Megasthenes
(Μεγασθένης). A Greek historian, who stayed for a considerable time, as ambassador of King Seleucus Nicator, at the court of the Indian king Sandracus or Sandracottus (B.C. 315- 291), at Palibothra on the Ganges. From information about the country and the people, obtained while he occupied that position, he compiled a historical and geographical work about India (τὰ Ἰνδικά), the chief treatise on that country left us by the ancients. On it are founded the accounts of Diodorus and Arrian; beyond this only fragments are preserved. His record of the state of India at the time has been discredited; but recent investigations have, to a great extent, shown its trustworthiness. The remains of Megasthenes have been edited by Schnaubeck (Bonn, 1846), and cf. Müller's Frag. Hist. Graec. (Paris, 1868-74).
- Apollod. E.7.25