ARRIAN'S MONTHLY PROBS; a codicil

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agesilaos
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ARRIAN'S MONTHLY PROBS; a codicil

Post by agesilaos »

Back in the darker recesses of the Birthday/Deathday thread the following exchanges took place; I repeat them because at the time the only counter argument I had was methodological
Taphoi wrote;
agesilaos wrote:LOL ! If you check the Greek in the Loeb, page 366, you will find that the phrase <menos Hyperberetaiou, esto> is bracketed to show that it has been supplied to fill a lacuna but the lack of any notice in the app.crit demonstrates how uncontroversial it is. This is because everyone knows Boedromion is equivalent to Hyperberetaios; but since this is the opinion of a modern editor and not what Arrian wrote it cannot be adduced as evidence.
Granted that the word Hyperberetaeus is an interpolation, your argument nevertheless founders on this reference, which I will quote in full:
Arrian, Indica 21.1 wrote: Now when the trade winds had sunk to rest, which continue blowing from the Ocean to the land all the summer season, and hence render the voyage impossible, they put to sea, in the archonship at Athens of Cephisodorus, on the twentieth day of the month Boedromion, as the Athenians reckon it; but as the Macedonians and Asians counted it, it was <in the month of Hyperberetaeus and> the eleventh year of Alexander's reign.
Your hypothesis requires that Arrian always wrote the name of the Athenian month that succeeded the real Athenian month. Here he writes 20th Boedromion (about 18th September Julian), so the actual date at which Nearchus sailed in 325BC according to your argument was 18th Metageitnion (about 19th August Julian). That is quite impossible for many reasons. For example, Strabo 15.2.5 also cites Nearchus as writing that he set sail "at the time of the rising of the Pleiades in the west", which (as Brunt points out in Appendix XVII.24) equates to late September or early October and therefore confirms 20th Boedromion as being correct. (Actually, what Strabo means is the acronychal rising of the Pleiades in the eastern sky as the sun's light is dying in the west, which happens near the autumnal equinox.) Certainly too the editorial interpolation of Hyperberetaeus must therefore be correct, so my original point also stands. It might be added that the seasonal trade winds were very unlikely to have been blowing in the right direction for Nearchus to have been able to set sail as early as August.
In the course of some research concerning the close of Alexander’s reign I read the Niarchan part of Indike and found that the text does, in fact support Arrian mis-equating the months here as well.

As Taphoi correctly pointed out the monsoon does not die out until late September/October, typically, which in 325 was the Macedonian month of Dios (see charts at Chris Bennet’s ‘House of Ptolemy’ site).

The thing is that Niarchos did set out a month too early
XXI. Now when the trade winds had sunk to rest, which continue blowing from the Ocean to the land all the summer season, and hence render the voyage impossible, they put to sea, in the archonship at Athens of Cephisodorus, on the twentieth day of the month Boedromion, as the Athenians reckon it; but as the Macedonians and Asians counted it, it was ... the eleventh year of Alexander's reign. Nearchus also sacrificed, before weighing anchor, to Zeus the Saviour, and he too held an athletic contest. Then moving out from their roadstead, they anchored on the first day in the Indus river near a great canal, and remained there two days; the district was called Stura; it was about a hundred stades from the roadstead. Then on the third day they started forthand sailed to another canal, thirty stades' distance, and this canal was already-salt; for the sea came up into it, especially at full tides, and then at the ebb the water remained there, mingled with the river water. This place was called Caumara. Thence they sailed twenty stades and anchored at Coreestis, still on the river. Thence they started again and sailed not so very far, for they saw a reef at this outlet of the river Indus, and the waves were breaking violently on the shore, and the shore itself was very rough. But where there was a softer part of the reef, they dug a channel, five stades long, and brought the ships down it, when the flood tide came up from the sea. Then sailing round, to a distance of a hundred and fifty stades, they anchored at a sandy island called Crocala, and stayed there through the next day; and there lives here an Indian race called Arabeans, of whom I made mention in my larger history; and that they have their name from the river Arabis, which runs through their country and finds its outlet in the sea, forming the boundary between this country and that of the Oreitans. From Crocala, keeping on the right hand the hill they call Irus, they sailed on, with a low-lying island on their left; and the island running parallel with the shore makes a narrow bay. Then when they had sailed through this, they anchored in a harbour with good anchorage; and as Ne'archus considered the harbour a large and fine one, he called it Alexander's Haven. At the heads of the harbour there lies an island, about two stades away, called Bibacta; the neighbouring region, however, is called Sangada. This island, forming a barrier to the sea, of itself makes a harbour. There constant strong winds were blowing off the ocean. Nearchus therefore, fearing lest some of the natives might collect to plunder the camp, surrounded the place with a stone wall. He stayed there thirty-three days; and through that time, he says, the soldiers hunted for mussels, oysters, and razor-fish, as they are called; they were all of unusual size. much larger than those of our seas. They also drank briny water.
So, rather than setting out as the Monson ended he moved forty days too early the equation of this Boedromion with Hyperberetaios would see the monsoon ending about the very end of October/November, a month later than normal. This is corrected by knocking things back to Metageitnion/Gorpiaios. This may also help to explain why Niarchos set off so early; the monsoon hits Northern India about the beginning of August, allowing for a weaker precipitation than usual, which might be supported by Alexander’s struggle to find water in Gedrosia, and the lack of familiarity with coastal conditions during that season the unsuspecting could well have been ambushed by the meteorology.

Fluctuations in climate seem to effect the amount of rainfall rather than the season of the monsoon whose position in the ancient year is corroborated by the Hindu calendar where the final month of monsoon season was Tula Sep/Oct; my reckoning would place the true sailing 27 Sept, the conventional dating 27 Oct. Drought conditions in Gedrosia do not speak of a late running monsoon, and Niarchos must surely have set out as soon as practicable.

This is what happens when you read the sources, :shock:
When you think about, it free-choice is the only possible option.
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