Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/71

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Hipparchos controverts this view, urging the futility of the proofs on which it rests. Patroklês, he says, is unworthy of trust, opposed as he is by two competent authorities, Dêimachos and Megasthenês, who state that in some places the distance from the southern sea is 20,000 stadia, and in others 30,000. Such, he says, is the account they give, and it agrees with the ancient charts of the country.

With Megasthenês the breadth of India is its extent from east to west, though this is called by others its length. His account is that the breadth at shortest is 16,000 stadia, and its length-by which he means its extent from north to south-is at the narrowest 22,300 stadia.

Again, be [Eratosthenes] wished to show the ignorance of Dêimachos, and his want of a