That there was intimate intercourse with India in very ancient times there can be no doubt.  In addition to the classical sources of information collected chiefly by the officers of Alexander the Great, Seleucus and the Ptolemies, and which was condensed and reduced to consistent shape by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, within the first century before and the first century after Christ, we have the further proof of the fact by the constant finds of innumerable Greek coins over a large portion of north-western India, and even at Cabul.  These, so far as yet known, commence with the third of the Seleucidae, and run on for many centuries, the inscriptions showing that the Greek characters were used in the provinces of Cabul and the Punjab even so late as the fourth century A.D.  The consideration of these coins of the Graeco-Persian empire of the Seleucidae naturally leads us to the consideration of the Persians.

I have already shown that the Greeks and Persians held intimate relations with each other as early as the fourth century B.C., and from the speech of Demosthenes against a proposed war with Persia, delivered in 354 B.C, we may well believe that they had already had a long and intimate connection with each other.  The passage rends thus:-

“All Greeks know that, so long as they regarded Persia as their common enemy, they were at peace with each other, and enjoyed much prosperity, but since they have looked upon the King (of Persia) as a friend, and quarrelled about disputes with each other, they have suffered worse calamities than any one could possibly imprecate upon them.”

The Persian empire was founded by Cyrus, about B.C. 560, and rapidly rose to be perhaps the greatest power of the world of that age.  The rise of the Persian empire is not unlike that of the Arabian power in regard to the wide range of conquest achieved in a very limited period.  Its actual existence, from the foundation of the empire by Cyrus in B.C. 560 to the death of Darius III., was barely two centuries and a half.

Previous to the Persian empire there existed three principal powers in Asia—­the Medes, the Chaldaeans or Babylonish, and the Lydian.  Of these the Medes and Chaldaeans were the most ancient, and their joint power would seem to have extended eastward as far as the Oxus and Indus.

Of these nations the Babylonians were the most highly civilized, and, did time permit, we might find much that would interest and instruct in examining the various facts relating to the arts and sciences amongst these nations.  We know that arts and sciences must have been diligently cultivated amongst them, and that magic and astrology were held in high repute.

That the Persians were well acquainted with other nations is shown clearly from the remains of their great city of Persepolis, where the sculptured figures represent many types of mankind—­the negro, with thick lips and flat nose, and with his crisp, wooly hair, clearly cut; and the half-naked Indian, with his distinguishing features, being easily singled out from many others.