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CTESIAS , of See also: Cnidus in Carla, See also: Greek physician and historian, flourished in the 5th century B.C
.
In early See also: life he was physician to See also: Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied (401) on his expedition against his See also: brother Cyrus the Younger
.
Ctesias was the author of See also: treatises on See also: rivers, and on the Persian revenues, of an account of See also: India (which is of value as recording the beliefs of the Persians about India), and of a See also: history of See also: Assyria and See also: Persia in 23 books, called Persica, written in opposition to See also: Herodotus in the Ionic dialect, and professedly founded on the Persian royal archives
.
The first six books treated of the history of Assyria and See also: Babylon to the foundation of the Persian See also: empire; the remaining seventeen went down to the See also: year 398
.
Of the two histories we possess abridgments by See also: Photius, and fragments are preserved in See also: Athenaeus, Plutarch and especially Diodorus Siculus, whose second See also: book is mainly from Ctesias
.
As to the worth of the Persica there has been much controversy, both in See also: ancient and See also: modern times
.
Being based upon Persian authorities, it was naturally looked upon with suspicion by the Greeks and censured as untrustworthy
.
For an estimate of Ctesias as a historian see G
.
See also: Rawlinson's Herodotus, i
.
71-74; also the edition of the fragments of the Persica by J
.
Gilmore (1888, with introduction and notes and See also: list of authorities)
.
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