphasis, together with the
rivers between these and the Ganges. All these either enter the sea, or,
like the Euphrates, disappear among the swamps which receive their waters.
_Chapter VI.—Position and boundaries of India and how its plains may have
been formed_
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