4 ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STEABO of Alexander, we shall find them even more obscure. It is probable that Alexander, elated by his extraordi- nary good fortune, believed these accounts. According to Nearchos, he was ambitious of conducting his army through Gedrosia (Mekran) when he heard that Semi- ramis and Cyrus (Kyros) had undertaken expeditions against India (through this country), although both had abandoned the enterprise, the former escaping with twenty, and Cyrus with seven men only. For that rea- son Alexander considered that it would be a glorious achievement for him to lead a conquering army safe through the same nations and countries where Semira- mis and Cyrus had suffered such disasters; and he therefore gave credence to the stories. But how can we place any real confidence in the accounts of India derived from such expeditions as those of Cyrus and Semiramis? Megasthenes is also of this opinion, for he advises persons not to credit the ancient histories of India, owing to the fact that, with the exception of the expeditions of Herakles (Hercules), of Dionysos (Bacchus), and the later invasion of Alex- ander, no army was ever sent out of their country by the Indians, nor did any foreign enemy ever invade or conquer it. Sesostris the Egyptian, he says, and Tearkon the Ethiopian, advanced as far as Europe; and Nabokodrosoros (Nebuchadrezzar) who was more cele- brated among the Chaldaeans than Herakles among the Greeks, penetrated even as far as the Pillars, which Tearkon also reached; Sesostris conducted an army from Iberia to Thrake and Pontos; Idanthyrsos the
