1.
Pataliputra
–
Pataliputra, adjacent to modern-day Patna, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort near the Ganges river. Extensive archaeological excavations have been made in the vicinity of modern Patna, excavations early in the 20th century around Patna revealed clear evidence of large fortification walls, including reinforcing wooden trusses. The etymology of Pataliputra is unclear, putra means son, and pāţali is a species of rice or the plant Bignonia suaveolens. One traditional etymology holds that the city was named after the plant, another tradition says that Pāṭaliputra means the son of Pāṭali, who was the daughter of Raja Sudarshan. As it was known as Pāṭali-grāma originally, some believe that Pāṭaliputra is a transformation of Pāṭalipura. There is no mention of Pataliputra in written sources prior to the early Buddhist texts, in 303 BCE, Greek historian and ambassador Megasthenes mentioned Pataliputra as a city in his work Indika. The city of Pataliputra was formed by fortification of a village by Haryanka ruler Bimbisara and its central location in north eastern India led rulers of successive dynasties to base their administrative capital here, from the Nandas, Mauryans, Shungas and the Guptas down to the Palas. Situated at the confluence of the Ganges, Gandhaka and Son rivers, Pataliputra formed a water fort and its position helped it dominate the riverine trade of the Indo-Gangetic plains during Magadhas early imperial period. It was a centre of trade and commerce and attracted merchants and intellectuals, such as the famed Chanakya. Jain and Brahmanical sources identify Udayabhadra, son of Ajatashatru, as the king who first established Pataliputra as the capital of Magadha. During the reign of Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, it was one of the worlds largest cities, with a population of 150, 000–400,000. The city is estimated to have had a surface of 25.5 square kilometers, and a circumference of 33.8 kilometers, Pataliputra reached the pinnacle of prosperity when it was the capital of the great Mauryan Emperors, Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka. Arrian, The Indica Strabo in his Geographia adds that the city walls were made of wood and these are thought to be the wooden palisades identified during the excavation of Patna. At the confluence of the Ganges and of another river is situated Palibothra, in length 80 and it is in the shape of a parallelogram, surrounded by a wooden wall pierced with openings through which arrows may be discharged. In front is a ditch, which serves the purpose of defence, in the parks, tame peacocks and pheasants are kept. Aelian, Characteristics of animals Ashokas Palace in Pataliputra and the monument columns everywhere in India were built to imitate the Achaemenid palaces, the architecture of Pataliputras enclosures and the monumental columns of Ashoka had been affected by Persian Achaemenid architecture. The design of the Pataliputra palace capital has been described as Perso-Iionic, with a strong late-archaic Greek stylistic influence, including volute, bead and reel, the city also became a flourishing Buddhist centre boasting a number of important monasteries. It remained the capital of the Gupta dynasty and the Pala Dynasty, the city was largely in ruins when visited by Xuanzang, and suffered further damage at the hands of Muslim raiders in the 12th century
Pataliputra
–
Plan of Pataliputra compared to present-day Patna
Pataliputra
–
Pataliputra as a capital of
Maurya Empire. The
Maurya Empire at its largest extent under
Ashoka the Great.
Pataliputra
–
Pataliputra as a capital of
Shunga Empire. Approximate greatest extent of the
Shunga Empire (c. 185 BCE).
2.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Ancient Greek
–
Inscription about the construction of the statue of
Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Ancient Greek
–
Ostracon bearing the name of
Cimon,
Stoa of Attalos
Ancient Greek
–
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955
Leonidas Monument at
Thermopylae
3.
Indian people
–
Indian people are citizens of India, the second most populous nation containing 17. 50% of the worlds population. Indian refers to nationality, but not ethnicity or language, the Indian nationality consists of many regional ethno-linguistic groups, reflecting the rich and complex history of India. India hosts all major ethnic groups found in the Indian Subcontinent, population estimates vary from a conservative 12 million to 20 million diaspora. The name Bhārata has been used as a name by people of the Indian subcontinent. The designation Bhārata appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country, the name is derived from the ancient Vedic and Puranas, which refer to the land that comprises India as Bhārata varṣam and uses this term to distinguish it from other varṣas or continents. The Bhāratas were a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, notably participating in the Battle of the Ten Kings. India is named after legendary Emperor Bharata who was a descendant of the Bhāratas tribe, in early Vedic literature, the term Āryāvarta was in popular use before Bhārata. The Manusmṛti gives the name Āryāvarta to the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern to the Western Sea, while the word Indian and India is derived from Greek Ἰνδία, via Latin India. The name is derived ultimately from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the river Indus, the next great ancient Empire of the Indian people was the Gupta Empire. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or Golden Age of India, the ancient Indian mathematicians Aryabhata, Bhāskara I and Brahmagupta invented the concept of zero and the Hindu decimal system during this period. During this period Indian cultural influence spread over parts of Southeast Asia which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia. During the early period the great Rashtrakuta dynasty dominated the major part of the Indian subcontinent. From the 8th to 10th century and the Indian Emperor Amoghavarsha of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty was described by the Arab traveller Sulaiman as one of the four kings of the world. The greatest maritime Empire of the medieval Indians was the Chola dynasty, under the great Indian Emperors Rajaraja Chola I and his successor Rajendra Chola I the Chola dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power in South Asia and South-East Asia. The Mughal Empire unified much of Indian sub-continent under one realm, under the Mughals India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture. This marked a huge influence in the Indian society, the Mughal Empire balanced and pacified local societies through new administrative practices and had diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. The Marathas and Sikhs emerged in the 17th century and established the Maratha Empire, the Maratha Empire is credited to a large extent for ending the Mughal rule in India. The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south, to Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north and Bengal, India is one of the worlds oldest civilisations
Indian people
–
Priest King
Indus Valley civilization
Indian people
Indian people
–
Buddhist rock-cut architecture 2nd century BC.
Indian people
–
Maratha Empire: Territory under Maratha control in 1760 (yellow), without its vassals.
4.
Hellenistic period
–
It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
Hellenistic period
–
The
Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of
Hellenistic art.
Hellenistic period
–
Alexander fighting the Persian king
Darius III. From the
Alexander Mosaic,
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Hellenistic period
–
Alexander's empire at the time of its maximum expansion.
5.
Anatolia
–
Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
Anatolia
–
The traditional definition of Anatolia within modern Turkey
Anatolia
–
The location of
Turkey (within the rectangle) in reference to the
European continent. Anatolia roughly corresponds to the
Asian part of Turkey, except the eastern parts historically known as the
Armenian Highlands
Anatolia
–
1907 map of Asia Minor, showing the local ancient kingdoms
Anatolia
–
Mural of
aurochs, a
deer, and humans in
Çatalhöyük, which is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. It was registered as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
6.
Seleucus I Nicator
–
Seleucus I Nicator /səˈljuːkəs naɪˈkeɪtər/ was one of the Diadochi. However, after the outbreak of the Wars of the Diadochi in 322, Perdiccas was betrayed and assassinated in a conspiracy by Seleucus, Peithon and Antigenes in Pelusium sometime in either 321 or 320 BC. At the Partition of Triparadisus in 321 BC, Seleucus was appointed Satrap of Babylon under the new regent Antipater, but almost immediately, the wars between the Diadochi resumed and Antigonus forced Seleucus to flee Babylon. Seleucus was only able to return to Babylon in 312 BC with the support of Ptolemy, from 312 BC, Seleucus ruthlessly expanded his dominions and eventually conquered the Persian and Median lands. Seleucus ruled not only Babylonia, but the entire eastern part of Alexanders empire. Seleucus victories against Antigonus and Lysimachus left the Seleucid dynasty virtually unopposed in Asia, however, Seleucus also hoped to take control of Lysimachus European territories, primarily Thrace and Macedon itself. But upon arriving in Thrace in 281 BC, Seleucus was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, the assassination of Seleucus destroyed Seleucid prospects in Thrace and Macedon, and paved the way for Ptolemy Ceraunus to absorb much of Lysimachus former power in Macedon. Seleucus was succeeded by his son Antiochus I as ruler of the Seleucid empire, Seleucus was the son of Antiochus. It is possible that Antiochus was a member of an upper Macedonian noble family, Seleucus mother was supposedly called Laodice, but nothing else is known of her. Later, Seleucus named a number of cities after his parents, Seleucus was born in Europos, located in the northern part of Macedonia. Just a year before his birth, the Paeonians invaded the region, Philip defeated the invaders and only a few years later utterly subdued them under Macedonian rule. Seleucus year of birth is unclear, justin claims he was 77 years old during the battle of Corupedium, which would place his year of birth at 358 BC. Appianus tells us Seleucus was 73 years old during the battle, eusebius of Caesarea, however, mentions the age of 75, and thus the year 356 BC, making Seleucus the same age as Alexander the Great. This is most likely propaganda on Seleucus part to him seem comparable to Alexander. As a teenager, Seleucus was chosen to serve as the kings page and it was customary for all male offspring of noble families to first serve in this position and later as officers in the kings army. A number of legends, similar to those told of Alexander the Great, were told of Seleucus and it was said Antiochus told his son before he left to battle the Persians with Alexander that his real father was actually the god Apollo. The god had left a ring with a picture of an anchor as a gift to Laodice, Seleucus had a birthmark shaped like an anchor. It was told that Seleucus sons and grandsons also had similar birthmarks, the story is similar to the one told about Alexander
Seleucus I Nicator
–
A Roman copy of a Greek statue of Seleucus I found in
Herculaneum. Now located at the
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Seleucus I Nicator
–
Seleucus led the Royal Hypaspistai during Alexander's Persian campaign.
Seleucus I Nicator
–
Ptolemy, an officer under Alexander the Great, was nominated as the satrap of Egypt. Ptolemy made Egypt independent and proclaimed himself King and
Pharaoh.
Seleucus I Nicator
–
Damaged Roman copy of a bust of Seleucus I,
Louvre
7.
