Nearchus

Nearchus of Crete, a childhood friend of Alexander and one of the companions exiled by Philip II after the Pixodarus affair (Arr. *Anab.* 3.6.5 — Alexander himself was reprimanded but not formally exiled), served as satrap of Lycia and Pamphylia before being appointed admiral of the Indus flotilla at Patala in late summer 325 BC (Arr. *Anab.* 6.17.2 + Arr. *Ind.* 18.3). His mission — to pioneer a sea-route from the Indus delta to the Persian Gulf parallel to Alexander's desert march through Gedrosia — was the most geographically ambitious sailing of the classical world: approximately 1,800 km of unknown Makran coastline in adverse winds, with a fleet of 150 vessels and provisions for thirty days (Arr. *Ind.* 20–43). He rendezvoused with Alexander at Pura in Carmania in December 325 and delivered a personal report preserved by Arrian as the main source of the *Indica* (Arr. *Ind.* 18–43), recounting harbours, currents, sea-monsters, and the naked fish-eaters of the Makran coast. After Alexander's death Nearchus aligned with Antigonus Monophthalmus; his detailed memoir, the lost *Indike* (Παράπλους τῆς Ἰνδικῆς), is the principal source behind Arrian's *Indica* and the maritime sections of Strabo *Geography* 15.2.

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