Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/127

 108 faith in the ancient history of India. Its people, he says, never sent an expedition abroad, nor was their country ever invaded and conqnered except by H^rakles and Dionysos in old times, and by the Makedonians in onr own. Yet Ses6stris the Egyptian* and Tearkon the Ethiopian ad- to the epoch of Semiramis, in fixing the epoch of this celebrated qaeen in the 8th century of our era — an epoch which is qnite in harmony with the data which we possess from other sources regarding the condition of the North- West of India after the Vedic times. " Kyros, towards the middle of the 6th century of our era, must also have carried his arms even to the Indus. Historical tradition attributed to him the destruction of Kapisa, an important city in the upper region of the Kdph^s (Plin. YI. 23); and in the lower region the Assakenians and the Aftakenians, indigenous tribes of Gandara, are reckoned among his tributaries (Arrian, Indikdf I. 3). Tradition further recounted that, in return- ing from his expedition into India, Kyros had seen his whole army perish in the deserts of Gedrosia (Arr. Anah, VI. 24. 2). The Persian domination in these districts has left more than one trace in the geographical nomenclature. It is 8u£&cient to recall the name of the Khoaspds, one of the great affluents of the K6phes. tions of Semiramis and Kyros, it is certain that their con- quests on the Indus were only temporary acquisitions, since at the epoch when Dareios HystaspSs mounted the throne the eastern frontier of the empire did not go beyond Arakhosia (the Haraqaiti of the Zend texts, t£e Haraouvatis of the cuneiform inscriptions, the Arrokluid^j of Musalm&n geography, the provinces of KomdahA/r and of Ghazni of existmg geography) — that is to say, the parts of Afgh^st&n which lie east of the Sulim&i chain of mountains. This fact is established by the great trilingual inscription of Bisoutoun, which indicates the last eastern countries to which Dareios had carried his arms at the epoch when the naonument was erected. This was before he had achieved his well-known conquest of the valley of the Indus." — St. Martin, E'tvde surla Q^ographieQrecque et Latine de VInde, pp. 14 seqq. been identified with Bamses the third king of the 19th dynasty of Manetho, the son of Seti, and the father of Digitized by Google
 * Whatever be the real historical character of the expedi-
 * Sesostris (called Sespfisis by Diodorus) has generally