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MEGILLOS AND RICE – A NOTE1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2015

Daniela Dueck
Daniela Dueck*
Affiliation:
Bar Ilan University
*
daniela.dueck@biu.ac.il
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Extract

In his description of India Strabo (after Eratosthenes) alludes to various Indian crops: in the rainy seasons (summer) the land grows flax, millet, sesame, rice and bosmoron, and in the winter – wheat, barley, pulse ‘and other edible crops with which we are unacquainted (καὶ ἄλλοι καρποὶ ἐδώδιμοι, ὧν ἡμεῖς ἄπειροι)’ (15.1.13, C 690). Later on in his survey, Strabo briefly refers to the cultivation of rice, where he relies mainly and specifically on Aristobulus of Cassandria, one of the companions of Alexander the Great in his campaign in the East. Aristobulus composed an account of Alexander's expedition and, in all likelihood, personally witnessed most of the details included in the fragments of his lost work (FGrHist 139). His descriptions are therefore highly valuable as reports reflecting one of the first encounters of the Greek culture with India.

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Shorter Notes
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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 377 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2015 

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Footnotes

1

This article is part of a larger project supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF 254/08). I extend my thanks to Joseph Geiger and to the anonymous readers for their valuable and helpful comments.

References

2 Cf. Roller, D.W., Eratosthenes' Geography (Princeton and Oxford, 2010), 83–4Google Scholar F 74.

3 On the bosmoron, see Karttunen, K., India and the Hellenistic World (Helsinki, 1997), 144–5Google Scholar; Gopal, L. and Srivastava, V.C. (edd.), History of Agriculture in India (up to c. 1200 a.d.), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, vol. 5.1 (New Delhi, 2008), 428–9Google Scholar.

4 On Aristobulus, see Pearson, L., Lost Histories of Alexander (New York, 1960), 150–87Google Scholar; Brunt, P., ‘Notes on Aristobulus of Cassandria’, CQ 26 (1974), 65–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pédech, P., Historiens compagnons d'Alexandre (Paris, 1984), 331–406.Google Scholar

5 First invisible on the morning of 8 November.

6 Diodorus too attested rice in Mesopotamia: Diod. Sic. 19.13.6.

7 Clarke, K., Between Geography and History: Hellenistic Constructions of the Roman World (Oxford, 1999)Google Scholar, 377 includes Megillos in the list of Strabo's sources for India, but Bretzl, H., Botanische Forschungen des Alexanderzuges (Leipzig, 1903)Google Scholar, who deals specifically with the botanic aspects of Alexander's campaigns, does not mention him.

8 See discussion below.

9 Ceccarelli, P., ‘Menyllos (295)’, Brill's New Jacoby ( = BNJ), Editor in Chief: Worthington, Ian (Brill Online, 2013).Google Scholar

10 Cf. Jacoby, F., ‘Die Überlieferung von Ps. Plutarchs Parallela minora und die Schwindelautoren’, Mnemosyne 8 (1940), 73–144Google Scholar; Ziegler, K., Plutarchos von Chaironeia (Stuttgart, 1964), 230–3Google Scholar; ‘Biographical essays’, in Ceccarelli (n. 9); P. Ceccarelli, in BNJ s.v. Aristeides of Miletos (286); K. Dowden, in BNJ s.v. ‘Dositheos (54)’.

11 Fragments of his work: GGM 1.563–73; Diller, A., The Tradition of the Minor Greek Geographers (Lancaster PA, 1952), 151–64.Google Scholar

12 It should be added that all the manuscripts of Strabo's text have ‘Megillos’. Even if uniform readings in manuscripts may sometimes require emendations, this fact regarding our sentence seems to add more weight to the option of an original ‘Megillos’.

13 Pape, M. and Benseler, G.E., Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen (Braunschweig, 1863–70)Google Scholar, s.v.; Fraser, P.M. and Matthews, E., A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (Oxford, 1987–)Google Scholar, vols. 3a, 3b, s.v.

14 Androtion, FGrHist 324 F 44; Xen. Hell. 3.4.6; Pl. Leg. 624 B; [Pl.] Epin.; Cic. Leg. 1.15. Cf. Parke, H.W., ‘A note on the Spartan embassy to Athens 408/7 BC’, CR 7 (1957), 106–7.Google Scholar

15 Plut. On Music 17, Mor. 1136 F with Cobet's emendation ad loc., and Tim. 35. Pais, E., Ancient Italy: Historical and Geographical Investigations in Central Italy, Magna Graecia, Sicily and Sardinia (Chicago, 1908)Google Scholar, 348 and n. 1 identifies him with the Spartan Megillos. Note that Megellus was a Roman cognomen as in L. Postumius Megellus (RE s.v. [55], cos. 305, 294, 291) and L. Postumius Megellus (RE s.v. [56], cos. 262), who commanded the battle of Acragas at the beginning of the First Punic War (Polyb. 1.17). The coincidence of Megillos-Megellus and Acragas does not seem to lead to any solid conclusions.

