MEGASTHENES VISITS PATALIPUTRA 109 dian emperor, more than two thousand years ago, thus entered into possession of that " scientific frontier ' : sighed for in vain by his English successors, and never held in its entirety even by the Mogul monarchs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the course of some eighteen years Chandragupta had expelled the Macedonian garrisons from the Pan jab and Sind, repulsed and humbled Seleukos the Con- queror, and established himself as undisputed supreme lord of at least all Northern India and a large part of Ariana. These achievements fairly entitle him to rank among the greatest and most successful kings known to history. A realm so vast and various as that of Chandragupta was not to be governed by weakness. The strong hand which won the empire was needed to keep it, and the government was administered with stern severity. About six years after the withdrawal of Seleukos, Chandragupta diad (297 B. c.), and handed on the imperial succession to his son Bindusara. Soon after the conclusion of peace in 303 B. c., Seleu- kos had sent as his envoy to the court of Chandragupta an officer named Megasthenes, who had been employed under Sibyrtios, Satrap of Arachosia. The envoy resided for a considerable time at Pataliputra (now Patna), the capital of the Indian empire, and employed his lei- sure in compiling an excellent account of the geography, products, and institutions of India, which continued to be the principal authority on the subject until mod- ern times. Although often misled by erroneous in- formation received from others, Megasthenes is a vera-
