Scylax of Caryanda - Exploration and Literary Works

Exploration and Literary Works

In about 515 BCE, Scylax was sent by King Darius I of Persia to follow the course of the Indus River and discover where it led. Scylax and his companions set out from city of Caspatyrus in Gandara, in today's Afghanistan. Scylax sailed down the river until he found it reached the sea. He then sailed west across Indian Ocean until he arrived at the Red Sea, which he also explored. He travelled as far as the Red Sea's western end at Suez, before returning to report to Darius I. His entire journey took thirty months.

Such, at least, is the prima facie narrative based on Herodotos. Recently, however, Dmitri Panchenko has argued persuasively, on the basis of apparent references to Scylax's work in the late Greek author Philostratos, that Scylax in fact travelled across N. India, made his way down the Ganges, and arrived at Taprobane (Sri Lanka). He has also calculated the likely date of Scylax's departure for India as July 518 BCE.

Scylax was famous in the ancient world. He is mentioned by Strabo as an "ancient writer." According to the Suda, he also wrote (perhaps "in the decades around 480 B.C.") a life of his contemporary, Heraclides of Mylasa (τὰ κατὰ Ἡρακλείδην τὸν Μυλασσῶν βασιλέα), who is mentioned in Herodotus 5.121.