Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/154

 HO STRABO. BOOK II. they falsify and contradict each other. Still any one might cer- tainly object to the saying of Eratosthenes, that Europe has but three headlands, and considering as one that which terminates by the Peloponnesus, notwithstanding it is broken up into so many divisions. In fact, Sunium 1 is as much a promontory as Laconia, and not very much less south than Malea, 2 forming a considerable bay. 3 and the Thracian Chersonesus 4 and Suni- um 5 form the Gulf of Melas, 6 and likewise those of Macedonia. 7 Added to this, it is manifest that the majority of the distances are falsely stated, thus arguing an ignorance of geography scarcely credible, and so far from requiring geometrical de- monstration that it stands out prominent on the very face of the statements. For example, the distance from Epidamnus 8 to the Thermaic Gulf 9 is above 2000 stadia ; Eratosthenes gives it at 900. So too he states the distance from Alexandria to Carthage at 13,000 10 stadia ; it is not more than 9000, that is, if, as he himself tells us, Caria and Rhodes are under the same meridian as Alexandria, 11 and the Strait of Messina under the same as Carthage, 12 for every one is agreed that the voyage from Caria to the Strait of Sicily does not exceed 9000 stadia. It is doubtless permissible in very great distances to con- sider as under one and the same meridian places which are not more east and west of each other than Carthage is west of the Strait ; 13 but an error of 3000 stadia is too much ; and when he places Rome under the same meridian as Carthage, notwithstanding its being so far west of that city, it is but I Cape Colonna. 2 Cape Malio, or St. Angelo. 3 Strabo means the Saronic Gulf, now the Bay of Engia. 4 The peninsula of Gallipoli by the Dardanelles. 5 Trpoe TO Sounoi/. Strabo's meaning is, that the entire space of sea, bounded on the north by the Thracian Chersonesus, and on the south by Sunium, or Cape Colonna, forms a kind of large gulf. 6 Or Black Gulf; the Gulf of Saros. 7 The Gulfs of Contessa, Monte-Santo, Cassandra, and Salonica. 8 Durazzo, on the coast of Albania. 9 The Gulf of Salonica. 10 Read 13,500 stadia. II It was an error alike shared in by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, that Alexandria and Rhodes were under the same meridian, not- withstanding the former of these cities is 2 22' 45" east of the latter. 12 This is an error peculiar to Eratosthenes. The meridians of Carthage and the Strait of Messina differ by 5 45'. 13 The Strait of Messina.