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SEPTEMBER, 1877.]
the Egyptian and Tearkon the Ethiopian advanced as far as Europe. And Nabukodrosor,§ who is more renowned among the Chaldæans than even Herakles among the Greeks, carried his arms to the Pillars, which Tearkôn also reached, while Sesôstris penetrated from Ibêria even into Thrace and Pontos. Besides these there was Idanthursos the Skuthian, who overran Asia as far as Egypt. But not one of these great conquerors approached India, and Semiramis, who meditated its conquest, died before the necessary preparations were undertaken. The Persians indeed summoned the Hudrakai* from India to serve as mercenaries, but they did not lead an army into the country, and only approached its borders when Kuros marched against the M a s sagetai.
Of Dionusos and Herakles.
7. The accounts about Herakles and Dionusos, Megasthenês and some few authors with him consider entitled to credit, [but the majority, among whom is Eratosthenês, consider them incredible and fabulous, like the stories current among the Greeks.......]
THE INDIKA OF MEGASTHENES.
which Bacchus led, the city of Nussa is no mean monument, while Mount Mêros is yet another, and the ivy which grows thereon, and the practice observed by the Indians themselves of marching to battle with drums and cymbals, and of wearing a spotted dress such as was worn by the Bacchanals of Dionusos. On the other hand, there are but few memorials of Herakles, and it may be doubted whether even these are genuine: for the assertion that Hêrakles was not able to take the rock A ornos, which Alexander seized by force of arms, seems to me all a Makedonian vaunt, quite of a piece with their calling Para pamisos -Kaukasos, though it had no connexion at all
Sesostris (called Sesoôsis by Diodorus) has generally been identified with Ramses the third king of the 19th dynasty of Manetho, the son of Seti, and the father of Menephthah the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Lepsius, however, from a study of the Tablet of Rameses II. found at Abydos in Egypt, and now in the British Museum, has been led to identify him with the Sesortasen or Osirtasen of the great 12th dynasty.-See Report of the Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Orientalists, P. 44.
§ V.1. Ναβοκοδρόσορον.
Called by Ptolemy the "Pillars of Alexander," above Albania and Iberia at the commencement of the Asiatic Sarmatia.
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8. On such grounds they called a particular race of people Nussaians, and their city Nussa,† which Dionusos had founded, and the mountain which rose above the city Mê ron, assigning as their reason for bestowing these names that ivy grows there, and also the vine, although its fruit does not come to perfection, as the clusters, on account of the heaviness of the rains, fall off the trees before ripening. They further called the Oxudrakai descendants of Dionusos, because the vine grew in their country, and their processions were conducted with great pomp, and their kings on going forth to war and on other occasions marched in Bacchic fashion, with drums beating, while they were dressed in gaycoloured robes, which is also a custom among other Indians. Again, when Alexander had captured at the first assault the rock called Aornos, the base of which is washed by the Indus near its source, his followers, magnifying the affair, affirmed that Herakles had thrice assaulted the same rock and had been thrice repulsed. They said also that the Sibae were descended from those who accompanied Herakles on his expedi
Herodotus mentions an invasion of Skuthians which was led by Madyas. As Idanthursos may have been a common appellative of the Skuthian kings, Strabo may here be referring to that invasion.
The Hudrakai are called also Oxudrakai. The name, according to Lassen, represents the Sanskrit Kshudraka.
with Kaukasos. In the same spirit, when they noticed a cave in the dominions of the Parapamisadai, they asserted that it was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he had been suspended for stealing the fire. So also when they came among the Siba e, an Indian tribe, and noticed that they wore skins, they declared that the Sibae were descended from those who belonged to the expedition of Herakles and had been left behind: for, besides being dressed in skins, the Sibae carry a cudgel, and brand on the backs of their oxen the representation of a club, wherein the Makedonians recognized a memorial of the club of Herakles.
It is variously written Sydrakai, Syrakusai, Sabagræ, and Sygambri.
† V. 11. Νυσαίους, Νύσαν.
"
This celebrated rock has been identified by General Cunningham with the ruined fortress of Rapigat, situated immediately above the small village of Nogram, which lies about sixteen miles north by west from Ohind, which he takes to be the Embolima of the ancients. "Ranigat," he says, or the Queen's rock, is a large upright block on the north edge of the fort, on which Raja Vara's rant is said to have seated herself daily. The fort itself is attributed to Raja Vara, and some ruins at the foot of the hill are called Raja Vara's stables... I think, therefore, that the hill-fort of Aornos most probably derived its name from Raja Vara, and that the ruined fortress of Rapigat has a better claim to be identified with the Aornos of Alexander than either the Mahában hill of General Abbott, or the castle of Raja Hodi proposed by General Court and Mr. Loewenthal." See Grote's History of India, vol. VIII. pp. 487-8, footnote.
