.jpg)
Nearchus orNearchos (Greek:Νέαρχος;c. 360 – 300 BC) was one of theGreek officers, anavarch, in the army ofAlexander the Great. He is known for his celebrated expeditionary voyage starting from theIndus River, through thePersian Gulf and ending at the mouth of theTigris River following theIndian campaign of Alexander the Great, in 326–324 BC.
A native ofLato[1] inCrete and son of Androtimus,[2] his family settled atAmphipolis inMacedonia at some point duringPhilip II's reign (we must assume after Philip took the city in 357 BC), at which point Nearchus was probably a young boy. He was almost certainly older than Alexander, as werePtolemy,Erigyius, and the others of the ‘boyhood friends’;[3] so depending on when Androtimus came to Macedonia Nearchus was quite possibly born in Crete. Nearchus, along withPtolemy,Erigyius andLaomedon, andHarpalus, was one of Alexander's ‘mentors’ – and he was exiled by Philip as a result of thePixodarus affair (A 3.6.5; P 10.3). It is not known where the exiles went, but they were recalled only after Philip's death, on Alexander's accession.
After their recall, these men were held in the highest honour. Nearchus was appointed assatrap ofLycia andPamphylia in 334/3 BC (A 3.3.6), one of the earliest of Alexander's satrapal appointments. Nearchus' naval blockade of Persian fleets threatening theAegean Sea was successful in aiding Alexander's conquest of Phoenicia, Egypt and Babylonia. In 328 BC he was relieved of his post and rejoined Alexander inBactria (northern Afghanistan), bringing with him reinforcements (A 4.7.2; C 7.10.4, but does not mention Nearchus himself). After the siege ofAornos in present-dayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Nearchus was sent at the head of a reconnaissance mission – especially to find out about elephants (A 4.30.5–6).
In 326 BC, Nearchus was made admiral of the fleet that Alexander had constructed at theHydaspes (A 6.2.3;Indica 18.10). However, histrierarchy was a financial responsibility – that is, Nearchus put up the money for the boats (Heckel, p.229); and there were plenty of other trierarchs in theIndus fleet who were not natural-born sailors. Strabo recounts that the Himalayan range of Emodus was close to the construction of the fleet nearTaxila, providing ample supplies of fir, pine and cedar timber.[4] Initially, the fleet progressed down the Hydaspes much like a triumphal military parade, accompanied by a land-based entourage of the main armed forces of Alexander including cavalry, elephants and loot trains. At the confluence of theAcesines and Indus Rivers, Alexander founded a city calledAlexandria-on-the-Indus, assigning it to the satrapy ofOxyartes (father ofRoxana) and populating it withThracian troops.
Some of the ships were damaged, and Nearchus was instructed to remain behind to oversee repairs, before continuing down the river. This perhaps indicates some knowledge of shipbuilding, but he could hardly have been the only one qualified. The voyage down the Indus River lasted from 326 to 325 BCE and resulted in the capture of native Indian towns. By the time the Macedonians had reached Pattala (modern Bahmanabad in Sindh, Pakistan), Nearchus prepared to lead 17–20,000 men for an expedition into the Persian Gulf, while Alexander continue through theGedrosian desert. Nearchus was not the only Greek naval officer to have pursued a voyage down the Indus River—this was also done byScylax of Caryanda under the commission ofDarius the Great, according to Herodotus.
Nearchus remained in command of the fleet for the voyage from the Indus to thePersian Gulf, which he recorded in detail (and which was used extensively forArrian’sIndica). Again, although he was the admiral, in command of the fleet, great seamanship was not required – the naval responsibilities wereOnesicritus’. Nearchus compiled the story of his expedition into a written work—theIndike—which is now lost but informs some of the content in Arrian'sIndica andStrabo'sGeographica. This work likely consisted of two parts: one detailing India's frontiers, size, population, castes, fauna, flora, cultures and militaries, and the other describing his home-bound voyage toward Babylon. Nearchus described, according to Arrian, how commodities likerice,sugarcane andcotton fabrics and textiles were cultivated, manufactured and traded in the Indus Valley.
