Megasthĕnes
(
Μεγασθένης). A Greek historian, who stayed for a
considerable time, as ambassador of King Seleucus Nicator, at the court of the Indian king
Sandracus or Sandracottus (B.C. 315- 291), at Palibothra on the Ganges. From information about
the country and the people, obtained while he occupied that position, he compiled a historical
and geographical work about India (
τὰ Ἰνδικά), the chief
treatise on that country left us by the ancients. On it are founded the accounts of Diodorus
and Arrian; beyond this only fragments are preserved. His record of the state of India at the
time has been discredited; but recent investigations have, to a great extent, shown its
trustworthiness. The remains of Megasthenes have been edited by Schnaubeck
(Bonn,
1846), and cf. Müller's
Frag. Hist. Graec. (Paris,
1868-74).