BOOK V.
CHAPTER I.
Alexander at Nysa.
In this country, lying between the rivers Cophen and Indus, which was traversed by Alexander, the city of Nysa[1] is said to be situated. The report is, that its foundation was the work of Dionysus, who built it after he had subjugated the Indians.[2] But it is impossible to determine who this Dionysus[3] was, and at what time, or from what quarter he led an army against the Indians. For I am unable to decide whether the Theban Dionysus, starting from Thebes or from the Lydian Tmolus[4] came into India at the head of an army, and after traversing the territories of so, many warlike nations, unknown to the Greeks of that time, forcibly subjugated none of them except that of the Indians. But I do not think we ought to make a minute examination of the legends which were promulgated in ancient times about the divinity; for things which are not credible to the man who examines them according to the rule of probability, do not appear to be wholly incredible, if one adds the
- ↑ This city was probably on the site of Jelalabad.
- ↑ ὲπει τε. This is the only place where Arrian uses this Ionic form for the simple ὲπει.
- ↑ The Indians worship a god Homa, the personification of the intoxicating soma juice. This deity corresponds to the Greek Dionysus or Bacchus.
- ↑ The slopes of this mountain were covered with vines. See Ovid (Fasti, ii. 313; Metamorphoses, xi. 86); Vergil (Georgics, ii. 98); Pliny, xiv. 9.
265
