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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1877.
desire to converse with one of these men, bo-, which it was in Alexander's power to bestow, cause he regarded their fortitude with admira- por did he fear any restraint which he could tion. The eldest of these sages, with whom the possibly impose upon him: for if he lived, India others lived as disciples with a master, and would yield him as much food as he required, whose name was Dandanis, not only refused and if he died, he would be delivered from his to go himself, but forbade any of the others to ill-assorted companion the body. Alexander do so. He is said to have returned this answer, accordingly did not attempt to force him to act that if Alexander was the son of Zeus, then he in opposition to his inclinations, appreciating too was the son of Zeus as well, and that he his spirit of independence. But he prevailed wanted none of the things which Alexander upon Kalanos, one of their number, whom Mepossessed, as he was quite contented with what gasthenes for that reason condemns for his he had. He noticed, he said, that those who want of firmness, and the rest of the sages rowere wandering with Alexander over so many proached Kalanos with folly, for leaving the lands and seas gained no good by it all, while happiness they imagined they had, and acat the same time there was no end to their many knowledging any other master except the suwanderings. He coveted, therefore, nothing preme God.
BOOK IV. FRAGM. XLVI.
| Kuros and Semiramis ?+ Megasthenes concurs in Strab. XV. I. 6-8,-rp. 696-698.
this view, and recommends his readers to put no That the Indians had never been attacked by faith in the ancient history of India. Its people, others, nor had themselves attacked others. he says, never sent an expedition abroad, nor was (Cf. Epit. 23.)
their country ever invaded and conquered except 6. But what just reliance can we place on the by Herakles and Dionusos in old times, and by accounts of India from such expeditions as those of the Makedonians in our own. Yet Sesostris
FRAGM. XLVII.
Arr. Ind. V. 4-12. That the Indians had never been attacked by others,
nor had themselves attacked others. Well, then, this same Megasthenes informs us that the Indians neither invade other men, nor do other men invade the Indians; for Sesostris the Egyptian, after having overrun the greater part of Asia, and advanced with his army as far us Europe, returned home; and I danthursos the Skuthian, issuing from Skuthia, subdued many
nations of Asia, and carried his victorious armis even to the borders of Egypt; and Semiramis, again, the Assyrian queen, took in hand an expedition against India, but died before she could execute her design, and thus Alexander was the only conqueror who actually invaded the country. And regarding Dion usos many traditions are current of his having also made an expedition into India, and subjugated the Indians before the days of Alexander. But of Herakles tradition has but little to say. Of the expedition, on the other hand
• For an account of Alexander's interview with the Gymnosophists see Plutarch's Alexander, 65.
"The expedition of Semiramis as described by Dio. dorus Siculus (II. 16-19), who followed the Assyriaka of Ktesias, has almost the character of a legend abounding with puerilities, and is entirely destitnte of those geogra. phical details which stamp events with reality. If this
spedition is real, as on other grounds we may believe it to he, sono traces will assuredly be found of it in the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh, which are destined to throw so much unexpected light on the ancient history of Asia. It has alrendy been believed possible to draw from these inscriptions the foundations of a positive chronology which will fully confirm the indications given by Herodotus as to the epoch of Semiramis, in fixing the epoch of this
elebrated queen in the 8th century of our era-an epoch which is quite in harmony with the data which we possess tron other sources regarding the condition of the North
Gandara, are reckoned among his tributaries (Arrian, Indika, I. 3). Tradition further recounted that, in return ing from his expedition into India, Kyros had seen his whole army perish in the deserts of Gedrosis (Arr. Anoo. VI. 24. 2). The Persian domination in these districts has left more than one trace in the geographical nomenclature. It is sufficient to recall the lame of the Khoaspês, one of the great affluents of the Köphês.
"Whatever be the real historical chamcter of the expedi. tions of Semiramis and Kyros, it is certain that their con. quests on the Indus were only temporary acquisitions, since at the epoch when Dareios Hystaspés mounted the throne the eastern frontier of the empire did not go beyond Arakhosia (the Haraqiti of the Zend texta, the Haraowatis of the cuneiform inscriptions, the Arrokhodi of Musalmfn geography, the provinces of Kandahar and of Ghazni of existing geography) that is to say, the parts of Afghanistan which lie onst of the Buliman chain of mountains. This fact is established by the great trilingual inscription of Bisoutoun, which indicates the last eastern countries to which Dareios bad carried his arms at the epoch when the monument was erected. This was before he had achieved his well-known conquest of the valley of the Indns."--St. Martin, E'true sur la GéographieGrecque et Latine de l'Inde, pp. 14 seqq.
“Kyros, towafter the Vedic the condition och
"Kyros, towards the middle of the 6th century of our era, must also have carried his arms even to the Indus. Historical tradition attributed to him the destruction of Kapisa, an important city in the upper region of the K phês (Plio. VI. 93), and in the lower region the Assakenians and the Astakeniang, indigenous tribes of
