The Greek identification of certain Indian people asphilosophoiat the end of the fourth centurybceprovides unique information about the meaning of the termphilosophia, especially with respect to its reference to a certain kind of “way of life” (bios), at the time of its greatest maturity (at the start of the Hellenistic period). TheIndicaof Megasthenes, an ambassador to northern India after the death of Alexander, is our most important evidence; fragments from earlier works by Nearchus and Onesicritus, intellectuals in Alexander’s cortege, provide (...) corroboration. This essay argues that late classical Greeks did largely think ofphilosophiaas a way of life. (shrink)