[793] These people were called Ichthyophagi, or Fish-eaters. They are described by Arrian (Indica, 29); Curtius, ix. 40; Diodorus, xvii. 105; Pliny (Nat. Hist. vi. 25, 26); Plutarch (Alex. 66); Strabo, xv. 2. They occupied the sea-coast of Gadrosia, or Beloochistan. Cf. Alciphron (Epistolae, i. 1, 2).
[794] A man of Callatis, a town on the Black Sea in Thrace, originally colonized by the Milesians.
[795] Cf. Herodotus, i. 193.
[796] Pura was near the borders of Carmania, probably at Bampur. The name means town.
[797] Cf. Strabo, xv. 2; Diodorus, ii. 19, 20. According to Megasthenes, Semiramis died before she could carry out her intended invasion of India. See Arrian (Indica, 5). Neither Herodotus nor Ctesias mentions an invasion of India by Cyrus; and according to Arrian (Indica, 9), the Indians expressly denied that Cyrus attacked them.
[798] Strabo says that some of these marches extended 200, 400, and even 600 stades; most of the marching being done in the night. Krüger substitutes ξυμμέτρους for ξύμμετρος οὖσα.
[799] Cf. Thucydides, ii. 49, 3.
[800] Cf. Xenophon (Anab. vii. 5, 13); Homer (Odyss. vii. 283).
[801] Curtius (vii. 20) mentions a similar act of magnanimity as having occurred on the march in pursuit of Bessus through the desert to the river Oxus. Plutarch (Alex. 42) says it was when Alexander was pursuing Darius; Frontinus (Strategematica, i. 7, 7) says it was in the desert of Africa; Polyaenus (iv. 3, 25) relates the anecdote without specifying where the event occurred. μετεξέτεροι is an Ionic form very frequently used by Herodotus.