Seleucid Empire
–
Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
Seleucid Empire
–
Tetradrachm of
Seleucus I, the horned horse, the
elephant and the anchor were all used as symbols of the Seleucid monarchy.
Seleucid Empire
Seleucid Empire
–
Coin of
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucid Empire
–
In
Bactria, the satrap
Diodotus asserted independence to form the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom c.245 BC.
8.
Chandragupta Maurya
–
Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Maurya Empire and the first emperor to unify north and south west of present-day India into one state. He ruled from 324 BCE until his retirement and abdication in favour of his son, Bindusara. Chandragupta Maurya was a figure in the history of India. Prior to his consolidation of power, most of the Indian subcontinent was divided into mahajanapadas, Chandragupta succeeded in conquering and subjugating almost all of the Indian subcontinent by the end of his reign, except Tamil Nadu and modern-day Odisha. His empire extended from Bengal in the east to Aria or Herat in the west, to the Himalayas and Kashmir in the north and it was the largest empire yet seen in Indian history. In Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokottos and he became well known in the Hellenistic world for conquering Alexander the Greats easternmost satrapies, and for defeating the most powerful of Alexanders successors, Seleucus I Nicator, in battle. By 323 BC he freed the piece of territory of India that was controlled by Seleuces, the Greek diplomat Megasthenes, who visited the Maurya capital Pataliputra, is an important source of Maurya history. After unifying much of India, Chandragupta and his chief advisor Chanakya passed a series of major economic and he established a strong central administration patterned after Chanakyas text on politics, the Arthashastra. Chandraguptas India was characterised by an efficient and highly organised bureaucratic structure with a civil service. Due to its structure, the empire developed a strong economy, with internal and external trade thriving. In both art and architecture, the Maurya Empire made important contributions, deriving some of its inspiration from the culture of the Achaemenid Empire, Chandraguptas reign was a time of great social and religious reform in India. Buddhism and Jainism became increasingly prominent, according to Jain accounts, Chandragupta abdicated his throne in favour of his son Bindusara, embraced Jainism, and followed Bhadrabahu and other monks to South India. He is said to have ended his life at Shravanabelagola through Sallekhana, the sources which describe the life of Chandragupta Maurya includes Jain, Buddhist, Brahmanical, Latin and Greek sources. Jain sources are Bhadrabahus Kalpasutra and Hemachandras Parisishtaparvan, Brahmanical sources are Puranas, Chanakyas Arthashastra, Vishakhadattas Mudrarakshasa, Somadevas Kathasaritsagara and Kshemendras Brihatkathamanjari. Buddhist sources are Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Mahavamsa tika and Mahabodhivamsa, very little is known about Chandraguptas youth and ancestry. What is known is gathered from later classical Sanskrit literature, as well as classical Greek, many Indian literary traditions connect him with the Nanda Dynasty in modern-day Bihar in eastern India. More than half a millennium later, the Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa calls him a Nandanvaya, Chandragupta was born into a family left destitute by the death of his father, chief of the migrant Mauryas, in a border fray. Mudrarakshasa uses terms like kula-hina and Vrishala for Chandraguptas lineage, according to Bharatendu Harishchandras translation of the play, his father was the Nanda king Mahananda and his mother was a barbers wife named Mora, hence the surname Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
–
Statue of Chandragupta Maurya,
Laxminarayan Temple
Chandragupta Maurya
–
Silver punch mark coin of the
Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BCE.
Chandragupta Maurya
–
Chandragupta had defeated the remaining
Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the
Indian subcontinent by 317 BCE.
Chandragupta Maurya
–
Chandra Gupta Maurya entertains his bride from Babylon
9.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
10.
Bindusara
–
Bindusara was the second Mauryan emperor of India. He was the son of the dynastys founder Chandragupta, and the father of its most famous ruler Ashoka. Bindusaras life is not documented as well as the lives of two kings, much of the information about him comes from legendary accounts written several hundred years after his death. Bindusara consolidated the empire created by his father, ancient and medieval sources have not documented Bindusaras life in detail. Much of the information about him comes from Jain legends focused on Chandragupta, the Jain legends, such as Hemachandras Parishishta-Parvan were written more than a thousand years after his death. Most of the Buddhist legends about Ashokas early life also appear to have composed by Buddhist writers who lived several hundred years after Ashokas death. While these legends can be used to make inferences about Bindusaras reign. Buddhist sources that provide information about Bindusara include Divyavadana, Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Vamsatthappakasini, Samantapasadika, the Jain sources include the 12th century Parishishta-Parvan by Hemachandra and the 19th century Rajavali-Katha by Devachandra. The Hindu Puranas also mention Bindusara in their genealogies of Mauryan rulers, some Greek sources also mention him by the name Amitrochates or its variations. Bindusara was born to Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan Empire and this is attested by several sources, including the various Puranas and the Mahavamsa. The Dipavamsa, on the hand, names Bindusara as the son of the king Shushunaga. The prose version of Ashokavadana states that Bindusara was the son of Nanda, like Dipavamsa, it omits Chandraguptas name altogether. The metrical version of Ashokavadana contains a similar genealogy with some variations, Chandragupta had a marriage alliance with the Seleucids, which has led to speculation that Bindusaras mother might have been Greek or Macedonian. However, there is no evidence of this, according to the 12th century Jain writer Hemachandras Parishishta-Parvan, the name of Bindusaras mother was Durdhara. Other Puranas name give different names for Chandraguptas successor, these appear to be clerical errors, for example, the various recensions of Bhagavata Purana mention him as Varisara or Varikara. The different versions of Vayu Purana call him Bhadrasara or Nandasara, the Mahabhashya names Chandraguptas son as Amitra-ghata. The Greek writers Strabo and Athenaeus call him Allitrochades and Amitrochates respectively, in addition, Bindusara was given the title Deva-nampriya, which was also applied to his successor Ashoka. The Jain work Rajavali-Katha states that his name was Simhasena
Bindusara
–
Edicts of Ashoka at Junagadh Gujarat stating Chandragupta was succeeded by his son Bindusara in b.c. 291
11.
Ashoka
–
Ashoka was an ancient Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. One of Indias greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan to the state of Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, the empires capital was Pataliputra, with provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain. In about 260 BCE, Ashoka waged a destructive war against the state of Kalinga. He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had done and he embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. Ashoka reflected on the war in Kalinga, which reportedly had resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, Ashoka converted gradually to Buddhism beginning about 263 BCE. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia, Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity. Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator, in the Kalinga edicts, he addresses his people as his children, and mentions that as a father he desires their good. Ashokas name Aśoka means painless, without sorrow in Sanskrit, in his edicts, he is referred to as Devānāmpriya, and Priyadarśin. His fondness for his names connection to the Saraca asoca tree, along with the Edicts of Ashoka, his legend is related in the 2nd-century CE Ashokavadana, and in the Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa. The emblem of the modern Republic of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, Ashoka was born to the Mauryan emperor, Bindusara and a relatively lower ranked wife, Subhadrangī. Ashoka became a great emperor despite having an appearance that was unfavorable to his father. He was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan dynasty, since, according to Roman historian Appian, Ashokas grandfather Chandragupta had made a marital alliance with Seleucus, there is a possibility that Ashoka had a Seleucid Greek grandmother. The Avadana texts mention that his mother was queen Subhadrangī, according to the Ashokavadana, she was the daughter of a Brahmin from the city of Champa. Though a palace intrigue kept her away from the emperor, this eventually ended and it is from her exclamation I am now without sorrow, that Ashoka got his name. The Divyāvadāna tells a story, but gives the name of the queen as Janapadakalyānī. Ashoka had several siblings, all of whom were his half-brothers from the other wives of Bindusara. His fighting qualities were apparent from an age and he was given royal military training
Ashoka
–
A c. 1st century BCE/CE relief from
Amaravati,
Andhra Pradesh (India). The figure in the centre may represent Ashoka.
Ashoka
–
A c. 1910 painting by
Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) depicting Ashoka's queen standing in front of the railings of the Buddhist monument at
Sanchi (
Raisen district,
Madhya Pradesh).
Ashoka
–
A similar four "
Indian lion "
Lion Capital of Ashoka atop an intact
Ashoka Pillar at Wat U Mong near Chiang Mai, Thailand showing another larger
Dharma Chakra /
Ashoka Chakra atop the four lions.
Ashoka
–
Ashokan Pillar at
Vaishali
12.
Arachosia
–
Arachosia /ærəˈkoʊsiə/ is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy in the eastern part of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian, and Indo-Scythian empires. Arachosia was centred on the Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, the main river of Arachosia was called Arachōtós, now known as the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River. The Greek term Arachosia corresponds to the Aryan land of Harauti which was around modern-day Helmand, the Arachosian capital or metropolis was called Alexandria Arachosia or Alexandropolis and lay in what is today Kandahar in Afghanistan. Arachosia was a part of the region of ancient Ariana, Arachosia is the Latinized form of Greek Ἀραχωσία - Arachōsíā. The same region appears in the Avestan Vidēvdāt under the indigenous dialect form Haraxvaitī-, in Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to as
Arachosia
–
The ancient Arachosia and the
Pactyan people during 500 BC.
Arachosia
–
Achaemenid Provinces during the rule of
Darius I
Arachosia
–
A 15th century reconstruction (by
Nicolaus Germanus) of a 2nd-century map (by
Ptolemy)
Arachosia
–
History of Afghanistan
13.
