Alexander’s ship on its trip down the Indus river, and was made chief pilot of the fleet in its
journey from the Indus to the Euphrates. He quarreled with N, under whom he
served, but was crowned by Alexander upon reaching Susa. He wrote an idealized account
of Alexander’s life, entitled How Alexander Was Raised, which included the expedition in India
and the fleet’s return through the Arabian Sea; only citations of the work survive. His
account of India was heavily influenced by his own philosophical training: he presented the
gymnosophists, Brahmin priests, as Cynics. His descriptions of the lands through which the
expedition passed were full of detail, and were used by P and others; but he favored
the marvelous, and relied on reports of places he did not see, so that was accused of flattery
and exaggeration by later writers. Despite his role as pilot, his estimates of size and distance
were exaggerated: he made India a third part of the Earth, put the width of the Indus delta
at 2,000 stades, and claimed that the Indus is 200 stades across. He reported on the customs
of the people of Baktria, Sogdia, Cathaia, and the land of Mousikanos, transmitting uto-
pian exaggerations about the peoples of the East. Similarly, in describing the exotic flora
and fauna of India, he recorded distortions and exaggerations. He claimed that the Sun
reaches zenith and the northern half of the sky in India in places north of the Tropic of
Cancer, perhaps based on reports of southern India. He was the first Greek to know of
Taprobane ̄ (Sri Lanka), and the islands between it and the mainland, and described an
animal that might be the dugong.
Ed.: FGrHist 134.
T.S. Brown, Onesicritus (1949); Robinson (1953) 1.149–167; Pearson (1960) 83–111; Pédech (1984)
71 – 158.
Philip Kaplan
One ̄tide ̄s/One ̄to ̄r (300 BCE – 80 CE)
A in G, CMLoc 7.6 (13.115 K.) cites his remedy for orthopnoia (cas-
toreum and ammo ̄niakon incense). Kühn reads ΟΝΗΤΡΟΥ, so perhaps ΟΝΗΤΙ∆ΟΥ,
the rare name One ̄tide ̄s (as in LGPN 2.353, Athens, 390– 375 BCE). Cf. also CMGen 5.13
(13.840 K.) ΟΝΗΤΩΡΕΙΣ (perhaps read ΟΝΗΤΟΡ<ΟΣ>ΕΙΣ: “one of One ̄to ̄r’s”), com-
posed of oak-gall, iris, myrrh, litharge and psimuthion, and “good for everything.”
Fabricius (1726) 353.
PTK
One ̄to ̄r (ca 50 – 150 CE?)
Platonist author of On Mathematical Analogy, cited once by P, and possibly another
work, cited by D, in Phaed. 100.3, where One ̄to ̄r is coupled with A.
D L cites probably the same man, 2.114 (on Nikare ̄te ̄ and Stilpo ̄n of
Megara) and 3.9 (for a work Whether a Wise Man will Make Money). The name is rare except in
5th/4th cc. BCE Athens, but could have been revived (cf. e.g., A, A, H,
M, P, and P).
Ed.: FGrHist 1113.
DPA 4 (2005) 781–782, R. Goulet.
PTK
O() ⇒ O
ONE ̄TIDE ̄S/ONE ̄TO ̄R