Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/115

 CHAP. iv. $ 6. INTRODUCTION. 101 the Euphrates to the Nile, 5000. J Thence to the Cano- pic 2 mouth. 1300. From the Canopic mouth to Carthage. 13,500. From thence to the Pillars at least 8000. Which make in all 70,800 stadia. To these [he says] should be add- ed the curvature of Europe beyond the Pillars of Hercules, fronting the Iberians, and inclining west, not less than 3000 stadia, and theTTeadlands, including that of the Ostimii, named Cabasum, 3 and the adjoining islands, the last of which, named Uxisama, 4 is distant, according to Pytheas, a three days' sail. But he added nothing to its length by enumerating these last, viz. the headlands, including that of the Ostimii, the island of Uxisama, and the rest ; they are not situated so as affect the length of the earth, for they all lie to the north, and belong to Keltica, not to Iberia ; indeed it seems but an invention of Pytheas. Lastly, to fall in with the general opinion that the breadth ought not 5 to exceed half the length, he adds to the stated measure of its length 2000 stadia west, and as many east. 6. Further, endeavouring to support the opinion that it is in accordance with natural philosophy to reckon the great- est dimension of the habitable earth from east to west, he says that, according to the laws of natural philosophy, the habitable earth ought to occupy a greater length from east to west, than its breadth from north to south. The temperate zone, which we have already designated as the longest zone, is that which the mathematicians denominate a continuous circle returning upon itself. So that if the extent of the Atlantic Ocean were not an obstacle, we might easily pass by sea from Iberia to India, 6 still keeping in the same parallel ; the remaining portion of which parallel, measured as above in stadia, occupies more than a third of the whole circle : since the parallel drawn through Athens, 7 on which we have taken the distances from India to Iberia, does not contain in the whole 200,000 stadia. 1 The Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, now Thineh or Farameh. 2 Close by Aboukir. 3 Cape S. Mahe. 4 Ushant. commentators in reading TO fir/ irXiov. 6 It is remarkable that this is the same idea which led Columbus to the discovery of America, and gave to the islands off that continent the name of the West Indies. 7 We have followed Kramer in reading Si "Br}vSJv t instead of the ta Oiv&r of former editions.
 * The text has TO irX'tov, but we have followed the suggestions of the