Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/153

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAP. I. § 40.

INTRODUCTION.

139

it is no statement of Eratosthenes that the Caspius and Thapsacus are under the same meridian, but of Hipparchus himself. However, supposing Eratosthenes says so, does it follow that the distance from the Caspius to the Caspian Gates, and that from Thapsacus to the same point, are equal.^[1]

40. In the second book of his Commentaries, Hipparchus, having again mooted the question concerning the mountains of the Taurus, of which we have spoken sufficiently, proceeds with the northern parts of the habitable earth. He then notices the statement of Eratosthenes concerning the countries situated west of the Euxine,^[2] namely, that the three [principal] headlands [of this continent], the first the Peloponnesian, the second the Italian, the third the Ligurian, run from north [to south], enclosing the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Gulfs.^[3] After this general exposition, Hipparchus proceeds to criticise each point in detail, but rather on geometrical than geographical grounds; on these subjects, however, the number of Eratosthenes’ errors is so overwhelming, as also of Timosthenes the author of the Treatise on the Ports, (whom Eratosthenes prefers above every other writer, though he often decides even against him,) that it does not seem to be worth my time to review their faulty productions, nor even what Hipparchus has to say about them; since he neither enumerates all their blunders, nor yet sets them right, but only points out how

the Cyaneæ to that of the Phasis is 6800 stadia, of 700 to a degree; from the Cyaneæ to Mount Caspius, 8080.

↑ The meridian of Mount Caspius is about 2625 stadia nearer the Caspian Gates than that of Thapsacus.
↑ μετὰ τὸν Πόντον, literally, after the Pontus.
↑ Gosselin observes, that Eratosthenes took a general view of the salient points of land that jutted into the Mediterranean, as some of the learned of our own time have done, when remarking that most of the continents terminated in capes, extending towards the south. The first promontory that Eratosthenes speaks of terminated in Cape Malea of the Peloponnesus, and comprised the whole of Greece; the Italian promontory likewise terminated Italy; the Ligurian promontory was reckoned to include all Spain, it terminated at Cape Tarifa, near to the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. As the Ligurians had obtained possession of a considerable portion of the coasts of France and Spain, that part of the Mediterranean which washes the shores of those countries was named the Ligurian Sea. It extended from the Arno to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in accordance with this nomenclature that Eratosthenes called Cape Tarifa, which projects farthest into the Strait, the Ligurian promontory.

[1] The meridian of Mount Caspius is about 2625 stadia nearer the Caspian Gates than that of Thapsacus.

[2] μετὰ τὸν Πόντον, literally, after the Pontus.

[3] Gosselin observes, that Eratosthenes took a general view of the salient points of land that jutted into the Mediterranean, as some of the learned of our own time have done, when remarking that most of the continents terminated in capes, extending towards the south. The first promontory that Eratosthenes speaks of terminated in Cape Malea of the Peloponnesus, and comprised the whole of Greece; the Italian promontory likewise terminated Italy; the Ligurian promontory was reckoned to include all Spain, it terminated at Cape Tarifa, near to the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. As the Ligurians had obtained possession of a considerable portion of the coasts of France and Spain, that part of the Mediterranean which washes the shores of those countries was named the Ligurian Sea. It extended from the Arno to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in accordance with this nomenclature that Eratosthenes called Cape Tarifa, which projects farthest into the Strait, the Ligurian promontory.

[1]

[2]

[3]