THE
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA.
FROM the accounts of the Greeks it would appear that the ancient Indians had a very accurate knowledge of the true shape and size of their country. According to Strabo,[1] Alexander "caused the whole country to be described by men well acquainted with it;" and this account was afterwards lent to Patrokles by Xenokles, the treasurer of the Syrian kings. Patrokles himself held the government of the north-east satrapies of the Syrian empire under Seleukus Nikator and Antiochus Soter, and the information which he collected regarding India and the Eastern provinces, has received the approbation of Eratosthenes and Strabo for its accuracy. Another account of India was derived from the register of the Stathmi,[2] or "Marches" from place to place, which was prepared by the Macedonian
- ↑ Geographia, ii. 1, 6.
- ↑ Strabo, x. 1, 11. The name of the author of the 'Stathmi' is preserved by Athenæus, i. 103. The original measurements were most probably made by Diognetus and Baiton, whose duty it was to ascertain the distances and lengths of Alexander's expeditions. See Plin. Hist. Nat., vi. 21.
