Nearchus biography template

4th-century BCE Greek military commander, admiral of Alexander the Great

"Nearchos" redirects here. For other uses, see Nearchus (disambiguation).

Nearchus or Nearchos (Greek: Νέαρχος; c. 360 – 300 BC) was one of the Greek officers, a navarch, in the army of Alexander the Great.

He is known for his celebrated expeditionary voyage starting from the Indus River, through the Persian Gulf and ending at the mouth of the Tigris River following the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, in 326–324 BC.

Early life

A native of Lato^[1] in Crete and son of Androtimus,^[2] his family settled at Amphipolis in Macedonia at some point during Philip II's reign (we must assume after Philip took the city in 357 BC), at which point Nearchus was probably a young boy.

He was almost certainly older than Alexander, as were Ptolemy, Erigyius, and the others of the ‘boyhood friends’;^[3] so depending on when Androtimus came to Macedonia Nearch