Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/123

 CHAP. i. $ 10, 11. INTRODUCTION. 109 Onesicritus and Nearchus, with others of the same class, manage to stammer out a few words [of truth]. Of this we became the more convinced whilst writing the history of Alexander. No faith whatever can be placed in Deimachus and Megasthenes. They coined the fables concerning men with ears large enough to sleep in, men without any mouths, without noses, with only one eye, with spider-legs, and with fingers bent backward. They renewed Homer's fable con- cerning the battles of the Cranes and Pygmies, and asserted the latter to be three spans high. They told of ants digging for gold, of Pans with wedge-shaped heads, of serpents swal- lowing down oxen and stags, horns and all; meantime, as Eratosthenes has observed, reciprocally accusing each other of falsehood. Both of these men were sent ambassadors to Palimbothra, 1 Megasthenes to Sandrocottus, Deimachus to Allitrochades his son ; and such are the notes of their residence abroad, which, I know not why, they thought fit to leave. Patrocles certainly does not resemble them ; nor do any other of the authorities consulted by Eratosthenes contain such absurdities. 10. 2 If the meridian of__Rhodes and Byzantium has been rightly determined to be the same, then that of Cili- cia and Amisus has likewise been rightly determined ; many observation^ having proved that the lines are parallel, and that they never impinge on each other. 11. In like manner, that the voyage from Amisus to Colchis, and the route to the Caspian, and thence on to Bactra, are both due east, is proved by the winds, the sea- sons, the fruits, and even the sun-risings. Frequently evi- dence such as this, and general agreement, are more to be relied on than the measurement taken by means of instru- ments. Hipparchus himself was not wholly indebted to instruments and geometrical calculations for his statement that the Pillars and Cilicia lie in a direct line due east. For 1 Not Allahabad, as supposed by D'Anville, but Patelputer, or Patali- putra, near Patna. 2 There would seem to be some omission here, although none of the MSS. have any blank space left to indicate it. Groskurd has been at con- siderable pains to supply what he thinks requisite to complete the sense, but in a matter so doubtful we deemed it a surer course to follow the Greek text as it stands.