(Μεγασθένης; Megasthénes). Diplomat and historian (c. 350-290 BC). An envoy sent out several times between 302 and 291 under Seleucus I, especially to northern India, where Chandragupta ( Sandracottus) founded the Maurya kingdom.
His geographical and ethnographical work Indiká, three or four books, preserved only in fragments, was based on observation and information uncritically received through interpreters. For a long time it was the most detailed presentation of India and was used by Diodorus [18] Siculus, Strabo and Plinius the Elder, but primarily by Arrian…