Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/172

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158
STRABO.
BOOK II.

merely pretends to have sailed into one [unknown] country, viz. Panchæa, but the latter, that he has visited the whole of the north of Europe as far as the ends of the earth; which statement, even had it been made by Mercury, we should not have believed. Nevertheless Eratosthenes, who terms Euhemerus a Bergæan, gives credit to Pytheas, although even Dicæarchus would not believe him.”

This argument, “although even Dicæarchus would not believe him,” is ridiculous, just as if Eratosthenes ought to take for his standard a writer whom Polybius is himself for ever complaining of.[1]

The ignorance of Eratosthenes respecting the western and northern portions of Europe, we have before remarked. But both he and Dicæarchus must be pardoned for this, as neither of them were personally familiar with those localities. But how can one excuse Polybius and Posidonius? especially Polybius, who treats as mere hearsay what Eratosthenes and Dicæarchus report concerning the distances of various places; and many other matters, about which, though he blames them, he is not himself free from error. Dicæarchus states that there are 10,000 stadia from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars, and something above this number from the Peloponnesus to the recess of the Adriatic.[2] He supposes 3000 stadia between the Peloponnesus and the Strait of Sicily; thus there would remain 7000 between the Strait of Sicily and the Pillars.[3]

“I will not inquire,” says Polybius, “whether the statement concerning the 3000 stadia is correct or not, but 7000 stadia

  1. ↑ Every one will observe, that this criticism of Strabo is entirely gratuitous and captious. Polybius cites Dicæarchus as a most credulous writer, but states that even he would not believe Pytheas; how then could so distinguished a writer as Eratosthenes put faith in his nonsense?
  2. ↑ On the contrary, the distance in a right line from Cape Tenarum, off the Peloponnesus, to the recess of the Adriatic Gulf, is only about half the distance from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules. This mistake of Dicæarchus is a proof of the very slight acquaintance the Greeks could have had with the western portions of the Mediterranean in his time, about 320 years before the Christian era.
  3. ↑ Literally, “He assigns 3000 to the interval which stretches towards the Pillars as far as the Strait, and 7000 from the Strait to the Pillars.” The distance from Cape Tenarum to the Strait of Messina is in proportion to the distance from the Strait of Messina to Gibraltar, about 3 to 10, not 3 to 7, as given by Dicæarchus.
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