Nearchus began by setting out from Patala, although monsoon rains and heavy winds delayed his reaching the Arabian Sea. To wait out the adverse weather, the Macedonian fleet camped near the mouth of the Indus andArabius Rivers, building stone walls as fortification against hostile natives and subsisting off of briny water,mussels,oysters andrazor-fish. After 24 days, Nearchus continued on to the harbor ofMorontobara (Manora Island just off the coast of modernKarachi, Pakistan). About Morontobara, Arrian writes:
At Morontobara,Leonnatus (one of Alexander's Generals) had defeated the local Oreitans and deposited a food supply from which Nearchus' fleet subsisted. Resupplied, Nearchus reached theHingol River (inMakran,Balochistan) and destroyed the native population. Nearchus had arrived at the country of theIcthyophagoi -- 'Fish-Eaters' -- who inhabited the barren coastal region of Makran, between the Arabian Sea and the Gedrosian Desert and found the harbor of Bagisara (modernOrmara Port).
In the next stage of the expedition, Nearchus and his fleet sheltered first at Colta, then Calima (Kalat), Carnine (Astola Island), Cysa and Mosarna. At Mosarna, a Gedrosian sailor joined their fleet and directed them toGwadar, where they founddate-palms and gardens. They ransacked the city ofChah-Bahar and anchored the fleet at a promontory dedicated to the Sun God, called Bageia. Nearchus continued on to the Persian Gulf at theStraits of Hormuz. After many adventures, Nearchus arrived inCarmania in Southern Iran, meeting up with Alexander after the latter's crossing of theGedrosian desert. Here they noted that the area was well-cultivated with corn (grain), vines and trees (apart from the olive tree cherished by Greeks). At the Straits of Hormuz, Nearchus and Onesicritus saw thepeninsula of Oman in Arabia, but did not venture there. Oman was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire before Alexander's conquest.
During the voyage, Nearchus was reputedly the first Greek commander to visitBahrain, which was calledTylos by the Greeks. His visit marked the start of Bahrain's inclusion within the Hellenic world, which culminated in the worship of Zeus (as the Arab sun god, Shams) and Greek being spoken as the language of the upper classes. Bahrain even hosted Greek athletic contests. Nearchus recorded that Bahrain was a prosperous commercial island, stating:
"That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes calledsindones, a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia."
The Macedonians visited many ports in the Persian Gulf such asHarmozeia, Qeshm Island, Cape Ra's-e Bostâneh, Qeys Island, Band-e Nakhîlû, Lâzeh Island (where they encounteredpearl-hunters), the Bandar-e Shîû promontory, Nây Band, Kangan, the Mand River, Bûsher, the Dasht-e Palang River, Jazireh-ye Shîf and the Marun River. They finally reached the mouth of the Tigris River in 324 BCE.[5]
After reaching theTigris River, Nearchus went as far as theEuphrates before turning back to rejoin Alexander atSusa, in early 324 BC. He and Onesicritus received a golden diadem for their actions. Nearchus married the daughter ofBarsine andMentor (A 7.4.6), and received a crown as recognition of his exertions (A 7.5.6). He then took the fleet up toBabylon, where he gave Alexander theChaldeans’ warning not to enter the city (P 73.1–2).
Nearchus had a place in Alexander's final plans, as he was to be the admiral of the fleet to conquer Arabia, a land Alexander wished to conquer to fortify trade and transportation in the Persian Gulf between Babylon and India. These plans were cut short by the king'sdeath.
In the initial arguments over the rule of the empire Nearchus supportedHeracles, Alexander's son byBarsine – the king's mistress was now his mother-in-law. Once order broke down he joinedAntigonus' camp. His last mention is as an adviser toDemetrius in 313/2 BC (D 19.69.1); what happened after that is not known, although he probably retired to write his history. Nearchus wrote a history of his voyages together with a description of India entitledIndica. This text is now lost, but its contents are known from information included byStrabo and other later authors. An account of his voyage is given inArrian's ownIndica, written in the 2nd century AD.[6]Pliny the Elder wrote that Nearchus founded the town of Arbis during his voyage.[7]
The Hellenic navy named in 1980 a Fletcher class destroyer under the name of the navarch (D-65). Later on in 1992 the Hellenic navy named the second C.F Adams destroyer Nearchus ( D-219). In 27 September 2022 the hellenic navy announced that the second FDI frigate will be named Nearchus as well.
Cf.Davaras, Costis. (1989). Νέαρχος ὁ Λάτιος, Amaltheia 20, pp. 233–240.
Ancient authorities: Arrian,Anabasis Alexandri, vi. 19, 21; vii. 4, 19, 20, 25:Plutarch,Life of Alexander, 10, 68, 75:Strabo, xv. pp. 721, 725;Diodorus Siculus, xvii. 104:Justin, xiii. 4.
