But yet Taprobane even, isolated as it is by nature from the rest of the world, is not exempt from our vices. Gold and silver are held in esteem even there. They have a marble which resembles tortoise-shell in appearance; this, as well as their pearls and precious stones, is highly valued; all our luxuries in fact, those even of the most exquisite nature, are there carried to the very highest pitch. They asserted that their wealth is much greater than ours, but admitted that we know better than they how to obtain real enjoyment from opulence.
In this island no slavery exists; they do not prolong their sleep to day-break, nor indeed during any part of the day; their buildings are only of a moderate height from the ground; the price of corn is always the same; they have no courts of law and no litigation. Hercules is the deity whom they worship; and their king is chosen by the people, an aged man always, distinguished for his mild and clement disposition, and without children. If after he has been elected king, he happens to become the father of children, his abdication is the consequence; this is done that there may be no danger of the sovereign power becoming hereditary. Thirty advisers are provided for him by the people, and it is only by the advice of the majority of them that any man is condemned to capital punishment. Even then, the person so condemned has a right of appealing to the people, in which case a jury consisting of seventy persons is appointed. Should these acquit the accused, the thirty counsellors are no longer held in any estimation, but are visited with the greatest disgrace. The king wears the costume of Father Liber,[404] while the rest of the people dress like the natives of Arabia. The king, if he is found guilty of any offence, is condemned to death; but no one slays him; all turn their backs upon him, and refuse to hold any communication or even discourse with him. Their festivals are celebrated[405] with the chase, the most valued sports being the pursuit of the tiger and the elephant. The lands are carefully tilled; the vine is not cultivated there, but of other fruits there is great abundance. They take great delight in fishing, and especially in catching turtles; beneath the shells[406] of which whole families find an abode, of such vast size are they to be found. These people look upon a hundred years as a comparatively short life. Thus much have we learned respecting Taprobane.
CHAP. 25.—THE ARIANI AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.
We will now proceed to give some further particulars relative to the four Satrapies, of which we have postponed further mention[407] till the present occasion.
(23). After passing the nations in the vicinity of the Indus, we come to the mountain districts. The territory of Capisene formerly had a city, called Capisa,[408] which was destroyed by Cyrus. Arachosia[409] has a river and a city of the same name; the city was built by Semiramis; by some writers it is called Cophen. The river Erymanthus[410] flows past Parabeste,[411] which belongs to the Arachosii. Writers make the Dexendrusi come next, forming the boundary of the Arachotæ on the southern side, and of the Paropanisadæ on the north. The city of Cartana[412] lies at the foot of Caucasus; in later times it has been called Tetragonis.[413] This region lies over against that of the Bactri, who come next, and whose chief city is Alexandria,[414] so called from the name of its founder. We then come to the Syndraci,[415] the Dangalæ,[416] the Parapinæ,[417] the Catuces, and the Mazi: and then at the foot of Caucasus, to the Cadrusi, whose town[418] was built by Alexander.
Below all these countries, is the line of coast which we come to after leaving the Indus. Ariana[419] is a region parched by the sun and surrounded by deserts; still, however, as the face of the country is every here and there diversified with well-shaded spots, it finds communities grouped together to cultivate it, and more especially around the two rivers, known as the Tonberos[420] and the Arosapes.[421] There is also the town of Artacoana,[422] and the river Arius,[423] which flows past Alexandria,[424] a city founded by Alexander; this place is thirty stadia in extent. Much more beautiful than it, as well as of much greater antiquity, is Artacabane,[425] fortified a second time by Antiochus, and fifty stadia in breadth. We then come to the nation of the Dorisdorsigi, and the rivers Pharnaracotis,[426] and Ophradus; and then to Prophthasia,[427] a city of the Zaraspades, the Drangæ,[428] the Evergetæ,[429] the Zarangæ, and the Gedrusi;[430] the towns of Pucolis, Lyphorta, the desert of the Methorgi,[431] the river Manais,[432] the nation of the Acutri, the river Eorum, the nation of the Orbi, the Pomanus, a navigable river in the territories of the Pandares, the Apirus in the country of the Suari, with a good harbour at its mouth, the city of Condigramma, and the river Cophes;[433] into which last flow the navigable streams of the Saddaros,[434] the Parospus, and the Sodanus. Some writers will also have it that Daritis[435] forms part of Ariana, and give the length of them both as nineteen hundred and fifty miles, and the breadth one half of that[436] of India. Others again have spread the Gedrusi and the Pasires over an extent of one hundred and thirty-eight miles, and place next to them the Ichthyophagi Oritæ,[437] a people who speak a language peculiar to themselves, and not the Indian dialect, extending over a space of two hundred miles. Alexander forbade the whole of the Ichthyophagi[438] to live any longer on fish. Next after these the writers have placed extensive deserts, and then Carmania, Persia, and Arabia.
