LXIV.  He captured ten of the Indian philosophers called Gymnosophistae;[425] who had been instrumental in causing Sabbas to revolt, and had done much mischief to the Macedonians.  These men are renowned for their short, pithy answers, and Alexander put difficult questions to all of them, telling them that he would first put to death the man who answered him worst, and so the rest in order.  The first was asked, whether he thought the living or the dead to be the more numerous.  He answered, “The living, for the dead are not.”

The second was asked, which breeds the largest animals, the sea or the land.  He answered, “The land, for the sea is only a part of it.”

The third was asked, which is the cleverest of beasts.  He answered, “That which man has not yet discovered.”

The fourth was asked why he made Sabbas rebel.  He answered, “Because I wished him either to live or to die with honour.”

The fifth was asked, which he thought was first, the day or the night.  He answered, “The day was first, by one day.”  As he saw that the king was surprised at this answer, he added, “impossible questions require impossible answers.”

Alexander now asked the sixth how a man could make himself most beloved.  He answered, “By being very powerful, and yet not feared by his subjects.”

Of the remaining three, the first one was asked, how a man could become a god.  He answered, “By doing that which is impossible for a man to do.”

The next was asked, which was the stronger, life or death.  He answered, “Life, because it endures such terrible suffering.”

The last, being asked how long it was honourable for a man to live, answered, “As long as he thinks it better for him to live than to die.”

Upon this Alexander turned to the judge and asked him to pronounce his decision.  He said that they had answered each one worse than the other.  “Then,” said Alexander, “you shall yourself be put to death for having given such a verdict.”  “Not so,” said he, “O king, unless you mean to belie your own words, for you said at the beginning that you would put to death him who gave the worst answer.”

LXV.  Alexander now gave them presents and dismissed them unhurt.  He also sent Onesikritus to the most renowned of them, who lived a life of serene contemplation, desiring that they would come to him.  This Onesikritus was a philosopher of the school of Diogenes the cynic.  One of the Indians, named Kalanus, is said to have received him very rudely, and to have proudly bidden him to take off his clothes and speak to him naked, as otherwise he would not hold any conversation with him, even if he came from Zeus himself.  Dandamis, another of the Gymnosophists, was of a milder mood, and when he had been told of Sokrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, said that they appeared to him to have been wise men, but to have lived in too great bondage to the laws.  Other writers say that Dandamis said nothing more than “For