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preface.11
The 15th and 16th books contain a description of the second portion of Asia, namely, the southern or the other side of Taurus. In the 15th book, Strabo describes India and Persia, the latter in two chief divisions, viz. Ariana or East Persia, and Persis or West Persia. These countries Strabo never saw; his description, therefore, is founded on the authority of travellers and historians. The topography of India is meagre, and limited to a few towns and rivers; but his account of the people of the country is more copious, he being supplied with materials from the historians of Alexander and of the campaigns of Seleucus in India. He looks on Megasthenes, Onesicritus, Deimachus, and Cleitarchus as fabulous writers: but his confidence rests chiefly on Patrocles, Aristobulus (one of the companions and historians of Alexander), and Nearchus, the chief commander of Alexander’s fleet. Artemidorus and Nicolaus of Damascus are occasionally consulted. For Ariana or East Persia, he had for his principal authority Eratosthenes; and for Persia Proper, he had, besides the above authors, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Polycletus of Larissa, an historian of Alexander.
