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[German version] (Ταπροβάνη/ Taprobánē). The most common name for the island of Ceylon from the time of Onesicritus (in Str. 15,1,17 and Plin. HN 6,81) and Megasthenes (Plin. HN 6, 81) onwards, Ancient Indian Tāmraparṇi, Middle Indian Tambapaṇṇi. The unrealistic geographical ideas of Antiquity, which are probably based on Eratosthenes [2], are noteworthy: in all Greek and Latin sources T. is much larger than in reality and extends far to the west. Nevertheless, in Ptolemaeus [65] for instance, who devotes a whole chapter to T. (7,4…

(Πλάτων/ Plátōn). [German version] [1] The philosopher, 428/7 - 348/7 BC Athenian philosopher, 428/7 - 348/7 BC Szlezák, Thomas A. (Tübingen) [German version] A. Life The Seventh Letter (which is not intended to constitute a complete autobiography) and scattered reports from various ancient authors (of these, Plutarchus' [2] Life of Dion and Philodemus' Academica Gaiser/ Academicorum Historia Dorandi are particularly instructive) are our most important sources of information on the life of P. To these should be added the chronological accounts in Apuleius, De Platone et eius d…

[German version] (Μουσικανός/ Mousikanós). Indian king of the people of the same name ( Musicani) on the lower reaches of the Indus (Onesicritus in Str. 15,1,21f.; Arr. Anab. 6,15,5-17,2, also briefly Curt. 9,8,8-10). People have often tried to link the name wit the ancient Indian tribal name Mūṣika; however, they originated not in the north west, but in the south of India. M. had initially submitted to Alexander [4] the Great and had been received cordially, but after a failed revolt he was condemned to death. Onesicritus depicts his kingdom as a utopia steeped in Cynical philosophy. …

[German version] (Ζάβιοι/ Zábioi). Indian people according to Nonnus, Dion. 26,65 (who goes back to the Bassariká of Dionysius [32]). Their territory was probably in northwestern India, neighbouring the Dardae (cf. Steph. Byz. s. v. Δάρδαι/ Dárdai), but is not identifiable [1]. Attempts to make a comparison between the information in Nonnus (and Dionysius) and Indian realities remain tenuous (already [2], later e.g. [3], [4]; see also [5]). Rather, it is a matter of a Greek literary reflection of a mythical India, which only acci…

[German version] Called Abhisāra in Old Indian, a mountain people of northern Pakistan (Megasthenes at Arr. Ind. 4,12), on the Soanos river, an eastern tributary of the Indus River (nowadays called Sohan or Suwan [1. 1100 f.]), with King  Abisares. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 G. Wirth, O. by Hinüber, (ed. and trans.) Arrian, Der Alexanderzug - Indische Geschichte, 1985.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: India, trade with | Mauryas (Μουζιρίς; Mouzirís). Sea port on the south-western coast of India in modern Kerala; the Indian Muciri of the Tamil Sangam poems [1]. Both Greek and Tamil sources describe M. as one of the most important southern Indian port and trading cities. An important trading route to the eastern coast of India originated from M. A papyrus deed (PVindob. 40822) from Egypt reports of a loan that was granted in M. [2]. Because of the unsteadiness of the coast, its exact location remains unknown. I…

(Ἀγαθοκλῆς; Agathoklês) [German version] [1] of Athens Archon 357/56 BC Archon 357/56 BC (Dem. Or. 47,44; Diod. Sic. 16,9). Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld) [German version] [2] Tyrant King of Syracuse (316-288 BC) Later king of Syracuse, born 361/0 BC in Thermae in Sicily. Son of Carcinus, who had been banned from Rhegium, and who under  Timoleon had received citizenship in Syracuse and had a pottery manufactory. A. had an adventurous youth, participated in several martial undertakings and early on fostered broad-reaching politica…

[German version] (Hecat. in Steph. Byz. FGrH; Kallatiai in Hdt. 3,38). Indian ethnic group whose members according to Hdt. used to eat their parents -- an ethnological curiosity that in another citation (Hdt. 3,99) was attributed to another Indian people, the Padaioi, likewise to the Iranian Massagetae (Hdt. 1,216) and the  Issedones (Hdt. 4,26). Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography K. Karttunen, India in Early Greek Literature, 1989, 197-202.

[German version] [1] Attic Paralia(?) deme of the Acamantis phyle (Πόρος/ Póros). Attic paralia(?) deme, Acamantis phyle, from 307/6 BC Demetrias, three bouleutaí. Location unknown, but certainly not in Laureum or Metropisi (otherwise [1; 2]), since no mining is recorded for P. Lohmann, Hans (Bochum) Bibliography 1 P. Siewert, Die Trittyen Attikas und die Heeresreform des Kleisthenes, 1982, 95, 173 f. 2 J. S. Traill, Demos and Trittys, 1986, 133. Traill, Attica, 9, 48, 68, 112 no. 117 pl. 5, 12. [German version] [2] Indian king, defeated by Alexander [4] the great in 326 (Πῶρος; Pôros)…

[German version] (Μαλλοί; Malloí). Indian people at the confluence of the Punjab rivers Hydaspes, Acesines [2] and Hydraotes, with several fortified cities. In league with the Oxydracae, they violently resisted Alexander the Great. They are probably the ancient Indian Mālava who later emigrated to the east and are attested numismatically and epigraphically in Rājasthān (2nd cent. BC) and in Madhya Pradesh. Their name there is still preserved as Mālwā. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography K. K. Das Gupta, The Mālava, 1966.

