Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/114

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100
STRABO.
BOOK I.

from that of Britain; since that of Byzantium and Marseilles are the same. The degree of shadow from the gnomon which Pytheas states he observed at Marseilles being exactly equal to that which Hipparchus says he found at Byzantium; the periods of observation being in both cases similar.[1] Now from Marseilles to the centre of Britain is not more than 5000 stadia; and if from the centre of Britain we advance north not more than 4000 stadia, we arrive at a temperature in which it is scarcely possible to exist. Such indeed is that of Ierne.[p 1] Consequently the far region in which Eratosthenes places Thule must be totally uninhabitable. By what guesswork he arrived at the conclusion that between the latitude of Thule and the Dnieper there was a distance of 11,500 stadia I am unable to divine.

5. Eratosthenes being mistaken as to the breadth [of the habitable earth], is necessarily wrong as to its length. The most accurate observers, both ancient and modern, agree that the known length of the habitable earth is more than twice its breadth. Its length I take to be from the [eastern] extremity of India[p 2] to the [westernmost] point of Spain;[p 3] and its breadth from [the south of] Ethiopia to the latitude of Ierne. Eratosthenes, as we have said, reckoning its breadth from the extremity of Ethiopia to Thule, was forced to extend its length beyond the true limits, that he might make it more than twice as long as the breadth he had assigned to it. He says that India, measured where it is narrowest,[2] is 16,000 stadia to the river Indus. If measured from its most prominent capes it extends 3000 more.[3] Thence to the Caspian Gates, 14,000. From the Caspian Gates to the Euphrates,[4] 10,000. From

  1. ↑ The latitudes of Marseilles and Constantinople differ by 2° 16′ 21″. Gosselin enters into a lengthened explanation on this subject, i. 158.
  2. ↑ In the opinion of Strabo and Eratosthenes, the narrowest portion of India was measured by a line running direct from the eastern embouchure of the Ganges to the sources of the Indus, that is, the northern side of India bounded by the great chain of the Taurus.
  3. ↑ Cape Comorin is the farthest point on the eastern coast. Strabo probably uses the plural to indicate the capes generally, not confining himself to those which project a few leagues farther than the rest.
  4. ↑ The Euphrates at Thapsacus, the most frequented passage; hod, El-Der.
  1. ↑ Ireland.
  2. ↑ The eastern mouth of the Ganges.
  3. ↑ Cape St. Vincent.
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