Ctesias - Greek Physician and Persian Historian

Ctesias - Birth: Ctesias was born c. 416 in Cnidus, Caria, the son of Ctesiarchus or Ctesiochus, according to the Suda.
Source: Jona Lendering

Ctesias - Writing Career: Ctesias was a Greek physician and historian who wrote 23 books on the history of Babylonia, Assyria, and the Persian Empire to 398 B.C. His sources were Persian archives. Based on what he heard at the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II Mnemon from 404 to 398/7, Ctesias wrote a history of India.

Ctesias - Remnants: The work of Ctesias has been lost, although there is an abstract of Ctesias in the writing of Photius of Constantinople (9th C.).

Ctesias - Reputation: Ctesias had access to valuable sources, but he is still considered unreliable. Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates (and Diodorus Siculus) were familiar with his work. Ctesius is an important source for information on the Achaemenid Empire from Xerxes expedition to Greece in 480/79 to Alexander the Great.