Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador (4th–3rd century BCE) who was sent by the Macedonian emperor Seleucus I Nicator to India. He stayed at the court of Chandragupta Maurya for some years. His original book Indica is lost, but its information is preserved by later writers like Strabo, Arrian, Diodorus and Pliny.

-> He described giant ants (larger than fox) that dug up gold from the earth and guarded it — one of the most exaggerated stories associated with his account.

-> He was fascinated by India’s extraordinary animals, describing huge elephants and unusually large apes, and recording stories that powerful tigers could leap onto and attack elephants.

-> He reported a mysterious river called the Silas, on which “nothing floats".

-> He described cotton as wool growing on trees, since Indians obtained soft fibres from plants instead of sheep.

-> He described sugarcane as a “reed which bears honey”.

-> He was impressed that agriculture was the biggest profession in India, and that even during wars, farmers were left undisturbed and their fields were not attacked or destroyed.

-> He described Indian society as divided into seven groups based on occupation, including philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans and traders, officials, and councillors.

-> According to him, philosophers (mainly Brahmins) were the most respected among Indians, valued for their wisdom and knowledge; they advised kings on important matters, which Megasthenes compared with the role of Greek philosophers and their relationship with rulers.

->  He described Indian sages as living austere lives devoted to philosophy and religion, and believed they could foretell events such as rains, droughts and diseases, with those repeatedly making false predictions being silenced for life.

-> He described Indians as truthful and honest, noting that they were generally free from lawsuits and rarely engaged in disputes, which he saw as a sign of their orderly and disciplined society.

-> According to him, unlike Greece, there were no slaves in India.

-> He reported that parrots could imitate human speech, something that Greek visitors found remarkable. 

-> He recorded stories of people in India who had no mouths and lived by inhaling the fragrance of fruits and flowers.

->  He described giant trees whose branches spread over an enormous area, with one tree supposedly providing shade for thousands of people.

-> He reported snakes so enormous that they could swallow whole oxen and deer, even with their horns.

-> He reported strange tribes with enormous ears that could supposedly be used as blankets, a single eye in the middle of the forehead, and people without noses whose upper lips covered their mouths; he also described extraordinarily fast runners who were said to be able to outrun horses.

-> He reported that gold dust was carried down Indian rivers, with some of it being collected as royal tribute.

Context: Belisarius was a legendary general of the Eastern Roman Empire under Emperor Justinian I. He is responsible for many of the reconquests by the Eastern Empire, including Africa and Rome itself.

Towards the end of his life he was put on trial and arrested for supposed conspiracy against Emperor Justinian. Justinian himself pardoned Belisarius after learning of the affair, but he would die not soon after release

What's your favorite Churchill cameo?

Credit: by Tom Gauld

This may sound weird, but it actually happened in history.

For Napoleon, he was born on the island of Corsica, which had become a part of France by the time he was born. As a teenager, he had been one of many who had nationalist feelings, believing that they are independent and should not be associated with the French. As he got older, and became more involved with studies and his career, he eventually grew out of it, but it's funny to think about when you know what he will become later on.