Arachosiaca I: the rule of Arachosia and the role of Megasthenes, Seleucus’ ambassador to Pāṭaliputra, from the Achaemenid defeat to the pact between Seleucus Nicator and Chandragupta Maurya

The agreement between Seleucus Nicator and Chandragupta Maurya, drawn up roughly between 305 and 303 BC, subsequent to the oriental campaign for Seleucid reconquest, consisted of three clauses, namely Seleucus’ renunciation of the Easternmost territories of his kingdom; the gift of 500 elephants by Chandragupta to Seleucus; and κῆδος (Appian) or ἐπιγαμία (Strabo). The classical sources on the pact (Pompeius Trogus in the epitome by Justin, Appian, Strabo) attest to Seleucus’ ceding of terrritory (limited to the Eastern areas and along the course of the Indus, of Paropamisadai, Arachosia and Gedrosia) to Chandragupta (Strabo). With the aim of clearing the field of the objections to this scenario (Bernard, Fussman, Coloru), we start from the role and relations of Arachosia in and with the Indian East as from the Achaemenid period. For Sibyrtius, satrap of Arachosia, and Megasthenes, Seleucus’ ambassador/spy (Daffinà, Bussagli) to Pāṭaliputra, resident at his court, I find no justification in taking the former to be a Mauryan satrap or the latter a relative of his (Bernard), nor indeed in taking Megasthenes to be an ambassador of Sibyrtius only because Arrian records that he met both Porus and Chandragupta (Bosworth).