NEARCHUS

A Greek writer of Crete, resident afterwards at Amphipolis. He was a friend of Alexander the Great in his youth, and administered the satrapy of Lycia for five years after the battle of Granicus (334 B.C.). He then took part in the Indian expedition (327 B.C.) and returned, as commander of the fleet, down the Indus and along the coast of Asia, to the month of the Tigris. After Alexander's death he attached himself to Antigonus. He wrote an account of his voyage, which was rich in geographical discoveries. Of this we possess, besides fragments, an abstract in Arrian's Indica. The investigations of later times have in many respects confirmed the trustworthiness of his statements concerning ancient India.