Ctesias
Ctesias (/ˈtiːʒəs/ TEE-zhəs; Template:Langx; fl. 5th century BC), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire.
Historical events
[edit | edit source]Ctesias was physician to the Achaemenid king, Artaxerxes II, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger.[1] Ctesias was part of the entourage of King Artaxerxes at the Battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) against Cyrus the Younger and his Greek mercenaries called the Ten Thousand, when Ctesias provided medical assistance to the king by treating his flesh wound.[2] He reportedly was involved in negotiations with the Greeks after the battle. He also helped their Spartan general Clearchus before his execution at the royal court at Babylon.[3]
Ctesias was the author of treatises on rivers and on the Persian revenues, as well as an account of India, Indica (Template:Langx), and of a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books, Persica (Template:Langx), drawn from documents in the Persian Royal Archives, written in opposition to Herodotus, in the Ionic dialect.[1]
Persica
[edit | edit source]The first six books of Persica cover the history of Assyria and Babylon to the foundation of the Persian empire in 550 BC by Cyrus the Great; the remaining 17 books cover the years to 398 BC. Of the two histories, abridgments by Photius and fragments are preserved by Athenaeus, Plutarch, Nicolaus of Damascus, and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second book is derived mainly from Ctesias. As to the worth of Persica, much controversy occurred, both in ancient and modern times.[1] Although many ancient authorities valued the work highly and used it to discredit Herodotus, a modern author writes, "(Ctesias's) unreliability makes Herodotus seem a model of accuracy."[4] Reportedly, Ctesias's account of the Assyrian kings does not reconcile with the cuneiform evidence.[citation needed] The satirist Lucian thought so little of the historical reliability of Ctesias that in his satirical novella True Story he places Ctesias on an island where the evil were punished. Lucian wrote, "The people who suffered the greatest torment were those who had told lies when they were alive and written mendacious histories; among them were Ctesias of Cnidus, Herodotus, and many others."[5]
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Ctesias mentioned that the grave of Darius I at Persepolis was in a cliff face that could be reached with an apparatus of ropes.[6]
Indica
[edit | edit source]A record of the view that the Persians held of India was written by Ctesias under the title Indica. It includes descriptions of artisans, philosophers, and people having the qualities of deities, as well as accounts of unquantifiable gold, among other riches and wonders.[7] The work is based on testimonials from the travellers to Persia rather than on personal observation. The work is marginally geographical, and focuses more on wonders, climate, flora, customs, diet etc. Modern view situates it between fact and fiction. Among the topographical observations found in the work are facts that the Indus River varies between 40 and 200 stades (5–25 miles), that the population of "India" (mostly northwest Indian subcontinent) almost exceeds the rest of the inhabited world, and that territorially "India" makes up half of Asia.[8]
The book only remains in fragments and in reports made about the book by later authors.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ctesias". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 594.
- ↑ Dąbrowa, Edward (2014). The Greek World in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC: Electrum. 19. Wydawnictwo UJ. p. 13. ISBN 9788323388197 – via Google Books.
The first certain event related to Ctesias is his medical assistance to the king during the battle of Cunaxa and his treatment of his flesh wound (Plut. Art. 11.3) in 401 BCE.
- ↑ Dąbrowa, Edward (2014). The Greek World in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC: Electrum. 19. Wydawnictwo UJ. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9788323388197 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Template:Cite thesis
- ↑ Lucian of Samosata. A True Story (in Ancient Greek). p. 2.31.
- ↑ "Persepolis". Encyclopedia Britannica. 30 October 2023.
- ↑ Lavers, Chris (2009). The Natural History of Unicorns. New York: Morrow. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-06-087414-8.
- ↑ Shipley, D. Graham J. (2024). Geographers of the Ancient Greek World. 1: Selected Texts in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781009239868 – via Google Books.
.jpg){kind=link}
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- Lenfant, Dominique, ed. (2004). Ctésias de Cnide. La Perse. L'Inde. Autres fragments (in French). Translated by Lenfant, Dominique. Paris: Collection Budé, Belles Lettres. ISBN 2251005188.
- Schmitt, Rüdiger (1993). "Ctesias". Encyclopaedia Iranica. 6. Fascicle 4. pp. 441–446.
- Stronk, Jan P. (2010). Ctesias' Persian History. Part I: Introduction, Text, and Translation. Düsseldorf: Wellem Verlag. ISBN 9783941820012.
- Ctesias; Nichols, Andrew G. (2011). Ctesias: On India. Translation and Commentary. Translated by Andrew G. Nichols. Duckworth. ISBN 1-85399-742-0.
- Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd; Robson, James (2010). Ctesias' History of Persia: Tales of the Orient. Oxford. ISBN 9780415364119.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Ctesias of Cnidus at livius.org
- Overview of all fragments of the Persica and Indica by Jona Lendering, at livius.org
- Photius' Excerpt of Ctesias' Persica translated by J. H. Freese (1920), at livius.org
- Photius' Excerpt of Ctesias' Indica translated by J.H. Freese (1920), at livius.org
- Greek text translated by Müller (1858), at Google Books
- Texts of Ctesias at demonax.info
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- CS1 foreign language sources (ISO 639-2)
- Articles with unsourced statements from August 2017
- CS1 French-language sources (fr)
- Classical-era Greek historians
- 4th-century BC Greek historians
- 5th-century BC Greek medical doctors
- Ancient Cnidians
- Ancient Greeks from the Achaemenid Empire
- 5th-century BC births
- 4th-century BC deaths
- Historians from ancient Anatolia
- Medical doctors from the Achaemenid Empire
- Historians of Iran
- Year of birth unknown
- Year of death unknown
- Greek Indologists
- Historians from the Achaemenid Empire
- People from Muğla Province
- Court physicians
- Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources
- 5th-century BC Greek historians