Chap. 21.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 39 



by the blowing of that wind, 17 and derive its salubrity there- 

 from. 



In this region, the appearance of the heavens is totally 

 changed, and quite different is the rising of the stars ; there 

 are two summers in the year, and two harvests, while the winter 

 intervenes between them during the time that the Etesian 18 

 winds are blowing : during our winter too, they enjoy light 

 breezes, and their seas are navigable. In this country there are 

 nations and cities which would be found to be quite innumerable, 

 if a person should attempt to enumerate them. For it has been 

 explored not only by the arms of Alexander the Great and of the 

 kings who succeeded him, by Seleucus and Antiochus, who 

 sailed round even to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea, and by 

 Patrocles, 19 the admiral of their fleet, but has been treated of by 

 several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian 

 kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, 

 who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: 

 all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources 

 of these nations. Still, however, there is no possibility of 

 being rigorously exact, so different are the accounts given, and 

 often of a nature so incredible. The followers of Alexander 

 the Great have stated in their writings, that there were no less 

 than five thousand cities in that portion of India which they 



17 This appears also to be somewhat obscure. It is clear that if India 

 lies to the west of Gaul, it cannot be Pliny's meaning that it is refreshed 

 by the west wind blowing to it from Gaul. He may possibly mean that 

 the west wind, which is so refreshing to the west of Europe, and Gaul in 

 particular, first sweeps over India, and thus becomes productive of that 

 salubrity which Posidonius seems to have discovered in India, but for 

 which we look in vain at the present day. Arnid, however, such multiplied 

 chances of a corrupt text, it is impossible to assume any very definite po- 

 sition as to his probable meaning. The French translators oifer no assist- 

 ance in solving the difficulty, and Holland renders it, " This west wind 

 which from behind Gaul bloweth upon India, is very healthsome," &c. 



18 As to the Etesian winds, see B. ii. c. 48. 



19 In the geographical work which Patrocles seems to have published, 

 he is supposed to have given some account of the countries bordering on the 

 Caspian Sea, and there is little doubt that, like other writers of that period, 

 he regarded that sea as a gulf or inlet of the Septentrional Ocean, and pro- 

 bably maintained the possibility of sailing thither by sea from the Indian 

 Ocean. This statement, however, seems to have been strangely misinter- 

 preted by Pliny in his present assertion, that Patrocles had himself accom- 

 plished this circumnavigation. 