Satrap
–
Satraps were the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The word satrap originates ultimately from Old Persian xšaçapāvan, Sanskrit kshatrapam or kshtrapa, from xšaça, in Greek, the word was rendered as satrápēs —which later borrowed into Latin as satrapes—from a Western Iranian cognate xšaθrapā. In modern Persian the descendant of xšaθrapāvan is shahrbān, but the components have undergone semantic shift so the word now means town keeper. The first large use of satrapies, or provinces, originates from the conception of the First Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great. However, provincial organization originated during the Median era from at least 648 BCE, up to the time of the conquest of Media by Cyrus the Great, emperors ruled the conquered lands, through client kings and governors. The chief difference was that in Persian culture the concept of kingship was indivisible from divinity and he was responsible for the safety of the roads, and had to put down brigands and rebels. But the satrap was allowed to have troops in his own service, the great satrapies were often divided into smaller districts, the governors of which were also called satraps and also hyparchs. The distribution of the great satrapies was changed repeatedly, and often two of them were given to the same man, as the provinces were the result of consecutive conquests, both primary and sub-satrapies were often defined by former states and/or ethno-religious identity. When his office became hereditary, the threat to the authority could not be ignored. Rebellions of satraps became frequent from the middle of the 5th century BCE, darius I struggled with widespread rebellions in the satrapies, and under Artaxerxes II occasionally the greater part of Asia Minor and Syria was in open rebellion. The last great rebellions were put down by Artaxerxes III and they would ultimately be replaced by conquering empires, especially the Parthians. In the Parthian Empire, the power rested on the support of noble families who ruled large estates. City-states within the empire enjoyed a degree of self-government, and paid tribute to the king, shahrabs ruled both the city and the surrounding rural districts. Exceptionally, the East Roman Empire also adopted the title satrap for the princes that governed one of its Armenian provinces. The Western Satraps or Kshatrapas were Saka rulers in the western and central part of the Sindh region of Pakistan, and it is also used in modern times to refer to the loyal subservient lieutenants or clients of some powerful figure, in politics or business. In Portuguese, Italian and Spanish, the word not only carries the aforementioned ancient historical meaning. It can refer as well to living in luxurious and ostentatious conditions or to individuals who act astutely. The College of Pataphysics used the title Transcendent Satrap for certain of its members, including Marcel Duchamp, Jean Baudrillard, in the Serbian language, satrap is used to mock a person who displays servile tendencies to an authority figure
Satrap
–
Some of
Achaemenid empire satraps
14.
Sandracottus
–
Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Maurya Empire and the first emperor to unify north and south west of present-day India into one state. He ruled from 324 BCE until his retirement and abdication in favour of his son, Bindusara. Chandragupta Maurya was a figure in the history of India. Prior to his consolidation of power, most of the Indian subcontinent was divided into mahajanapadas, Chandragupta succeeded in conquering and subjugating almost all of the Indian subcontinent by the end of his reign, except Tamil Nadu and modern-day Odisha. His empire extended from Bengal in the east to Aria or Herat in the west, to the Himalayas and Kashmir in the north and it was the largest empire yet seen in Indian history. In Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokottos and he became well known in the Hellenistic world for conquering Alexander the Greats easternmost satrapies, and for defeating the most powerful of Alexanders successors, Seleucus I Nicator, in battle. By 323 BC he freed the piece of territory of India that was controlled by Seleuces, the Greek diplomat Megasthenes, who visited the Maurya capital Pataliputra, is an important source of Maurya history. After unifying much of India, Chandragupta and his chief advisor Chanakya passed a series of major economic and he established a strong central administration patterned after Chanakyas text on politics, the Arthashastra. Chandraguptas India was characterised by an efficient and highly organised bureaucratic structure with a civil service. Due to its structure, the empire developed a strong economy, with internal and external trade thriving. In both art and architecture, the Maurya Empire made important contributions, deriving some of its inspiration from the culture of the Achaemenid Empire, Chandraguptas reign was a time of great social and religious reform in India. Buddhism and Jainism became increasingly prominent, according to Jain accounts, Chandragupta abdicated his throne in favour of his son Bindusara, embraced Jainism, and followed Bhadrabahu and other monks to South India. He is said to have ended his life at Shravanabelagola through Sallekhana, the sources which describe the life of Chandragupta Maurya includes Jain, Buddhist, Brahmanical, Latin and Greek sources. Jain sources are Bhadrabahus Kalpasutra and Hemachandras Parisishtaparvan, Brahmanical sources are Puranas, Chanakyas Arthashastra, Vishakhadattas Mudrarakshasa, Somadevas Kathasaritsagara and Kshemendras Brihatkathamanjari. Buddhist sources are Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Mahavamsa tika and Mahabodhivamsa, very little is known about Chandraguptas youth and ancestry. What is known is gathered from later classical Sanskrit literature, as well as classical Greek, many Indian literary traditions connect him with the Nanda Dynasty in modern-day Bihar in eastern India. More than half a millennium later, the Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa calls him a Nandanvaya, Chandragupta was born into a family left destitute by the death of his father, chief of the migrant Mauryas, in a border fray. Mudrarakshasa uses terms like kula-hina and Vrishala for Chandraguptas lineage, according to Bharatendu Harishchandras translation of the play, his father was the Nanda king Mahananda and his mother was a barbers wife named Mora, hence the surname Maurya
Sandracottus
–
Statue of Chandragupta Maurya,
Laxminarayan Temple
Sandracottus
–
Silver punch mark coin of the
Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BCE.
Sandracottus
–
Chandragupta had defeated the remaining
Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the
Indian subcontinent by 317 BCE.
Sandracottus
–
Chandra Gupta Maurya entertains his bride from Babylon
15.
Punjab region
–
The Punjab, also spelled Panjab, panj-āb, land of five rivers, is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of South Asia, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. Not being a unit, the extent of the region is the subject of debate. The foreign invaders mainly targeted the most productive region of the Punjab known as the Majha region. The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis and their language is called Punjabi. The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism, other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism. The name of the region is a compound of two Persian words Panj and āb and was introduced to the region by the Turko-Persian conquerors of India, Punjab literally means Five Waters referring to the rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest, there are two main definitions of the Punjab region, the 1947 definition and the older 1846–1849 definition. The third definition incorporates both the 1947 and the definitions but also includes northern Rajasthan on a linguistic basis. 1947 definition The 1947 definition defines the Punjab region with reference to the dissolution of British India whereby the then British Punjab Province was partitioned between India and Pakistan, in Pakistan, the region now includes the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. In India, it includes the Punjab state, Chandigarh, Haryana, Using the 1947 definition, the Punjab region borders Kashmir to the north, Sindh and Rajasthan to the south, the Pashtun region and Balochistan to the west, and the Hindi belt to the east. Accordingly, the Punjab region is diverse and stretches from the hills of the Kangra Valley to the plains. Present day maps Major cities Using the 1947 definition of the Punjab region, some of the cities of the area include Lahore, Faisalabad. Older 1846–1849 definition The older definition of the Punjab region focuses on the collapse of the Sikh Empire, According to this definition, the Punjab region incorporates, in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir including Bhimber and Mirpur and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In India the wider definition includes parts of Delhi and Jammu Division, the formation of the Himalayan Range of mountains to the east and north-east of the Punjab is the result of a collision between the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The plates are moving together, and the Himalayas are rising by about 5 millimetres per year. The upper regions are snow-covered the whole year, Lower ranges of hills run parallel to the mountains. The Lower Himalayan Range runs from north of Rawalpindi through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the mountains are relatively young, and are eroding rapidly. The Indus and the five rivers of the Punjab have their sources in the range and carry loam, minerals and silt down to the rich alluvial plains
Punjab region
–
Taxila in Pakistan is a
World Heritage Site
Punjab region
–
Punjab Region
Punjab region
–
Menander I Soter (165/155 –130 BC) conqueror of the Punjab, he carved out a
Greek kingdom in the Punjab and ruled the Punjab till his death in 130 B.C.
Punjab region
–
A section of the Lahore Fort built by the Mughal emperor
Akbar.
16.
Indus River
–
The Indus River, also called Sindhū or Abāsīn, is a major south-flowing river in South Asia. The total length of the river is 3,180 km which makes it one of the longest rivers in Asia and it is the longest river and national river of Pakistan. The river has a drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2. Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3, making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow, the Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left tributary is the Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, the Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas. Its principal right tributaries are the Shyok, the Gilgit, the Kabul, the Gomal. Beginning in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas. The Indus forms the delta of present-day Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu, the river has been a source of wonder since the Classical Period, with King Darius of Persia sending his Greek subject Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river as early as 510 BC. In Pali, Síndhu means river, stream and refers to the Indus River in particular, the word Indus is the romanised form of the ancient Greek word Indós, borrowed from the old Persian word Hinduš which is in turn borrowed from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. Megastheness book Indica derives its name from the rivers Greek name, Indós, the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indói, literally meaning the people of the Indus. The country of India and the Pakistani province of Sindh owe their names to the river, Rigveda also describes several mythical rivers, including one named Sindhu. The Rigvedic Sindhu is thought to be the present-day Indus river and is attested 176 times in its text –95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. In the Rigveda, notably in the hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular. The Rigvedic hymns apply a feminine gender to all the rivers mentioned therein, Sindhu is seen as a strong warrior amongst other rivers which are seen as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter. The Indus River provides key resources for Pakistans economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nations agricultural production. The word Punjab means land of five rivers and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan. The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet, the river begins at the confluence of the Sengge Zangbo and Gar Tsangpo rivers that drain the Nganglong Kangri, the Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh and Baltistan into Gilgit, just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok, Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river and it gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi
Indus River
–
Satellite image of the Indus River basin in Pakistan, and China.
Indus River
–
River Indus in
Kharmang District,
Pakistan.
Indus River
–
Babur crossing the Indus River.
Indus River
–
The Indus River near Leh,
Ladakh, India
17.
Madurai
–
Madurai is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Madurai District. Madurai is the third largest city by population in Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. Madurai was the longest continuous capital city until British rule in India, Madurai has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. Madurai is closely associated with the Tamil language, and the third Tamil Sangam, the recorded history of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India, and Kautilya, a minister of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by Archeological Survey of India in Manalur, the city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu, the city is home to various automobile, rubber, chemical and granite manufacturing industries. It has developed as a city for information technology. Madurai has important government educational institutes like the Madurai Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, Madurai Law College, Agricultural College, Madurai city is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. Madurai is the corporation in Tamil Nadu next to Chennai corporation. The city covers an area of 147.97 km2 and had a population of 1,017,865 in 2011, the city is also the seat of a bench of the Madras High Court. The city is referred by various names including Madurai, Koodal, Malligai Maanagar, Naanmadakoodal, the word Madurai may be derived from Madhura arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Shiva from his matted hair. Another theory is that Madurai is the derivative of the word Marutham, a town in the neighbouring Dindigul district is called Vada Madurai and another in Sivagangai district is called Manamadurai. The different names by which the city has referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem Thiruvilayaadal puraanam written by Paranjothi Munivar. Koodal means an assembly or congregation of people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for, tevaram, the 7th- or 8th-century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars, namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar, address the city as Thirualavai. As per Iravatham Mahadevan, a 2nd-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscription refers to the city as matiray, Madurai has been inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE. Megasthenes may have visited Madurai during the 3rd century BCE, with the city referred as Methora in his accounts
Madurai
–
Periyar Bus stand, Teppakulam Mariyamman tank, Madurai Corporation, River Vaigai, Thirumalai Nayak Palace,
Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai city,
Madurai
–
Hand coloured antique wood engraving drawn by W. Purser (1858) shows Madurai city as seen from the north bank of the
Vaigai river
Madurai
–
Coin of
Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, first ruler of the
Sultanate of Madurai, 1335–1339 CE
Madurai
–
Map of Madurai showing center of the city and some important landmarks
18.
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
The region is named after the Indus and the Ganges, and encompasses a number of large urban areas. The Indus-Ganga plain is bound on the north by the Himalayas which feed its numerous rivers and are the source of the alluvium deposited across the region by the two river systems. The southern edge of the plain is marked by the Chota Nagpur Plateau, on the west rises the Iranian Plateau. The region is known for the Indus Valley Civilization, which was responsible for the birth of ancient South Asian culture, during the Vedic and Epic eras of Indian history, this region was referred to as Aryavarta. According to Manusmṛti, Aryavarta is the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern Sea to the Western Sea. During the Islamic period, the Turkish, Afghan and Iranian rulers referred to this region as Hindustan, some geographers subdivide the Indo-Gangetic Plain into several parts, the Sindh, Punjab, Doab, and Bengal regions. This divide is only 300 metres above sea level, causing the perception that the Indus-Ganga Plain appears to be continuous between the two drainage basins, the middle Ganga plain extends from the Yamuna River in the west to the state of West Bengal in the east. The lower Ganges plain and the Assam Valley are more verdant than the middle Ganga plain, the lower Ganga is centered in West Bengal, from which it flows into Bangladesh. After joining the Jamuna, a distributary of Brahmaputra, both form the Ganges Delta. The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River and flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as a large plain, the exact extent can vary from source to source. The fertile Terai region is the Nepalese extension of the Plain, the rivers encompassed are the Beas, the Chambal, the Chenab, the Ganga, the Gomti, the Indus, the Ravi, the Sutlej and the Yamuna. The soil is rich in silt, making the one of the most intensely farmed areas of the world. Even rural areas here are densely populated, the Indus-Ganga plains, also known as the Great Plains, are large floodplains of the Indus and the Ganga–Brahmaputra river systems. They run parallel to the Himalaya mountains, from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Assam in the east, the plains encompass an area of 700,000 km² and vary in width through their length by several hundred kilometres. The major rivers of this system are the Ganga and the Indus along with their tributaries, Beas, Yamuna, Gomti, Ravi, Chambal, Sutlej, extent of the Indo-Gangetic plain across South Asia. As the porosity of this belt is very high, the streams flow underground, the bhabar is generally narrow about 7–15 km wide. The Terai belt — lies next to the Bhabar region and is composed of newer alluvium, the underground streams reappear in this region. The region is excessively moist and thickly forested and it also receives heavy rainfall throughout the year and is populated with a variety of wildlife
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
Clusters of yellow lights on the Indo-Gangetic Plain reveal numerous cities large and small in this astronaut photograph of northern India and northern Pakistan.
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
Indo-Gangetic Plain
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
The
Prinsep Ghat which is located on the bank of the
Hooghly River in the city of
Kolkata,
West Bengal
Indo-Gangetic Plain
–
Boatmen row between
Barrackpore and
Serampore on the Hooghly river. A photograph shot in 2006
19.
Ganges
–
The Ganges, also Ganga is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through the nations of India and Bangladesh. It is the third largest river in the world by discharge, the Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and it is worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. It has also important historically, with many former provincial or imperial capitals located on its banks. The Ganges was ranked as the fifth most polluted river of the world in 2007, pollution threatens not only humans, but also more than 140 fish species,90 amphibian species and the endangered Ganges river dolphin. The levels of fecal coliform from human waste in the waters of the river near Varanasi are more than 100 times the Indian governments official limit. The main stem of the Ganges begins at the confluence of the Bhagirathi, the Bhagirathi is considered to be the source in Hindu culture and mythology, although the Alaknanda is longer, and, therefore, hydrologically the source stream. The headwaters of the Alakananda are formed by snowmelt from such peaks as Nanda Devi, Trisul, although many small streams comprise the headwaters of the Ganges, the six longest and their five confluences are considered sacred. The six headstreams are the Alaknanda, Dhauliganga, Nandakini, Pindar, Mandakini, the five confluences, known as the Panch Prayag, are all along the Alaknanda. After flowing 250 km through its narrow Himalayan valley, the Ganges emerges from the mountains at Rishikesh, the Ganges follows an 800 km arching course passing through the cities of Kannauj, Farukhabad, and Kanpur. Along the way it is joined by the Ramganga, which contributes an annual flow of about 500 m3/s. The Ganges joins the Yamuna at the Triveni Sangam at Allahabad, at their confluence the Yamuna is larger than the Ganges, contributing about 2,950 m3/s, or about 58. 5% of the combined flow. Now flowing east, the river meets the Tamsa River, which flows north from the Kaimur Range, after the Tamsa the Gomti River joins, flowing south from the Himalayas. The Gomti contributes an annual flow of about 234 m3/s. Then the Ghaghara River, also flowing south from the Himalayas of Nepal, the Ghaghara, with its average annual flow of about 2,990 m3/s, is the largest tributary of the Ganges. After the Ghaghara confluence the Ganges is joined from the south by the Son River, the Gandaki River, then the Kosi River, join from the north flowing from Nepal, contributing about 1,654 m3/s and 2,166 m3/s, respectively. The Kosi is the third largest tributary of the Ganges, after the Ghaghara and Yamuna. Along the way between Allahabad and Malda, West Bengal, the Ganges passes the towns of Chunar, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Patna, Bhagalpur, Ballia, Buxar, Simaria, Sultanganj, and Saidpur
Ganges
–
The Ganges in
Varanasi
Ganges
–
Map of the combined drainage basins of the Ganges (orange), Brahmaputra (violet), and Meghna (green).
Ganges
–
Bhagirathi River at
Gangotri.
Ganges
–
Devprayag, confluence of Alaknanda (right) and Bhagirathi (left) rivers, beginning of the Ganges proper.
20.
Patna
–
Patna /ˈpætnə, ˈpʌt-/, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. Patna is the second-largest city in eastern India after Kolkata and it had an estimated population of 1.68 million in 2011, making it the 19th largest city in India. With over 2 million people, its agglomeration is the 18th largest in India. Patna also serves as the seat of Patna High Court, one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. Patna was founded in 490 BCE by the king of Magadha, ancient Patna, known as Pataliputra, was the capital of the Magadha Empire under the Haryanka, Nanda, Mauryan, Shunga, Gupta and Pala empires. Pataliputra was a seat of learning and fine arts, Patliputra was home to many astrologists and scholars including Aryabhata, Panini, Vātsyāyana, Chanakya and Kālidāsa. Its population during the Maurya period was about 400,000, Patna served as the seat of power, political and cultural centre of Indian subcontinent during the Maurya and Gupta empires. With the fall of Gupta Empire, Patna lost its glory and it was revived again in the 17th century by the British as a centre of international trade. Following the partition of Bengal presidency in 1912, Patna became the capital of Bihar, the modern city of Patna is situated on the southern bank of river Ganges. The city also straddles the rivers Sone, Gandak and Punpun, the city is approximately 35 kilometres in length and 16 to 18 kilometres wide. In June 2009, the World Bank ranked Patna second in India for ease of starting a business, as of 2015, Patnas per capita gross domestic product is ₹1,06,000. Using figures for assumed average annual growth, Patna is the 21st fastest growing city in the world, Patna registered an average annual growth of 3. 72% during 2006–2010. Patna also has lowest slum population of any city in India, the name of this city has changed with time. One of the oldest cities of India, there are theories regarding the origin of the modern name Patna, It is etymologically derived from Patan. Patan Devi Mandir is still situated in old Patna near Gulzarbagh mandi along with another Patan Devi Mandir near Takht Sri Patna Sahib in Patna city, many believe Patna derived its name from Patli, a tree variety that was found in abundance in the historic city. The place is mentioned in Chinese traveller Fa Hiens records as Pa-lin-fou, the city has been known by various names through more than 2,000 years of existence – Pataligrama, Pataliputra, Kusumapura, Kusumdhwaja Pushpapuram, Padmavathi, Azimabad and the present-day Patna. Legend ascribes the origin of Patna to the mythological King Putraka who created Patna by magic for his queen Patali, literally trumpet flower and it is said that in honour of the queens first-born, the city was named Pataliputra. Gram is Sanskrit for village and Putra means son, legend also says that the Emerald Buddha was created in Patna by Nagasena in 43 BCE
Patna
–
Anticlockwise from top: South-West
Gandhi Maidan Marg, Stupa of
Buddha Smriti Park, Skyline near
Biscomaun Bhawan,
Patna Museum,
Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Maidan, Mithapur Flyover and river
Ganges
Patna
–
Statue of Matrikas found near
Agam Kuan built by Ashoka
Patna
–
Pataliputra as a capital of
Maurya Empire. The
Maurya Empire at its largest extent under
Ashoka the Great.
