Nearchus

Nearchus

In 325 BCE, the Greek military commander Nearchus led a naval expedition from the mouth of the Indus River (in present-day Pakistan) to that of the Euphrates in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). His voyage served several purposes, not least of which was to transport a large portion of Alexander the Great’s fighting force from India back to Greece. However, his primary mission was to discover a sea route between the Indian subcontinent and the Near East. He succeeded, thereby enabling significantly greater trade and exchange between India and the western lands.

**Background**

The career of Nearchus (360–312 BCE), a native of Crete, is inextricably linked to that of his friend and leader, Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE). Alexander’s father, Philip II of Macedon (r. 359–336 BCE), had conquered the Greek city‑states with the ambition of uniting all of Greece and then subduing the declining Persian Empire. But Philip was assassinated before he could undertake this mission, leaving it to his son to become one of history’s greatest military leaders.