Indian Rivers Seen by the Greeks of the Roman Imperial Period: from Geographical Precision to Exotic Dreams

Abstract

The image of Indian rivers given by Greek authors in the Roman imperial period depends on the literary genre they chose : specialists of geography and history like Strabo or Arrian wonder about the reliability of the observations formerly made by the companions of Alexander about the Indus and its tributaries (dimensions, floods, delta, flora and fauna, resemblance to the Nile). A novelist like the pseudo-Callisthenes, and a polemicist like Palladios try, for their part, to amaze their readers with the mirabilia found in the Ganges or in the Tiberoboam. They imagine that their paradisiacal banks offer an ideal living environment to the Brahmans.

Keywords

• indus
• ganges
• tiberoboam
• nile
• alexander
• brahmans
• marvels
• cartography