Patna
–
Pataliputra as a capital of
Shunga Empire. Approximate greatest extent of the
Shunga Empire (c. 185 BCE).
21.
Punjab (region)
–
The Punjab, also spelled Panjab, panj-āb, land of five rivers, is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of South Asia, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. Not being a unit, the extent of the region is the subject of debate. The foreign invaders mainly targeted the most productive region of the Punjab known as the Majha region. The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis and their language is called Punjabi. The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism, other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism. The name of the region is a compound of two Persian words Panj and āb and was introduced to the region by the Turko-Persian conquerors of India, Punjab literally means Five Waters referring to the rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest, there are two main definitions of the Punjab region, the 1947 definition and the older 1846–1849 definition. The third definition incorporates both the 1947 and the definitions but also includes northern Rajasthan on a linguistic basis. 1947 definition The 1947 definition defines the Punjab region with reference to the dissolution of British India whereby the then British Punjab Province was partitioned between India and Pakistan, in Pakistan, the region now includes the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. In India, it includes the Punjab state, Chandigarh, Haryana, Using the 1947 definition, the Punjab region borders Kashmir to the north, Sindh and Rajasthan to the south, the Pashtun region and Balochistan to the west, and the Hindi belt to the east. Accordingly, the Punjab region is diverse and stretches from the hills of the Kangra Valley to the plains. Present day maps Major cities Using the 1947 definition of the Punjab region, some of the cities of the area include Lahore, Faisalabad. Older 1846–1849 definition The older definition of the Punjab region focuses on the collapse of the Sikh Empire, According to this definition, the Punjab region incorporates, in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir including Bhimber and Mirpur and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In India the wider definition includes parts of Delhi and Jammu Division, the formation of the Himalayan Range of mountains to the east and north-east of the Punjab is the result of a collision between the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The plates are moving together, and the Himalayas are rising by about 5 millimetres per year. The upper regions are snow-covered the whole year, Lower ranges of hills run parallel to the mountains. The Lower Himalayan Range runs from north of Rawalpindi through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the mountains are relatively young, and are eroding rapidly. The Indus and the five rivers of the Punjab have their sources in the range and carry loam, minerals and silt down to the rich alluvial plains
Punjab (region)
–
Taxila in Pakistan is a
World Heritage Site
Punjab (region)
–
Punjab Region
Punjab (region)
–
Menander I Soter (165/155 –130 BC) conqueror of the Punjab, he carved out a
Greek kingdom in the Punjab and ruled the Punjab till his death in 130 B.C.
Punjab (region)
–
A section of the Lahore Fort built by the Mughal emperor
Akbar.
22.
Diodorus Siculus
–
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily was a Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, much of which survives and it is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Greece, the second covers the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC, Bibliotheca, meaning library, acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. According to his own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily, with one exception, antiquity affords no further information about his life and doings beyond in his work. Only Jerome, in his Chronicon under the year of Abraham 1968, writes, Diodorus of Sicily and it was divided into three sections. In the next section, he recounts the history of the world from the Trojan War down to the death of Alexander the Great, the last section concerns the historical events from the successors of Alexander down to either 60 BC or the beginning of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars. He selected the name Bibliotheca in acknowledgment that he was assembling a composite work from many sources. His account of gold mining in Nubia in eastern Egypt is one of the earliest extant texts on the topic, pappus of Alexandria wrote a Commentary on Diodoruss Analemma. The now lost Analemma applied geometrical constructions in a plane to solve some astronomy related problems of spherical geometry and it contained, for example, a discussion of sundial theory. They are also boasters and threateners and are fond of pompous language, pliny the Elder Strabo Acadine Ambaglio, Dino, Franca Landucci Gattinoni and Luigi Bravi. Diodoro Siculo, Biblioteca storica, commento storico, introduzione generale, aspects of Greek History 750-323 BC, A Source-based Approach. Library of History, Loeb Classical Library, Siculus, Diodorus, G. Booth, H. Valesius, I. The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian in Fifteen Books to which are added the Fragments of Diodorus, siculi, Diodori, Peter Wesseling, L. Rhodoman, G. Heyn, N. Eyring. Bibliothecae Historicae Libri Qui Supersunt, Nova Editio, Diodorus Siculus, the manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Historica
Diodorus Siculus
–
Diodoro siculo
23.
Strabo
–
Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus, Strabos life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus. He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, in 29 BC, on his way to Corinth, he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae and it is not known precisely when Strabos Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around 17 or 18 AD, the latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia, who is said to have died just recently. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, on the presumption that recently means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next, when he died. The first of Strabos major works, Historical Sketches, written while he was in Rome, is completely lost. Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialties throughout his life at different stops along his Mediterranean travels. His first chapter of education took place in Nysa under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus, Strabo was an admirer of Homers poetry, perhaps a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus, despite Xenarchuss Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus. Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, the final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus endowed to Strabo three important items, his philosophy, his knowledge, and his contacts, moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which he would not otherwise have known. Strabo is most notable for his work Geographica, which presented a history of people. Although the Geographica was rarely utilized in its antiquity, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469, the first Greek edition was published in 1516 in Venice
Strabo
–
Strabo as depicted in a 16th-century engraving
Strabo
–
Title page from
Isaac Casaubon 's 1620 edition of
Geographica.
Strabo
–
Statue of Strabo in his hometown (modern-day
Amasya, Turkey), beside the
Iris (Yeşilırmak) River.
Strabo
–
Map of Europe according to Strabo.
24.
Pliny the Younger
–
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Plinys uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him, both Pliny the Elder and the Younger were witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, in which the former died. Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 still survive and are of historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to such as the historian Tacitus. Pliny served as a magistrate under Trajan, and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors. Pliny rose through a series of civil and military offices, the cursus honorum and he was a friend of the historian Tacitus and might have employed the biographer Suetonius on his staff. Pliny also came into contact with other men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates the Stoic. Pliny the Younger was born in Novum Comum around 61 AD, the son of Lucius Caecilius Cilo, born there, and his wife Plinia Marcella, a sister of Pliny the Elder. He was the grandson of Senator and landowner Gaius Caecilius, revered his uncle, Pliny the Elder, Cilo died at an early age, when Pliny was still young. As a result, the boy lived with his mother. His guardian and preceptor in charge of his education was Lucius Verginius Rufus, after being first tutored at home, Pliny went to Rome for further education. There he was taught rhetoric by Quintilian, a teacher and author. It was at time that Pliny became closer to his uncle Pliny the Elder. When Pliny the Younger was 17 or 18, his uncle Pliny the Elder died attempting to rescue victims of the Vesuvius eruption, in the same document the younger Pliny was adopted by his uncle. As a result, Pliny the Younger changed his name from Gaius Caecilius Cilo to Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, there is some evidence that Pliny had a sibling. The trustees are apparently named in the inscription, L. Caecilius Valens and P. Caecilius Secundus, sons of Lucius, the word contubernalis describing Lutulla is the military term meaning tent-mate, which can only mean that she was living with Lucius, not as his wife. The first man mentioned, L. Caecilius Valens, is probably the older son, Pliny the Younger confirms that he was a trustee for the largess of my ancestors. It seems unknown to Pliny the Elder, so Valens mother was not his sister Plinia
Pliny the Younger
–
Statue of Pliny the Younger on the façade of Cathedral of S. Maria Maggiore in
Como.
Pliny the Younger
–
City and
Lago of Como in 1834, painted by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Pliny the Younger
–
Como in 2003, view from the lake
Pliny the Younger
–
The Younger Pliny Reproved, colorized copperplate print by Thomas Burke (1749–1815)
25.
Indica (Arrian)
–
Indica is the name of a short military history about interior Asia, particularly Indian subcontinent, written by Arrian in 2nd-century CE. The subject of the covers the expedition of Alexander the Great that occurred between 336 and 323 BCE, about 450 years before Arrian. The book mainly tells the story of Alexanders officer Nearchus’ voyage from India to the Persian Gulf after Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Indus Valley. However, much of the importance of the work comes from Arrian’s in depth asides describing the history, geography, Arrian wrote his Indica in the Ionic dialect, taking Herodotus for his literary mode. Arrian was born in 86 CE, did not visit Indian subcontinent, Arrian also wrote a companion text Anabasis. Of all ancient Greek records available about Alexander and interior Asia, Indica deals with the period of Alexander the Great. After Alexander conquered the Indus Valley, he planned to return to the center of his empire in Babylon, Alexander planned to return himself over land but wanted to learn about the mouth of the Indus and the sea between India and Babylon. Therefore, he sent one of his officers, Nearchus, to such a voyage. Indica mostly describes what Nearchus saw on that voyage, Indica was written by Arrian, a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period. Arrians work is considered the best source on the campaigns of Alexander the Great, Indica begins with a description of the geography of India, in particular focusing on the size of the rivers Indus and the Ganges, together with their tributaries. A comparison is made with the Danube and the Nile, the text then proceeds to tell the stories of Heracles and Dionysus in India. Indica also describes the classes of occupation that the Indians have, the text also describes their manner of hunting and making war. The text then moves into the story of Nearchus’ voyage from India to Babylon following the conquests of Alexander the Great, from this point onwards, the text mostly tells the story of a naval adventure. However, Arrian leaves the story from time to time to tell in detail about the various peoples that lived along the way. Occasionally, Arrian describes Nearchus’ soldiers’ battles with the local people, the book ends with Nearchus meeting up with Alexander the Great, who had been conducting his own land voyage from India to Susa. Nearchus is congratulated for a journey and rewarded for his efforts. Arrian draws upon a number of ancient sources in composing his Indica and his main source is the account written by Nearchus. This text is now mostly lost, but it appears that Arrian had an extant, Arrian also drew on a number of other ancient writers, including Eratosthenes and, most notably, Megasthenes
Indica (Arrian)
–
Alexander the Great in battle against the Persian King
Darius (
Pompeii mosaic, probably after a lost 3rd-century BC painting)
26.
