(Μεγασθένης).
1. A Greek writer, to whom the subsequent Greek writers were chiefly indebted for their accounts of India. Megasthenes was a friend and companion of Seleucus Nicator (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 305d), and was sent by that monarch as ambassador to Sandracottus, king of the Prasii, whose capital was Palibothra, a town, probably, near the confluence of the Ganges and Sone in the neighbourhood of the modern Patna. [*](* Sandracottus is called Chandragupta in the Sanscrit writers and his capital Pâtaliptra.) (Strab. ii. p.70, xv. p. 702; Arrian, Arr. Anab. 5.6, Ind. 5; Plin. Nat. 6.17. s.21.) We know nothing more respecting the personal history of Megasthenes, except the statement of Arrian (Anab. l.c.), that he lived with Sibyrtius, the satrap of Arachosia, who obtained the satrapies of Arachosia and Gedrosia, in B. C. 323. (Diod. 18.3.) Whether Megasthenes accompanied Alexander or not in his invasion of India, is uncertain. The time at which he was sent to Sandracottus, and the reason for which he was sent, are also equally uncertain. Clinton (Fasti Hell. vol. iii. p. 482, note z) places the embassy a little before B. C. 302, since it was about this time that Seleucus concluded an alliance with Sandracottus ; but it is no where stated that it was through the means of Megasthenes that the alliance was concluded ; and as the latter resided some time at the court of Sandracottus, he may have been sent into India at a subsequent period. Since, however, Sandracottus died in B. C. 288, the mission of Megasthenes must be placed previous to that year. We have more certain information respecting the parts of India which Megasthenes visited. He entered the country through the district of the Pentapotamia, of the rivers of which he gave a full account (Arrian, Ind. cc. 4, 8, &c.), and proceeded thence by the royal road to Palibothra, but appears not to have visited any other parts of India. (Comp. Strab. xv. p.689.) Most modern writers, from the time of Robertson, have supposed, from a passage of Arrian (πολλάκις δὲ λέγει (Μεγασθένης) ἀφικέσθαι παρὰ Σανδράκοττον τὸν Ἰνδῶν Βασιλέα, Anab. 5.6), that Megasthenes paid several visits to India, but since neither Megasthenes himself, nor any other writer, alludes to more than one visit, these words may simply mean that he had several interviews with Sandracottus during his residence in the country.