Alexander the Great's Expedition to the Indus, d'Anville Map, 1818

An original copper engraved map, uncolored, of the lands crossed by Alexander the Great. It reaches from Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios and Rhodes in the west to the Indus in the east, with the Pont Euxin and the Mer Caspienne to the north and the Golfe Persique and the Erythraeum Mare to the south. Thin ruled and dotted lines trace the line of march through Babylon, Suse, Persepolis and Pasargada, north past the Caspiae Pylae and Hecatonpylos to Bactra vel Zariaspa and Maracanda, and down through Taxila and the Hydaspes and Hyphasis rivers to Pattala at the mouths of the Indus. Several towns named Alexandria are lettered along the way, one of them beside Cyropolis in the far northeast.

The cartouche reads Carte de l'Expédition d'Alexandre pour l'Histoire Ancienne de Rollin; par d'Anville, Géog.e du Roi. The plate is numbered Pl. 11 above the upper right corner of the border. Below the cartouche are two scale bars, Stades qui ont servi dans la mesure des marches d'Alexandre. and Lieues de 3000 pas Géomét. ou de 2500 Toises. The graticule is numbered in degrees along the borders, and a light center fold runs through the double sheet.

The plate comes from the Atlas de Géographie Ancienne, published in Paris in 1818 by Ledoux et Tenré and printed by Didot le jeune to accompany the works of Charles Rollin (1661 to 1741), the French historian, author of the Histoire ancienne and the Histoire romaine. Its maps are engraved after the originals of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697 to 1782). In the foreword, signed by Ambroise Tardieu, géographe-graveur, Tardieu writes that the maps were copied with religious fidelity and that, charged with reviewing the proofs, he corrected only negligences and faults of execution. Alexander the Great led the Macedonian army against the Persian Empire and on into India, and this map follows that campaign for Rollin's ancient history.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.