Gangaridai
–
Gangaridai was an ancient region corresponding to the Ganges delta region of the Indian subcontinent, which was mentioned in the records of numerous Greco-Roman writers. The term means nation of the Ganges in Greek and Latin and it is one of the earliest references to the Bengal region in the Indian subcontinent. According to ancient Indian records, the Vanga Kingdom and Samatata Kingdom occupied the region during the same period, the capital of the Gangaridai was situated at Kotalipara in present-day Gopalganj District, Bangladesh. The region was described as a kingdom with one of the largest cavalries of chariots and it was described by the Greek traveller Megasthenes in his work Indica. Greek and Roman historians suggested that Alexander the Great withdrew from the Indian subcontinent, anticipating a counterattack from an alliance of Gangaridai, later writers noted merchant shipping links between Gangaridais cities and Roman Egypt. Ptolemy, wrote that the Gangaridai occupied the region about the five mouths of the Ganges. The five mouths were the Kambyson, the Mega, the Kamberikhon, the Pseudostomon and these rivers may refer to the Meghna, Padma, Jamuna, Karnaphuli and Rupsa. Ptolemy also noted a natural harbour in the Chittagong coastline. Quoted from The Classical Accounts of India, Dr R. C, quoted from Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature, John W. McCrindle, p.201. Quoted from The Classical Accounts of India, p. 103-128, plutarch noted both Gangaridae and Prasii together, The Battle with Porus depressed the spirits of the Macedonians, and made them very unwilling to advance farther into India. This river, they heard, had a breadth of two and thirty stadia, and a depth of 1000 fathoms, while its banks were covered all over with armed men, horses. For the kings of the Gandaritai and the Prasiai were reported to be waiting for him with an army of 80,000 horse,200,000 foot,8,000 war-chariots, quoted from The Classical Accounts of India, p.198. Owing to this, their country has never been conquered by any king, for all other nations dread the overwhelming number. Quoted from the Epitome of Megasthenes, Indika, Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian. Translated and edited by J. W. McCrindle, pliny the Elder wrote about the people, In the final part of its Ganges course, which is through the country of the Gangarides. In the parts which lie southward from the Ganges the inhabitants, already swarthy, are coloured by the sun. Quoted from The Classical Accounts of India, Dr. R. C, Megasthenes wrote about the people known as Gangarides, The least breadth of the Ganges is eight miles, and its greatest twenty. Its depth where it is shallowest is fully a hundred feet, the people who live in the furthest-off part are the Gangarides, whose king possesses 1,000 horse,700 elephants, and 60,000 foot in apparatus of war
Gangaridai
–
Gangaridai in
Ptolemy 's Map.
Gangaridai
–
Asia in 323 BC, the
Nanda Empire and Gangaridai Empire in relation to
Alexander 's Empire and neighbors.
Gangaridai
–
Alexander 's battle in
Ancient India depicted by
Charles Le Brun, 1673.
27.
Bibliotheca historica
–
Bibliotheca historica, is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections, the first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the history and culture of Egypt, of Mesopotamia, India, Scythia, and Arabia, of North Africa, and of Greece and Europe. In the next section, he recounts the history of the world starting with the Trojan War, the last section concern the historical events from the successors of Alexander down to either 60 BC or the beginning of Caesars Gallic War in 59 BC. He selected the name Bibliotheca in acknowledgement that he was assembling a composite work from many sources, Diodorus immense work has not survived intact, we have the first five books and books 11 through 20. The rest exists only in fragments preserved in Photius and the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the earliest date Diodorus mentions is his visit to Egypt in the 180th Olympiad. This visit was marked by his witnessing an angry mob demand the death of a Roman citizen who had killed a cat. The latest event Diodorus mentions is Octavians vengeance on the city of Tauromenium, Diodorus shows no knowledge that Egypt became a Roman province—which transpired in 30 BC—so presumably he published his completed work before that event. Modern critics have called this claim into question, noting several surprising mistakes that an eye-witness would not be expected to have made, in the Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus sets out to write a universal history, covering the entire world and all periods of time. Each book opens with a table of its contents and a preface discussing the relevance of history and these are now generally agreed to be entirely Diodorus own work. The degree to which the text that follows is derived from earlier works is debated. The first five books describe the history and culture of different regions, Diodorus expresses serious doubts that such chronology is possible for barbarian lands and the distant past. The resulting books have affinities with the genre of geography, Books six to ten, which covered the transition from mythical times to the archaic period, are almost entirely lost. By book ten he had taken up a structure, narrating all the events throughout the world in each year before moving on to the next one. Books eleven to twenty, which are intact and cover events between 480 BC and 302 BC, maintain this annalistic structure. Books twenty-one to forty, which brought the work down to Diodorus own lifetime, Book one opens with a prologue on the work as a whole, arguing for the importance of history generally and universal history in particular. The rest of the book is devoted to Egypt and is divided into two halves, in the first half he covers the origin of the world and the development of civilisation in Egypt. A long discussion of the theories offered by different Greek scholars to explain the annual floods of the River Nile serves to showcase Diodorus wide-reading, in the second half he presents the history of the country, its customs and religion, in a highly respectful tone. His main sources are believed to be Hecataeus of Abdera and Agatharchides of Cnidus and this book has only a short prologue outlining its contents
Bibliotheca historica
–
Herma of Alexander (Roman copy of a 330 BC statue by
Lysippus,
Louvre Museum. According to Diodorus, the Alexander sculptures by Lysippus were the most faithful.
Bibliotheca historica
–
The Bibliotheca' s history runs to sometime between 36 and 30 BC, in the reign of
Octavian.
Bibliotheca historica
–
Fire-setting in a mine, as shown by
Georg Agricola in his
De Re Metallica, 1556
28.
Natural History (Pliny)
–
The Natural History is an early encyclopedia in Latin by Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and naval commander who died in 79 AD. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the works subject area is thus not limited to what is today understood by natural history, Pliny himself defines his scope as the natural world, or life. The work is divided into 37 books, organised into ten volumes, the Natural History became a model for later encyclopedias and scholarly works as a result of its breadth of subject matter, its referencing of original authors, and its index. The work is dedicated to the emperor Titus, son of Plinys close friend and it is the only work by Pliny to have survived and the last that he published. He began it in 77, and had not made a revision at the time of his death during the AD79 eruption of Vesuvius. Plinys Natural History was written alongside other substantial works, Pliny combined his scholarly activities with a busy career as an imperial administrator for the emperor Vespasian. Pliny claims to be the only Roman ever to have such a work, in his prayer for the blessing of the universal mother, Hail to thee, Nature. And do thou deign to show thy favour unto me, who, alone of all the citizens of Rome, have, in thy every department, the Natural History is encyclopaedic in scope, but its format is unlike a modern encyclopaedia. However, it does have structure, Pliny uses Aristotles division of nature to recreate the world in literary form. The work is unified but varied, My subject is the world of nature, or in other words, life, he tells Titus. Nature for Pliny was divine, a concept inspired by the Stoic philosophy which underlies much of his thought. But the deity in question was a goddess whose main purpose was to serve the human race, nature, that is life is human life in a natural landscape. After an initial survey of cosmology and geography, Pliny starts his treatment of animals with the human race and this teleological view of nature was common in antiquity and is crucial to the understanding of the Natural History. The components of nature are not just described in and for themselves, Pliny devotes a number of the books to plants, with a focus on their medicinal value, the books on minerals include descriptions of their uses in architecture, sculpture, painting and jewellery. Plinys premise is distinct from modern ecological theories, reflecting the sentiment of his time. Pliny repeated Aristotles maxim that Africa was always producing something new, natures variety and versatility were claimed to be infinite, When I have observed nature she has always induced me to deem no statement about her incredible. This led Pliny to recount rumours of strange peoples on the edges of the world and these monstrous races – the Cynocephali or Dog-Heads, the Sciapodae, whose single foot could act as a sunshade, the mouthless Astomi, who lived on scents – were not strictly new. They had been mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC, Pliny had gone to investigate the strange cloud – shaped like an umbrella pine, according to his nephew – rising from the mountain
Natural History (Pliny)
–
Naturalis Historia, 1669 edition, title page. The title at the top reads: "Volume I of the Natural History of Gaius Plinius Secundus"; the ending -ae is a genitive ("of...").
Natural History (Pliny)
–
Naturalis Historia, work printed by Johannes Alvisius in 1499 in
Venice, Italy
Natural History (Pliny)
–
A
cynocephalus, or dog-head, as described by Pliny in his Natural History. From the
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).
Natural History (Pliny)
–
A
sciapod, described by Pliny in his Natural History. From the
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).
29.
Pliny the Elder
–
In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions. Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncles now missing work on the History of the German Wars. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption would not allow his ship to leave the shore, and Pliny probably died during this event. Plinys dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and a statement of his nephew that he died in his 56th year, Pliny was the son of an equestrian, Gaius Plinius Celer, and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names and their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th century Augustinian monk Onofrio Panvinio at Verona. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through, whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from a source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona. Hardouin also cites the conterraneity of Catullus, additional efforts to connect Celer and Marcella with other gentes are highly speculative. Hardouin is the scholar to use his unknown source. He kept statues of his ancestors there, a statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger details how his uncles breakfasts would be light and simple following the customs of our forefathers. This shows that Pliny the Younger wanted it to be conveyed that Pliny the Elder was a good Roman and this statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory, one commemorates the youngers career as imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another identifies his father Lucius village as Fecchio near Como and it is likely therefore that Plinia was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinii gens and he did not take his fathers cognomen, Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, no earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Plinys birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes, whom he had been unable to defeat
Pliny the Elder
–
One of the
Xanten Horse-Phalerae located in the
British Museum, measuring 10.5 cm (4.1 in). It bears an inscription formed from punched dots: PLINIO PRAEF EQ; i.e., Plinio praefecto equitum, "Pliny prefect of cavalry". It was perhaps issued to every man in Pliny's unit. The figure is the bust of the emperor.
