Megasthenes: Description of Pataliputra (late 3rd century BCE)

BOOK II.

FRAGM. XXV.

Strab. XV. i. 35-36,--p. 702.

        According to Megasthenes the mean breadth (of the Ganges) is 100 stadia, and its least depth 20 fathoms. At the meeting of this river and another is situated Palibothra, a city eighty stadia in length and fifteen in breadth. It is of the shape of a parallelogram, and is girded with a wooden wall, pierced with loopholes for the discharge of arrows. It has a ditch in front for defence and for receiving the sewage of the city. The people in whose country this city is situated is the most distinguished in all India, and is called the Prasii. The king, in addition to his family name, must adopt the surname of Palibothros, as Sandrakottos, for instance, did, to whom Megasthenes was sent on an embassy. [This custom also prevails among the Parthians, for all are called Arsakai, though each has his own peculiar name, as Orodes, Phraates, or some other.]

From: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian.  Translated and edited by J. W. McCrindle.  Calcutta and Bombay: Thacker, Spink, 1877, 66-67.