Ctesias

Ctesias of Cnidus (in Caria), was a Greek physician and historian, who flourished in the 5th century BC.

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In early life he was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger.

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Ctesias was the author of treatises on rivers, and on the Persian revenues, of an account of India (which is of value as recording the beliefs of the Persians about India), and of a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books, called Persica, written in opposition to Herodotus in the Ionic dialect, and professedly founded on the Persian royal archives.

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The first six books treated of the history of Assyria and Babylon to the foundation of the Persian empire; the remaining seventeen went down to the year 398 BC. Of the two histories we possess abridgments by Photius, and fragments are preserved in Athenaeus, Plutarch and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second book is mainly from Ctesias. As to the worth of the Persica there has been much controversy, both in ancient and modern times. Although many ancient authorities valued it highly, and used it to discredit Herodotus, it is clear today that Ctesias's account has little historical value. Ctesias's account of the Assyrian kings, for instance, is nearly impossible to reconcile with the cuneiform evidence. In general, Ctesias is today seen as more of a fabulist than a historian.

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Cnidus: REDIRECT Knidos...

Caria: Caria (Greek Καρία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a region of Asia Minor, situated south of Ionia, and west of Phrygia and Lycia. The eponymous inhabitants were known as Carians, who had settled in Caria before the Greeks. The name of Caria appears in a...

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