Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/24

Rh what remarkable that they should have learned hardly anything of importance regarding it from the expeditions which were successively under- taken against it by the Egyptians under Sesoatris, the Assyrians under Semiramis, and the Persians first under Kyros and afterwards under Dareios the son of Hystaspês. Perhaps, as Dr. Eobertson has observed, they disdained, through pride of their own superior enlightenment, to pay attention to the transactions of people whom they considered as barbarians, especially in countries far remote from their own. But, in whatever way the fact may be accounted for, India continued to be to the Greeks little better than a land of mystery and fable till the times of the Persian wars, when for the first time they became distinctly aware of its existence. The first historian who speaks clearly of it is Hekataios of Miletos (B.C. 549-486),