Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/152

 138 STRABO. BOOK II. pian Sea, there are 6600 stadia, 1 so that, with the exception of about 300 stadia, the distance from the meridian of the Cyaneas to that of Thapsacus, or to that of Mount Caspius, is the same : and both Thapsacus and Mount Caspius are, so to speak, under the same meridian. 2 It follows from this that the Caspian Gates are about equi-distant between Thap- sacus and Mount Caspius, but that the distance between them and Thapsacus is much less than the 10,000 stadia men- tioned by Eratosthenes. Consequently, as the distance in a right line is much less than 10,000 stadia, this route, which he considered to be in a straight course from the Caspian Gates to Thapsacus, must have been a circumbendibus." To this we reply, that Eratosthenes, as is usual in Geogra- phy, speaks of right lines, meridians, and parallels to the equator, with considerable latitude, whereas Hipparchus cri- ticizes him with geometrical nicety, as if every line had been measured with rule and compass. Hipparchus at the same time himself frequently deciding as to right lines and paral- lels, not by actual measurement, but mere conjecture. Such is the first error of this writer. A second is, that he never lays down the distances as Eratosthenes has given them, nor yet reasons on the data furnished by that writer, but from mere assumptions of his own coinage. Thus, where Era- tosthenes states that the distance from the mouth of the [Thracian Bosphorus] to the Phasis is 8000 stadia, from thence to Dioscurias 600 stadia, 3 and from Dioscurias to Cas- pius five days' journey, (which Hipparchus estimates at 1000 stadia,) the sum of these, as stated by Eratosthenes, would amount to 9600 stadia. This Hipparchus abridges in the fol- lowing manner. From the Cyanese to the Phasis are 5600 stadia, and from the Phasis to the Caspius 1000 more. 4 There- whence the waters, which fall on one side into the Black Sea, and on the other into the Caspian, take their rise. 1 Gosselin also observes, that on our charts this distance is about 8100 stadia of 700 to a degree. Consequently the difference between the meridian of Thapsacus and that of Mount Caspius is as much as 4 45', in place of the 300 stadia, or from 25' to 26' supposed by Hipparchus. 2 On the contrary, Mount Caspius is east of the meridian of Thapsacus by about 2500 stadia, of 700 to a degree. 3 Now Iskouriah. Dioscurias, however, is 800 stadia from the Phasis, of 700 to a degree. 4 According to our improved charts, the distance from the meridian of