Pliny the Elder
–
Pliny the Elder, as imagined by a 19th-century artist. No contemporary depiction of Pliny is known to survive.
Pliny the Elder
–
City and Lake of
Como, painted by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1834.
Pliny the Elder
–
The temple of
Castor and Pollux in Rome
30.
De Natura Animalium
–
Claudius Aelianus, commonly Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so perfectly that he was called honey-tongued, Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors and he is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest, he often quotes fishermen. At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he states that he is merely reporting what is told by others. Aelians work is one of the sources of natural history. The portions of the text that are extant are badly mangled and garbled. Conrad Gessner, the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelians work, an English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library,3 vols. The first printing was in 1545, the standard modern text is Mervin R. Diltss, of 1974. Considerable fragments of two works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations, are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia. Twenty letters from a farmer after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him, thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the Letters are as likely to evoke Latium as Attica. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, the Letters are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes. Historiae animalium by Gessner Aelian, On Animals, ISBN 978-0-674-99491-1, ISBN 978-0-674-99493-5, and ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2 Aelian, Historical Miscellany. ISBN 978-0-674-99535-2 Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, The Letters, translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. ISBN 978-0-674-99421-8 Aelian, On the Nature of Animals
De Natura Animalium
–
Title page of Varia Historia, from the 1668 edition by
Tanaquil Faber
31.
Claudius Aelianus
–
Claudius Aelianus, commonly Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so perfectly that he was called honey-tongued, Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors and he is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest, he often quotes fishermen. At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he states that he is merely reporting what is told by others. Aelians work is one of the sources of natural history. The portions of the text that are extant are badly mangled and garbled. Conrad Gessner, the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelians work, an English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library,3 vols. The first printing was in 1545, the standard modern text is Mervin R. Diltss, of 1974. Considerable fragments of two works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations, are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia. Twenty letters from a farmer after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him, thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the Letters are as likely to evoke Latium as Attica. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, the Letters are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes. Historiae animalium by Gessner Aelian, On Animals, ISBN 978-0-674-99491-1, ISBN 978-0-674-99493-5, and ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2 Aelian, Historical Miscellany. ISBN 978-0-674-99535-2 Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, The Letters, translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. ISBN 978-0-674-99421-8 Aelian, On the Nature of Animals
Claudius Aelianus
–
Title page of Varia Historia, from the 1668 edition by
Tanaquil Faber
32.
Varia Historia
–
Claudius Aelianus, commonly Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so perfectly that he was called honey-tongued, Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors and he is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest, he often quotes fishermen. At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he states that he is merely reporting what is told by others. Aelians work is one of the sources of natural history. The portions of the text that are extant are badly mangled and garbled. Conrad Gessner, the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelians work, an English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library,3 vols. The first printing was in 1545, the standard modern text is Mervin R. Diltss, of 1974. Considerable fragments of two works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations, are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia. Twenty letters from a farmer after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him, thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the Letters are as likely to evoke Latium as Attica. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, the Letters are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes. Historiae animalium by Gessner Aelian, On Animals, ISBN 978-0-674-99491-1, ISBN 978-0-674-99493-5, and ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2 Aelian, Historical Miscellany. ISBN 978-0-674-99535-2 Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, The Letters, translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. ISBN 978-0-674-99421-8 Aelian, On the Nature of Animals
Varia Historia
–
Title page of Varia Historia, from the 1668 edition by
Tanaquil Faber
33.
Stobaeus
–
Joannes Stobaeus, from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was divided into two volumes containing two books each. The two volumes became separated in the tradition, and the first volume became known as the Extracts. Modern editions now refer to both volumes as the Anthology, the Anthology contains extracts from hundreds of writers, especially poets, historians, orators, philosophers and physicians. The subjects covered range from philosophy, dialectics, and ethics, to politics, economics. The work preserves fragments of many authors and works who otherwise might be unknown today, of his life nothing is known. He derived his surname apparently from being a native of Stobi in Macedonia Salutaris, the age in which he lived cannot be fixed with accuracy. He quotes no writer later than the early 5th century, from his silence in regard to Christian authors, it has been inferred that he was not a Christian. His name, though, would indicate a Christian, or at least the son of Christian parents. His anthology is a valuable collection of extracts from earlier Greek writers. The extracts were intended by Stobaeus for his son Septimius, and were preceded by a letter explaining the purpose of the work. As each of the four books is sometimes called Anthologion, it is probable that this name belonged to the entire work. The full title, according to Photius, was Four Books of Extracts, Sayings, at some time subsequent to Photius the two volumes were separated, and the two volumes became known to Latin Europe as the Eclogae and the Florilegium respectively. Modern editions have dropped these two titles and have reverted to calling the work the Anthology. Each chapter of the four books is headed by a title describing its matter, Stobaeus quoted more than five hundred writers, generally beginning with the poets, and then proceeding to the historians, orators, philosophers, and physicians. The works of the part of these have perished. It is to him that we owe many of our most important fragments of the dramatists and he has quoted over 500 passages from Euripides,150 from Sophocles, and over 200 from Menander. The first two books consist for the most part of conveying the views of earlier poets and prose writers on points of physics, dialectics
Stobaeus
–
Page one of the Florilegium of Stobaeus, from the 1536 edition by
Vettore Trincavelli.
34.
Athenaeus
–
Athenaeus of Naucratis was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD. The Suda says only that he lived in the times of Marcus Aurelius, but the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus and he was a contemporary of Adrantus. Several of his publications are lost, but the fifteen-volume Deipnosophistae mostly survives, Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a treatise on the thratta, a kind of fish mentioned by Archippus and other comic poets, and of a history of the Syrian kings. The Deipnosophistae, which means dinner-table philosophers, survives in fifteen books, the first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and fifteenth, are extant only in epitome, but otherwise the work seems to be entire. It is an immense store-house of information, chiefly on matters connected with dining, but also containing remarks on music, songs, dances, games, courtesans, and luxury. Nearly 800 writers and 2500 separate works are referred to by Athenaeus, were it not for Athenaeus, much valuable information about the ancient world would be missing, and many ancient Greek authors such as Archestratus would be almost entirely unknown. Book XIII, for example, is an important source for the study of sexuality in classical and Hellenistic Greece, and it is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, but the conversation extends to enormous length. The topics for discussion generally arise from the course of the dinner itself, the guests supposedly quote from memory. The actual sources of the preserved in the Deipnosophistae remain obscure. The twenty-four named guests include individuals called Galen and Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, the complete version of the text, with the gaps noted above, is preserved in only one manuscript, conventionally referred to as A. The epitomized version of the text is preserved in two manuscripts, conventionally known as C and E, the standard edition of the text is Kaibels Teubner. The standard numbering is drawn largely from Casaubon, one of Athenaeus friends, Timocrates, wrote about the untimely death of Athenaeus in the Athenaeum. It describes the tale of angry peasants who believed that Athenaeus writings directly contradicted their beliefs of the Mithras cult. One night in 191 A. D. they kidnapped him, when they discovered that he continued writing the Deipnosophistae, twenty-three men stormed into his home and strangled him to death. It is unclear whether Athenaeus finished his work on his own or Timocrates finished it for him, Athenaeus described what may be considered the first patents. He mentions that in 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris, the victor was given the exclusive right to prepare his dish for one year. Swallow song of Rhodes David Braund and John Wilkins, Athenaeus and his world, reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire, Exeter, christian Jacob, The Web of Athenaeus, Washington, DC, Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University,2013. D. Yonge, at The Literature Collection The Deipnosophists, long excerpts in searchable HTML format, at attalus
Athenaeus
–
The Deipnosophistes belongs to the literary tradition inspired by the use of the
Greek banquet. Banqueters playing
Kottabos while a musician plays the
Aulos, decorated by the artist 'Nicias'/'Nikias'
35.
Moralia
–
The Moralia of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They provide insights into Roman and Greek life, but often are also observations in their own right. Many generations of Europeans have read or imitated them, including Michel de Montaigne, the Moralia were composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarchs own life. Some editions of the Moralia include several works now known to be pseudepigrapha, among these are the Lives of the Ten Orators, On the Opinions of the Philosophers, On Fate, one Pseudo-Plutarch is held responsible for all of these works, though their authorship is unknown. Though the thoughts and opinions recorded are not Plutarchs and come from a later era. 1959, Harvard University Press, ISBN0674994469, in his essay The Symposiacs, Plutarch discusses the famous problem of the chicken and the egg. Although Plutarch was not the first person to discuss the problem, included in Moralia is letter addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not give way to excessive grief at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. In the letter, Plutarch seems to hint at a belief in reincarnation, The soul, being eternal. If it has been a time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit. But that soul which remains only a time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire. Mind or Nous is a term for intellect. In Moralia, Plutarch agrees with Plato that the soul is more divine than the body while nous is more divine than the soul. The mix of soul and body produces pleasure and pain, the conjunction of mind and soul produces reason which is the cause or the source of virtue and vice. Plutarchs Moralia from the Online Library of Liberty Complete William W. Goodwin translation 1878 in PDF facsimile, plus selections as PDF ebooks, Plutarch page at LacusCurtius List of translations from Attalus. org Selected translations
Moralia
–
1531 edition in
Latin
36.
