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16 - The justice of the Indians

Richard Stoneman
Affiliation:
Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter and Chairman of Westminster Classic Tours.
Richard Seaford
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

Περὶ τῶν Ἰνδῶν, ὅτι δικαιότατοι, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐθῶν καὶ νομίμων αὐτῶν.

Ctesias claims that the Indians are very just people; he also describes their customs and manners. (Ctesias fragment [= F] 45.16)

Ποƛƛὰ δὲ ƛέγει (sc. Ctesias) περὶ τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς περὶ τὸν σϕῶν βασιƛέα εὐνοίας καὶ τῆς τοῦ θανάτου καταϕρονήσεως.

Ctesias says a great deal about their justice, their goodwill towards their king, and their contempt for death. (Ctesias F45.30)

(Οἱ Κυνοκέϕαƛοι) … δίκαιοι δέ εἰσι καὶ μακροβιώτατοι πάντων ἀνθρώπων.

The Dogheads … are just men who enjoy the greatest longevity of any people. (Ctesias F45.43)

Greek accounts

These three passages are almost the only references to the customs of any Indian peoples in what survives of Ctesias’ account of India. Ctesias of Cnidus was a physician who held a post at the court of the Persian King Artaxerxes I, probably from 415 to 398/7 BCE. He wrote an extensive account of Persian history in twenty- three books and a much shorter description of India in one book. His history of Persia is regarded as extremely unreliable, not least where it contradicts his predecessor Herodotus, but it probably contains much that was in oral circulation in Persian court circles. Ctesias’ Indica is the first monograph devoted in Greek (or any other language) to India: he did not visit India but recorded what he had learned from merchants, some of them Bactrian, visiting Persia from the Indus Valley and the ‘Silk Road’. His works are lost, but we possess long excerpts from both of them in the reading diary of the tenth-century Byzantine bishop Photius, as well as scattered quotations in other writers, notably Aelian. Most of the Indian extract is devoted to hydrography, to zoological and botanical marvels – griffins, poisonous birds, manticores – and to bizarre races like the Dog-headed people. By contrast, Megasthenes, who spent time at the court of Chandragupta Maurya in the early third century BCE, wrote a book which included extensive information on manners and customs, including (F27 Schwanbeck = FGrH 715F32) their simplicity and the infrequency of lawsuits among them.

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Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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  • The justice of the Indians
    • By Richard Stoneman, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter and Chairman of Westminster Classic Tours.
  • Edited by Richard Seaford, University of Exeter
  • Book: Universe and Inner Self in Early Indian and Early Greek Thought
  • Online publication: 01 December 2017
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  • The justice of the Indians
    • By Richard Stoneman, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter and Chairman of Westminster Classic Tours.
  • Edited by Richard Seaford, University of Exeter
  • Book: Universe and Inner Self in Early Indian and Early Greek Thought
  • Online publication: 01 December 2017
Available formats
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  • The justice of the Indians
    • By Richard Stoneman, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter and Chairman of Westminster Classic Tours.
  • Edited by Richard Seaford, University of Exeter
  • Book: Universe and Inner Self in Early Indian and Early Greek Thought
  • Online publication: 01 December 2017
Available formats
×