CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

3i

it was found that the meafures of Alexander forthe prefervation of his conquefts had been con-certed with fuch fagacity , that upon the finalreftoration of tranquillity, the Macedonian domi-nion continued to be eftablifihed in every part ofAfia, and not one province had Ihaken off theyoke. Even India , the moft remote of Alexander’sconquefts, quietly fubmitted to Pytho the foil ofAgenor, and afterwards to Seleucus , who fuccef-fively obtained dominion over that part of Afia.Porus and Taxiles, notwithfhnding the death oftheir benefadtor, neither declined fubmiffion to theauthority of the Macedonians , nor made anyattempt to recover independence.

During the contefts for power and fuperiorityamong the fuccefTors of Alexander, Seleucus , who,in every effort of enterprifing ambition, was infe-rior to none of them , having rendered himfelfmafter of all the provinces of the Perfian empirecomprehended under the name of Upper Afia,confidered thofe countries of India which had beenfubdued by Alexander, as belonging to that portionof the Macedonian empire of which he was nowthe fovereign. Seleucus , like all the officers formedunder Alexander, entertained fuch high ideas ofthe advantages which might be derived from acommercial intercourfe with India , as induced himto march into that country, partly with a viewof efiablifinng his own authority there, and partlyin order to curb Sandracottus, who having latelyacquired the fovereignty of the Prafij, a powerfulnation on the banks ef the Ganges, threatened to

SECT

1.