[German version] The Greeks of Hellenistic Bactria ( Graeco-Bactria), who conquered southeastern Afghanistan (Paropamisadae and Arachosia) and northwestern India (modern Pakistan) in the 2nd cent. BC. After the first and most important kings ( Demetrius [10] and Menander) the kingdom disintegrated into several parts whose numerous rulers (almost 40) are mostly attested only by coins. The I. held on until the 1st cent. BC or even the 1st cent. AD, when territories were conquered by the  Parthians a…

(Εὐθύδημος; Euthýdemos). [German version] [1] Athenian strategos 418/7 BC Athenian strategos of 418/17 BC. He took part in the Sicilian campaign, during which in 414/13 both he and Menander became commanders to serve alongside Nicias. They were defeated before  Demosthenes [1] even arrived. They failed in their attempt to force their departure out of Syracuse's great harbour (Thuc. 7,16,1; 69,4; Diod. Sic. 13,13,2-4; Plut. Nicias 20). Schmitz, Winfried (Bielefeld) Bibliography D. Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, 1981. [German version] [2] E. I. Greek ki…

[German version] (Μαισῶλος; Maisôlos). Indian river, has its source in the Orudia mountain range (unclear according to [1]) and flows south to the Gulf of the Ganges (Ptol. 7,1,15; 37). Either modern Godavari or rather Kistna (Krishna) at whose delta the city of Masulipatam still lies today. Dey [2] also equates the name of the river M. with Old Indian Mahāósāla, a place of pilgrimage on the Godavari. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 O. Stein, s.v. Ὀρούδια, RE 18, 1526f. 2 N. L. Dey, The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India, 1927.

[German version] (Κάβουρα, Ptol. 6,18,5, erroneously there also Károura), also called Ortospana; probably what is now Kabul on the  Cophen (Sanskrit Kubhā). In the Alexander histories, C. is never mentioned; following the  Bematistai however it is cited by Plin. HN 6,61 as Ortospanum. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography A. Herrmann, s.v. Kabura, RE 10, 1452f. O. Stein, s.v. Ortospanum, RE 18, 1507f.

[German version] (Μαισωλία; Maisōlía, Ptol. 7,1,15; Masalia, Peripl. m.r. 62); the land of the Maesolians (Ptol. 7,1,79; 93) on the east coast of India. For the name and the position see Maesolus. From an unnamed harbour there, the ships departed, according to Ptolemy, for Chryse Chersonesus (Malacca). Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 B. Chatterjee, The Point of Departure for Ships Bound for ‘Suvarnabhumi’, in: Journ. of Ancient Indian History 11, 1977-1978, 49-52.

[German version] I. Name Old Indian Sindhu as the name for the Indus river, is attested (with Iranian h) as Hindu in the ancient Persian inscriptions; from this came Greek Ἰνδός ( Indōs; with the Ionian loss of h) for the river and then Ἰνδική ( Indikḗ) for the country. The Latin terms are Indus and India. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) [German version] II. Early relationships Whilst relationships between north-western I. and Mesopotamia go back to the 3rd millennium BC, I. became known in Greece only in the late 6th cent. through Scylax (FGrH 709), who visited …

[German version] Name of two Indo-Greek kings. The first, who is mentioned in literary sources (Peripl. M. Rubr. 47, Just. Epit. Prologue B. 41), ruled in Paropamisadae around 180-160 BC; the second, who is known only from coins, ruled about 100 years later in the Punjab. The legends on the coins minted under both of them generally read ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΠΟΛΛΟΔΟΤΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ / maharajasa apaladatasa tratarasa. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography O. Bopearachchi, 62-64, 188-194 (Appendix I), 135 f., 346-355 (Appendix II).

(Ἀμύντας; Amýntas). [German version] [1] Macedonian king (end of 6th cent. BC) First historically verifiable king of Macedonia, friend of the  Peisistratids. Upon Darius' appearance in Europe he became his vassal-satrap and was rewarded with an expansion of his territory and the marriage of his daughter to a member of the  Achaemenids. His son  Alexander [2] invented a novelistic history (Hdt. 5,17 ff.), in order to make this credible for the Greeks. Badian, Ernst (Cambridge, MA) Bibliography Borza, 98 ff. E. Badian, Herodotus on Alexander I of Macedon, in: S. Hornblower (ed.), G…

[German version] (Σωπείθης; Sōpeíthēs). Indian king in the Punjab to the east of the Cathaei, allied with Alexander [4] (Arr. Anab. 6,2,2; Str. 15,1,30; Diod. Sic. 17,91; Curt. 9,1, 24-30). His land is described very positively, to some extent idealised. There is particularly frequent mention of the fearless dogs he presented to Alexander. The ancient identification of S. with the Old Indo-Iranian Saubhūti is quite uncertain, and that with the prince Sophytes (recorded only numismatically) is certainly mistaken [1. 60-72]. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 R. B. White…

(Ὀρθαγόρας/ Orthagóras). [German version] [1] Tyrant of Sicyon, 6th cent. BC O. of Sicyon is said to have established the tyrannís there around 650 BC. The ruling dynasty thus established was called the 'Orthagorids' after him. An anonymous ‘history of tyranny (FGrH 105 F 2) preserved on papyrus, and probably deriving from Ephorus, reports that O. had first distinguished himself as a border guard on the frontier with a neighbouring city, and later rose to become commander of the watch and polémarchos . Whether he had the support of the hoplítai for his seizure o…