CHAP. 26.—VOYAGES TO INDIA.
But before we enter into any details respecting these countries, it will be as well to mention what Onesicritus[439] has stated, who commanded the fleet of Alexander, and sailed from India[440] into the heart of Persia, and what has been more recently related by Juba; after which I shall speak of the route along these seas which has been discovered in later years and is followed at the present day. The journal of the voyage of Onesicritus and Nearchus has neither the names of the stations, nor yet the distances set down in it; and, first of all, it is not sufficiently explained where Xylenepolis was, and near what river, a place founded by Alexander, and from which, upon setting out, they took their departure. Still, however, the following places are mentioned by them, which are worthy of our notice. The town of Arbis, founded by Nearchus on the occasion of this voyage; the river Nabrus,[441] navigable for vessels, and opposite to it an island, at a distance of seventy stadia; Alexandria, built by Leonnatus[442] by order of Alexander in the territories of this people; Argenus, with a very convenient harbour; the river Tonberos,[443] a navigable stream, around whose banks are the Pasiræ; then come the Ichthyophagi, who extend over so large a tract of coast that it took thirty days[444] to sail past their territory; and an island known by the names of the “Island of the Sun”[445] and the “Bed of the Nymphs,” the earth of which is red, and in which every animal instantly dies; the cause of which, however, has not been ascertained.[446] Next to these is the nation of the Ori, and then the Hyctanis,[447] a river of Carmania, with an excellent harbour at its mouth, and producing gold; at this spot the writers state that for the first time they caught sight of the Great Bear.[448] The star Arcturus too, they tell us, was not to be seen here every night, and never, when it was seen, during the whole of it. Up to this spot extended the empire of the Achæmenidæ,[449] and in these districts are to be found mines of copper, iron, arsenic, and red lead.
They next came to the Promontory of Carmania,[450] from which the distance across to the opposite coast, where the Macæ, a nation of Arabia, dwell, is fifty miles; and then to three islands, of which that of Oracla[451] is alone inhabited, being the only one supplied with fresh water; it is distant from the mainland twenty-five miles; quite in the Gulf, and facing Persia, there are four other islands. About these islands sea-serpents[452] were seen swimming towards them, twenty cubits in length, which struck the fleet with great alarm. They then came to the island of Athothradus, and those called the Gauratæ, upon which dwells the nation of the Gyani; the river Hyperis,[453] which discharges itself midway into the Persian Gulf, and is navigable for merchant ships; the river Sitiogagus, from which to Pasargadæ[454] is seven days’ sail; a navigable river known as the Phristimus, and an island without a name; and then the river Granis,[455] navigable for vessels of small burden, and flowing through Susiane; the Deximontani, a people who manufacture bitumen, dwell on its right bank. The river Zarotis comes next, difficult of entrance at its mouth, except by those who are well acquainted with it; and then two small islands; after which the fleet sailed through shallows which looked very much like a marsh, but were rendered navigable by certain channels which had been cut there. They then arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates, and from thence passed into a lake which is formed by the rivers Eulæus[456] and Tigris, in the vicinity of Charax,[457] after which they arrived at Susa,[458] on the river Tigris. Here, after a voyage of three months, they found Alexander celebrating a festival, seven months after he had left them at Patale.[459] Such was the voyage performed by the fleet of Alexander.
In later times it has been considered a well-ascertained fact that the voyage from Syagrus,[460] the Promontory of Arabia, to Patale, reckoned at thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles, can be performed most advantageously with the aid of a westerly wind, which is there known by the name of Hippalus.