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A glance over the map will show that the route of the army eastward, and the double route by which it returned, intersect the whole empire by three lines, almost from the Tigris to the Indus: Craterus joined the division under Alexander in the Karmania; and when Nearchus, after the completion of his voyage, came up the Posityris to Susa, the three routes through the different provinces, and the navigation along the coast, might be said to complete the survey of the empire."
The principal article brought to Rome was amber. We now come to the consideration of the articles with which Asia supplied Rome; these, as may be easily imagined, were principally articles of luxury. The murrhine cups, of the nature of which there has been much unsatisfactory discussion, according to Pliny, came from Karmania in Parthia; from Parthia they came to Egypt, and thence to Rome.
Having sailed day and night without intermission, in which time he passed a distance of nearly sixty-nine miles, he at length doubled the cape, which formed the boundary of the barren coast of the Icthyophagi, and arrived in the district of Karmania.
Apologus is the present Oboleh, on the canal that leads from the Euphrates to Basra. If the author of the Periplus did not enter the Gulf of Persia, he certainly stretched over, with the monsoon, either to Karmania, or directly to Scindi, or to the Gulf of Cambay; for at these places the minuteness of information which distinguishes the journal again appears.
By the 6th of January, B.C. 345, he reached the island of Kataia, which forms the boundary between Karmania and Persis. The length of the former coast is rather more than three hundred miles: the time occupied by Nearchus in this part of his voyage was about twelve days. He arrived at Badis, the first station in Karmania, on the 7th of December; at Anamis on the 10th; here he remained three days.
Nothing important occurred till the vessels arrived off Cape Mussenden in Karmania, where they anchored: at this place Nearchus and Onesicritus differed in opinion relative to the further prosecution of the voyage; the latter wished to explore this cape, and extend the voyage to the Gulf of Arabia.
The length of the coast of the Icthyophagi is about 462 miles; and, as Nearchus was twenty-one days on this coast, the average rate of sailing must have been twenty-one miles a day. The whole distance, from the Indus to the cape which formed the boundary of Karmania, is about 625 miles: this distance Nearchus was above seventy days in sailing.
He touched at some of the neighbouring islands, probably those of Arek and Kismis, and soon afterwards the vessels ran aground, but the advancing tide floated them again, and after passing Bestion, they arrived at the island of Keish, that is sacred to Mercury and Venus. This was the boundary-line between Karmania and Persia.
Ptolomy considers all this coast as Karmania, quite to Mosarna; and whether Gadrosia is a part of that province, or a province itself, is a matter of no importance; but the coast must have received the name Nearchus gives it from Nearchus himself; for it is Greek, and he is the first Greek who explored it.
Large ships from the Indus, Patala, Persis, and Karmania came to Arabia, as early as the time of Agatharcides; and it is probable that these ships were navigated by Arabians, as the inhabitants of India were not, at this time, and, indeed, never have been celebrated for their maritime enterprize and skill.
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