Kitap 15
1.3
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 HydaspesBehul or Jelum. and the Hypanis,Beas. and obtained possession of five hundred cities, not one of which was less than Cos Meropis,The island Cos, or Stanco, one of the earlier names of which was Meropis. and that Alexander, after having conquered all this country, delivered it up to Porus.
1.4
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,ἢ κατ’ ἄλλους for καὶ ἄλλου.—Groskurd. Porus, presents and embassies were sent to Augustus Caesar. With the ambassadors came the Indian Gymno-Sophist, who committed himself to the flames at Athens,See ch. i. § 73. like Calanus, who exhibited the same spectacle in the presence of Alexander.
1.5
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.
