Ctesias

Ctesias of Cnidus was a Greek physician and writer who flourished in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BCE. A native of Cnidus in Ionia, he is best known for his works on Persian history and India. According to ancient sources, he served as a physician at the Achaemenid court of Artaxerxes II, which gave him access to Persian archives and oral traditions. Based on these sources, he composed Persica, a history of the Persian Empire from its legendary beginnings up to his own era, written in Greek. He also wrote Indica, which recounts the geography, peoples, and customs of the Indian subcontinent, including descriptions of flora, fauna, and political institutions. Both works survive today only in fragments and through quotations in later authors, notably Diodorus Siculus and Photius, which makes precise assessment difficult.

Historicity and reception: Ctesias' narratives mix eyewitness testimony with hearsay and myth; modern scholars view his Persica as valuable for providing a Persian court perspective but sometimes unreliable for factual accuracy. His Indica preserved some early descriptions of South Asian antiquity but often diverges from other sources. Nevertheless, his writings influenced later Greco-Roman historiography by raising awareness of Persia and India.

Legacy: Ctesias is considered one of the earliest Greek interpreters of Persian history and an early ethnographic source on India, though his works are more notable for their antiquarian and narrative value than for reliable chronology.