« Restez barbares et ichtyophages; vous en vivrez plus tranquilles, meilleurs peut-être et sûrement plus heureux. » ou : l'illustre destinée des misérables Ichtyophages (5 e s. a.C.-5 e. s. p.C.

International audienceHow and why the Fish Eaters (Ichtyophagoi) steadily became very renowned in the Greek and Roman tradition is the subject of this paper. The Fish Eaters appear first in Herodotus' narrative who reports two tribes. In particular he describes how the king Cambyses sent Ichtyophagoi spies in the kingdom of Ethiopia. Like many educated Greeks, Alexander and his companions were certainly aware of this famous story and of the Ichtyophagoi. As a matter of fact, Nearchus applied this name to the destitute tribes that he observed while skirting the barren coast of Gedrosia (in today Iran and Pakistan). No doubt this amazing part of Nearchus' report became quickly famous among his audience. This fact is established by a extremely short fragment of Ennius, vaguely alluding to sheeps which ate fish somewhere near the sea. In fact, this obscure line shows that Ennius mentioned a "paradoxon" borrowed from Nearchus : Alexander's admiral had explained that the Fish Eaters were forced to feed their livestock with dried fish, because of the lack of grasslands. Later, when the Ptolemaic explorers of the Red Sea depicted in detail the various tribes of African Ichtyophagoi, they probably had in mind their famous Gedrosian counterparts. Whatever the case may be, the name Ichtyophagoi was to become commonly known, as the literary evidence shows. Because of this fame, Arrianus may have emphasized the description of the Ichtyophagoi in his Indika, being aware of his audience's literary tast