Plutarch
–
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
Plutarch
–
Ruins of the Temple of
Apollo at
Delphi, where Plutarch served as one of the priests responsible for interpreting the predictions of the
oracle.
Plutarch
–
Parallel Lives,
Amyot translation, 1565
Plutarch
–
Plutarch's bust at
Chaeronea, his home town.
Plutarch
–
A page from the 1470 Ulrich Han printing of Plutarch's
Parallel Lives.
37.
Gold-digging ant
–
Gold-digging ant is an insect from Medieval bestiaries. They were dog- or fox-sized ants that dug up gold in sandy areas, some versions of the Physiologus said they came from Ethiopia, while Herodotus claimed they were located in India. In Histories Herodotus reports that a species of fox-sized, furry ants lives in one of the far eastern and this region, he reports, is a sandy desert, and the sand there contains a wealth of fine gold dust. These giant ants, according to Herodotus, would often unearth the gold dust when digging their mounds and tunnels, french ethnologist Michel Peissel says that the Himalayan marmot on the Deosai Plateau in Gilgit–Baltistan province of Pakistan, may have been what Herodotus called giant ants. Much like the province that Herodotus describes, the ground of the Deosai Plateau is rich in gold dust, the story was widespread in the ancient world and later authors like Pliny the Elder mentioned it in his gold mining section of the Naturalis Historia. Herodotus did not claim to have seen the gold-digging ant creatures, he stated that he was simply reporting what other travellers told him
Gold-digging ant
–
Himalayan marmot in central Asia.
Gold-digging ant
–
v
38.
Dio Chrysostom
–
Dio Chrysostom, Dion of Prusa or Dio Cocceianus, was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the 1st century. Eighty of his Discourses are extant, as well as a few Letters and his surname Chrysostom comes from the Greek chrysostomos, which literally means golden-mouthed. He should not be confused with the Roman historian Cassius Dio and he was born at Prusa in the Roman province of Bithynia. His father, Pasicrates, seems to have bestowed great care on his son Dios education, the Stoic and Platonist philosophies, however, appear to have had the greatest charms for him. He went to Rome during Vespasians reign, by time he seems to have got married and had a child. He became a critic of the Emperor Domitian, who banished him from Rome, Italy, and Bithynia in 82 for advising one of the Emperors conspiring relatives. He thus visited Thrace, Mysia, Scythia, and the country of the Getae, and owing to the power and wisdom of his orations, he met everywhere with a kindly reception, and did much good. He was a friend of Nerva, and when Domitian was murdered in 96 AD, under Emperor Nervas reign, his exile was ended, and he was able to return home to Prusa. He adopted the surname Cocceianus in later life to honour the given to him by the emperor. Nervas successor, Trajan, entertained the highest esteem for Dio and his kindly disposition gained him many eminent friends, such as Apollonius of Tyana and Euphrates of Tyre, and his oratory the admiration of all. In his later life Dio had considerable status in Prusa, and he probably died a few years later. Dio Chrysostom was part of the Second Sophistic school of Greek philosophers which reached its peak in the early 2nd century. He was considered as one of the most eminent of the Greek rhetoricians and sophists by the ancients who wrote him, such as Philostratus, Synesius. This is confirmed by the eighty orations of his which are extant. These orations appear to be written versions of his teaching, and are like essays on political, moral. He argued strongly against permitting prostitution, two orations of his are now assigned to Favorinus. Besides the eighty orations we have fragments of fifteen others, and he wrote many other philosophical and historical works, none of which survive. One of these works, Getica, was on the Getae, hans von Arnim, Dionis Prusaensis quem uocant Chrysostomum quae exstant omnia
Dio Chrysostom
–
Orations of Dio Chrysostom edited by
Johann Jakob Reiske, 1784. Oration 1, ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ (On Kingship)
39.
Clement of Alexandria
–
Titus Flavius Clemens, known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was a man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy. As his three works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father and he is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Ethiopian Christianity and Anglicanism. He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius, neither Clements birthdate or birthplace is known with any degree of certainty. It is conjectured that he was born in around 150, according to Epiphanius Scholasticus, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth. His parents were pagans, and Clement was a convert to Christianity, in the Protrepticus he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology and mystery religions, which could only have arisen from the practice of his familys religion. Having rejected paganism as a man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine. Clements journeys were primarily a religious undertaking, in around 180, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clements life in Alexandria and he may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings. During the Severian persecutions of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria, in 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. The date and location of his death are unknown, three of Clements major works have survived in full, and they are collectively referred to as the trilogy, the Protrepticus – written c. The Stromata – written c.198 – c, the Protrepticus is, as its title suggests, an exhortation to the pagans of Greece to adopt Christianity, and within it Clement demonstrates his extensive knowledge of pagan mythology and theology. It is chiefly important due to Clements exposition of religion as an anthropological phenomenon, after a short philosophical discussion, it opens with a history of Greek religion in seven stages. Clement suggests that at first, men believed the Sun
Clement of Alexandria
–
Clement from Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by
André Thévet
Clement of Alexandria
–
The
Orphic mysteries are used as an example of the false cults of Greek paganism in the Protrepticus.
Clement of Alexandria
–
Christ, the Logos incarnate, is the Paedagogus of the work's title.
Clement of Alexandria
–
Clement describes the Stromata as a work on various subjects, which spring up in the text like flowers in a meadow.
40.
Eusebius
–
Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD, together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely well learned Christian of his time. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, as Father of Church History he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. Little is known about the life of Eusebius and his successor at the See of Caesarea, Acacius, wrote a Life of Eusebius, a work that has since been lost. Eusebius own surviving works probably only represent a portion of his total output. Beyond notices in his extant writings, the sources are the 5th-century ecclesiastical historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. There are assorted notices of his activities in the writings of his contemporaries Athanasius, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius pupil, Eusebius of Emesa, provides some incidental information. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius writes of Dionysius of Alexandria as his contemporary, if this is true, Eusebius birth must have been before Dionysius death in autumn 264, most modern scholars date the birth to some point in the five years between 260 and 265. He was presumably born in the town in which he lived for most of his adult life and he was baptized and instructed in the city, and lived in Palestine in 296, when Diocletians army passed through the region. Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea, S. Wallace-Hadrill, deem the phrase too ambiguous to support the contention. By the 3rd century, Caesarea had a population of about 100,000 and it had been a pagan city since Pompey had given control of the city to the gentiles during his command of the eastern provinces in the 60s BC. The gentiles retained control of the city for the three centuries to follow, despite Jewish petitions for joint governorship, gentile government was strengthened by the citys refoundation under Herod the Great, when it had taken on the name of Augustus Caesar. In addition to the settlers, Caesarea had large Jewish. Eusebius was probably born into the Christian contingent of the city.46 states that Zacchaeus was the first bishop, through the activities of the theologian Origen and the school of his follower Pamphilus, Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. Origen was largely responsible for the collection of information, or which churches were using which gospels. On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origens library formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established, Pamphilus also managed a school that was similar to that of Origen. Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus, for he had gathered Bibles from all parts of the world, like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students
Eusebius
–
Eusebius in a modern imagining
Eusebius
–
Eusebius's
canon tables were often included in Early Medieval
Gospel books
Eusebius
–
Ministry of Jesus &
Apostolic Age
41.
Cyril of Alexandria
–
Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence, Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the late-4th and 5th centuries. He was a figure in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Cyril is well-known due to his dispute with Nestorius and his supporter Patriarch John of Antioch and he is also known for his expulsion of Novatians and Jews from Alexandria and for inflaming tensions that led to the murder of the Hellenistic philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob. Historians disagree over the extent of his responsibility in this, the Roman Catholic Church did not commemorate Saint Cyril in the Tridentine Calendar, it added his feast only in 1882, assigning to it the date of 9 February. This date is used by the Western Rite Orthodox Church, yet the 1969 Catholic Calendar revision moved it to 27 June, considered to be the day of the saints death, as celebrated by the Coptic Orthodox Church. The same date has been chosen for the Lutheran calendar, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches celebrate his feast day on 9 June and also, together with Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria, on 18 January. Little is known for certain of Cyrils early life,376, in the small town of Theodosios, Egypt, near modern-day El-Mahalla El-Kubra. A few years after his birth, his maternal uncle Theophilus rose to the position of Patriarch of Alexandria. His mother remained close to her brother and under his guidance and his writings show his knowledge of Christian writers of his day, including Eusebius, Origen, Didymus the Blind, and writers of the Church of Alexandria. In 403 he accompanied his uncle to attend a synod in Constantinople, Theophilus died on 15 October 412, and Cyril was made Pope or Patriarch of Alexandria on 18 October 412, but only after a riot between his supporters and those of his rival Archdeacon Timotheus. According to Socrates Scholasticus, the Alexandians were always rioting and he began to exert his authority by causing the churches of the Novatianists to be closed and their sacred vessels to be seized. Orestes, Praefectus augustalis of the Diocese of Egypt, steadfastly resisted Cyrils ecclesiastical encroachment onto secular prerogatives, crowds gathered to read the edict shortly after it was posted in the citys theater. Cyril sent the grammaticus Hierax to discover the content of the edict, the edict angered Christians as well as Jews. At one such gathering, Hierax, read the edict and applauded the new regulations, many people felt that Hierax was attempting to incite the crowd into sedition. Orestes had Hierax tortured in public in a theatre and this order had two aims, the first was to quell the riot, the other to mark Orestes authority over Cyril. In response to Cyrils threat, the Jews of Alexandria grew even more furious and they plotted to flush the Christians out at night by running through the streets claiming that the Church of Alexander was on fire. When the morning came, the Jews of Alexandria could not hide their guilt, because of this, the feud between Cyril and Orestes intensified, and both men wrote to the emperor regarding the situation
Cyril of Alexandria
–
St Cyril I, the 24th
Pope of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria
–
Virgin Mary
