国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

POMPONIUS MELA, PLINY, CURTIUS AND ARRIAN.   29

Pliny's hydrography of the Indus system is not so good as that of the Greek geographers.'

Regarding the mountain-systems he had nearly the same conception as his predecessors, making the Imaus, Emodus, Paropanisus and Caucasus to links in. one continuous range, from which the country falls to an immeasurable plain similar to Egypt.2 And he even knows China, which RUBRUQUIS, PLANO CARPINI, and MARCO POLO had to rediscover twelve centuries later.3

Of DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES who lived in Domitian's time, and his connection with India, BUNBURY says :4 »The especial importance he attaches to the great Indian promontory as the extreme eastern limit of the world is apparently connected with the poetical notion that Bacchus had erected there two columns `by the farthest shore of the Ocean stream, on the remotest mountains of India, where the Ganges pours its white waters down to the Nysæan shore' ».

QUINTUS CURTIUS has not augmented the classical store of knowledge about India.5

It is of greater interest to hear what ARRIAN, the most brilliant of Alexander's historians, and at the same time philosopher, statesman, military commander, has to tell us about those parts of Asia which are the object of this work. He was born towards the end of the first century A. D. His geography is chiefly based upon Eratosthenes and Megasthenes and the most trustworthy historians among the contemporaries of Alexander.6

XIX amnis, ex its navigabilis praeter jam dictos Condochaten, Erannoboan, Cosoagum, Sonum. Alii cum magno fragore ipsius statim fontis erumpere deiectumque per scopulosa et abrupta, ubi primum mollis planities contingat, in quodam lacu hospitari, inde lenem fluere» . . . etc. Lib. VI, Cap. XVIII.

I In Lib. VI, Cap. XX he says: »Indus, incolis Sindis appellatus, in iugo Caucasi montis quod vocatur Paropanisus adversus solis ortum effusus, et ipse XIX recipit amnis . . .» Again he mentions the source of the Indus: »Gens hc (Bactri) optinet aversa montis Paropanisi exadversus fontis Indi, includitur flumine Ocho.» And in Lib. VII. Cap. II he has a word about the source of the Ganges, though it does not help us to locate it.

2 Lib. VI. Cap. XVII.

3 »Ultra montis Emodos Seras quoque ab ipsis adspici notos etiam conmercio . . .» (Lib. VI. Cap. XXII.)

4 Op. cit. Vol. II p. 485.

5 India tota ferme spectat Orientem, minus in latitudinem, quam recta regione spatiosa. Quae Austrum accipiunt, in altius terrae fastigium excedunt; plana sunt cetera, multisque inclitis amnibus Caucaso monte ortis placidum per campos iter præbent. Indus gelidior est, quam ceteri. Aquas vehit a colore maris haud multum abhorrentes. Ganges amnis ab ortu eximius ad meridianam regionem decurrit, et magnorum montium iuga recto alveo stringit. Inde eum obiectae rupes inclinant ad Orientem. . . . Acesines eum auget. Ganges decursurum in mare intercipit : magnoque motu amnis, uterque colliditur. Quippe Ganges asperum os influenti obiicit; nec repercussæ aquæ cedunt. Dyardenes minus celeber auditu est, quia per ultima Indiæ currit; ceterum non crocodilos modo uti Ni-lus, sed etiam delphines ignotasque aliis gentibus belluas alit. Erymanthus crebris flexibus subinde curvatus, ab accolis rigantibus carpitur. . . . Quippe III flumina tota India præter Gangem maxima munimento arcis applicant undas. A septemtrione Indus alluit; a meridie Acesines Hydaspi confunditur. Lib. VIII & IX.

6 j. W. M'CRINDLE: The Invasion of India by ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Westminster 1896 p. 9.