16 Thesleff, H., The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period. Acta Academiae Abonensis Humaniora, vol. 30 (1) (1965), 115Google Scholar and Ibn Abi Usaybia in Müller, A. (ed.), Ibn Abi Useibia (Arabic text) (Königsberg, 1884)Google Scholar, 42 bottom (English trans. in Huffman, C.A., Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, Philosopher and Mathematician King [Cambridge, 2005]CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 616). Note the misunderstanding in Thesleff (above), who ascribed the reference to Ibn Al-Qifti.

17 H. Stadler, in RE s.v. Reis, pp. 517–19; Brill's New Pauly s.v. Grain→ rice, pp. 972–3; Marinone, N., Il riso nell' antichità greca (Bologna, 1992)Google Scholar; Karttunen (n. 3), 142–4; Garnsey, P., Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 18. On ancient Greek agriculture, see Isager, S., S. and Skydsgaard, J.E., Ancient Greek Agriculture: An Introduction (London, 1995).Google Scholar

18 Knörzer, K.H., Novaesium IV: Römerzeitliche Pflanzenfunde aus Neuss (Berlin, 1970)Google Scholar; and see also Konen, H., ‘Reis im Imperium Romanum: Bemerkungen zu seinem Anbau und seiner Stellung als Bedarfs- und Handelsartikel in der römischen Kaiserzeit’, Münsterschen Beiträge zur antiken Handelsgeschichte 18 (1) (1999), 23–47.Google Scholar

19 It was first introduced in Spain in the tenth century, and later, in the fifteenth century – in Sicily and Italy. See Watson, A., Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge, 1983), 17–18Google Scholar; Zohary, D. and Hopf, M., Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe and the Nile Valley (Oxford, 1993 2), 84–5.Google Scholar

20 The origin of the word in Greek is probably Sanskrit. See Wharton, E.R., Etymological Lexicon of Classical Greek (Etyma Graeca) (Chicago, 1974;Google Scholar repr. of the 1882 edn), s.v.

21 The comparison of rice to sesame appears later also in Hsch. O 1214 Latte; Pollux 6.73. See also: ‘There is also, he [Chrysippus] says, a cake made of rice (ὀρυζίτης πλακοῦς)’ (Ath. 14.647D).

22 Translated by F.J.A. Hort, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA and London, 1916). Compare the descriptions in Plin. HN 18.71 and Dsc. De materia medica 2.117.

23 See Amigues, S., ‘Problèmes de composition et de classification dans l'Historia plantarum de Théophraste’, in van Ophuijsen, J.M. and van Raalte, M. (edd.), Theophrastus: Reappraising the Sources (New Brunswick, NJ, 1998), 191–201Google Scholar, at 200 and n. 35.

24 See Pearson (n. 4), 174–5, 177–8, 233–4.

25 See Arthur Hort (n. 22) in his introduction to the Loeb Classical Library edition of Theophrastus' Enquiry into Plants, vol. 1, xxiii–xxv. Additionally, see the implied evidence in Hist. pl. 4.4.5; 4.7.3.

26 Caus. pl. 2.5.5.

27 Dognini, C., ‘Androstene di Taso e il Periplo dell'India: tre nuovi frammenti?’, Invigilata Lucernis 23 (2001), 83–92.Google Scholar

28 As shown, Hdt. 3.100 also alludes to botanical details but does not mention specifically rice.

29 For the sake of discussion I take the seventeen-word fragment as strictly Megillos, although it could have been paraphrased by Aristobulus or by Strabo.

30 Koraes' edition of Strabo, vol. 3 (Paris, 1818).

31 Kramer's edition of Strabo, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1852).

32 Radt, S.L., Strabons Geographika (Göttingen, 2002–10)Google Scholar, text and commentary ad loc.

33 Huke, R.E. and Huke, E.H., Rice: Then and Now, by the International Rice Research Institute (Manila, Philippines, 1990)Google Scholar, summarized in ‘A brief history of rice’, in: Biotechnology and Biodiversity, by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (Pretoria, 2003)Google Scholar, 11.

34 Karttunen (n. 3), 142.

35 The analysis relies on relevant entries in LSJ and on specific searches in TLG online.

36 Horace Jones in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Strabo's Geography translated it differently in each context: ‘water enclosures’ in Aristobulus and ‘tanks’ in Megillos. LSJ attributes the phrase only to Aristobulus and does not mention Megillos.