>Cote d'Azur at 08:09, 25 May 2021

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{{for|the several figures named Deimachus in Greek mythology|Deimachus (mythology)}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=November 2016}}
'''Deimachus''' or '''Daimachus''' ({{IPAc-en|d|i|ˈ|ɪ|m|ə|k|ə|s}}; {{lang-grc|Δηίμαχος}}) was a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] of the [[Seleucid Empire]], who lived during the third-century BCE. He became an ambassador to the court of the Mauryan ruler [[Bindusara]] "Amitragatha" (son of [[Chandragupta Maurya]]) in [[Pataliputra]] in [[India]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=38}}
Deimachus was sent by [[Antiochus I Soter]].

As an ambassador, he was the successor to the famous ambassador and historian [[Megasthenes]]. Both of them were mentioned by [[Strabo]]:

:Both of these men were sent [as] ambassadors to Palimbothra (Pataliputra): Megasthenes to Sandrocottus, Deimachus to Allitrochades his son.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=head%3D%2311 Strabo II,I, 9]</ref>

Deimachus apparently wrote extensively on India, and is quoted as a reference in geographical matters, although his works are now lost:
:It is likely there are more than 3000 stadia, but taking this number, if we add thereto the 30,000 stadia, which Deimachus states there are between [the southern extremity of India] and the country of the Bactrians and Sogdians, we shall find both of these nations lie beyond the temperate zone and habitable earth. (Strabo II,1,14)
:The computations of Megasthenes and Deïmachus are more moderate, for they estimate the distance from the Southern Sea to Caucasus at above 20,000 stadia.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239&query=section%3D%231263 Strabo XV,1,12]</ref>

Strabo, however, disputed these figures, and some of the fanciful accounts of both men, although they also brought extensive knowledge about India:

:Generally speaking, the men who hitherto have written on the affairs of India, were a set of liars. Deimachus holds the first place in the list, Megasthenes comes next, while [[Onesicritus]] and [[Nearchus]], with others of the same class, manage to stammer out a few words [of truth]. Of this we became the more convinced whilst writing the history of Alexander. No faith whatever can be placed in Deimachus and Megasthenes. They coined the fables concerning men with ears large enough to sleep in, men without any mouths, without noses, with only one eye, with spider-legs, and with fingers bent backward. They renewed Homer's fable concerning the battles of the Cranes and Pygmies, and asserted the latter to be three spans high. They told of ants digging for gold, of Pans with wedge-shaped heads, of serpents swallowing down oxen and stags, horns and all; meantime, as [[Eratosthenes]] has observed, reciprocally accusing each other of falsehood. (Strabo II, I, 9).

==Notes==
<references/>

==References==
* {{citation |last=Mookerji |first=Radha Kumud |authorlink=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C |edition=4th |year=1988 |origyear=first published in 1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=81-208-0433-3 }}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:People of the Seleucid Empire]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek geographers]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of ancient India]]
[[Category:Historiography of India]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC people]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC geographers]]

Deimachus - Revision history

>Cote d'Azur at 08:09, 25 May 2021