Modern historians about Macedonia – Richard Stoneman

 

 

 

 Alexander in India

 

 It is said that the Stagirite [Aristotle] received eight hundred talents from Alexander as his contribution towards perfecting his History of Animals.

 

ATHENAEUS 9.58 (398E); cf. FRANCIS BACON, ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 2.11

 

King Alexander the Great being fired with a desire to know the natures of animals and having delegated the pursuit of this study to Aristotle as a man of supreme eminence in every branch of science, orders were given to some thousands of persons throughout the whole of Asia and Greece, all those who made their living by hunting, fowling and fishing and those who were in charge of warrens, herds, apiaries, fishponds and aviaries, to obey his instructions, so that he might not fail to be informed about any creature born anywhere.

PLINY, NATURAL HISTORY 8.17.44

Richard Stoneman,The Greek Experience of India: From Alexander to the Indo- Greeks,Princeton University Press