Greek Texts & Translations

when the Barbarians perceived that the antidote for the poison was discovered, they surrendered to the king. It is probable, however, that some one acquainted with the plant informed the king of its virtues, and that the fabulous part of the story was invented for the purpose of flattery.

Having arrived at the palace ^note of the Gedrosii on the sixtieth day after leaving the Ori, ^note and allowed his army a short period of rest, he set out for Carmania. 8

The position of the southern side of Ariana is thus situated, with reference to the sea-coast, the country of the Gedrosii and the Oritae lying near and above it. A great part of Gedrosia extends into the interior until it touches upon the Drangae, Arachoti, and Paropamisadae, of whom Eratosthenes speaks in the following manner: we cannot give a better description. Ariana, he says, "is bounded on the east by the Indus, on the south by the Great Sea, on the north by the Paropamisus and the succeeding chain of mountains as far as the Caspian Gates, on the west by the same limits ^note by which the territory of the Parthians is separated from Media, and Carmania from Paraetacene and Persia.

The breadth of the country is the length of the Indus, reckoned from the Paropamisus as far as the mouths of that river, and amounts to 12,000, or according to others to 13,000, stadia. The length, beginning from the Caspian Gates, as it is laid down in Asiatic Stathmi, ^note is estimated in two different ways. From the Caspian Gates to Alexandreia among the Arii ^note through Parthia is one and the same road. Then a road leads in a straight line through Bactriana, and over the pass of the mountain to Ortospana, ^note to the meeting of the three roads from Bactra, which is among the Paropamisadae. The other branch turns off a little from Aria towards the south to Prophthasia in Drangiana; then the remainder leads as far as the confines of India and of the Indus; so that the road through the Drangae and the Arachoti is longer, the whole amounting to 15,300 stadia. But if we deduct 1300 stadia, we shall have the remainder as the length of the country in a straight line, namely, 14,000 stadia; for the length of the coast is not much less, although some persons increase this sum by