Indica (Megasthenes)

Megasthenes
Artistic impression of Megasthenes arriving in Pataliputra circa 300 BC.
Born	350 BCE
Died	290 BCE

Megasthenes (/mᵻˈɡæsθᵻniːz/ mi-GAS-thi-neez; Ancient Greek: Μεγασθένης, c. 350 – c. 290 BC) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indika. He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I Nicator of the Seleucid dynasty possibly to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain. Scholars place it before 298 BCE, the date of Chandragupta's death.

Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador of Seleucus I Nicator in the court of Chandragupta Maurya.

Arrian explains that Megasthenes lived in Arachosia, with the satrap Sibyrtius, from where he visited India:

Megasthenes lived with Sibyrtius, satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting Sandracottus, the king of the Indians." Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri