Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/173

 CHAP. iv. 3. INTRODUCTION. 159 is not the correct measure [from the Strait of Messina to tfie Pillars of Hercules], whether taken along the sea-shore, or right across the sea. The coast closely resembles an obtuse angle, one side reaching to the Strait of Sicily, the other to the Pillars, the vertex being Narbonne. Now lei a triangle be constructed, having for its base a right line drawn through the sea, and its sides forming the aforementioned angle. The side reaching from the Strait of Sicily to Narbonne is above 1 1,200 stadia, while the other is below 8000. Now the great- est distance from Europe to Libya, across the Tyrrhenian Sea, 1 is not above 3000 stadia, and across the Sea of Sar- dinia 2 it is less still. But supposing that it too is 3000 stadia, add to this 2000 stadia, the depth of the bay at Narbonne, as a perpendicular from the vertex to the base of the obtuse- angled triangle. It will, then, be clear even to the geo- metrical powers of a child, that the entire coast from the Strait of Sicily to the Pillars, does not exceed by more than 500 stadia the right line drawn across the sea ; adding to these the 3000 stadia from the Peloponnesus to the Strait of Sicily, the whole taken together will give a straight line 3 above double the length assigned by Dica3archus -, and, according to his system, you must add in addition to these the stadia at the recess of the Adriatic." 3. True, dear Polybius, (one might say,) this error [of Di- casarchus] is manifested by the proof which you yourself have given when you inform us that from the Peloponnesus to Leucas 4 there are 700 stadia ; from thence to Corcyra 5 the same number ; and the same number again from Corcyra to the Ceraunian Mountains; 6 and from the Ceraunian Moun- tains to lapygia, 7 following the coast of Illyria on the right, 6150 stadia. 8 But the statement of Dicrearchus, that the 1 That part of the Mediterranean which lies on the coast of Italy, from the mouth of the Arno to Naples. 2 The sea which washes the western coast of Sardinia. J Viz. from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules. 6 The mountains of Chimera, forming the Cape della Linguetta on the coast of Albania. 7 The maritime portion of Liburnia, comprised between the coasts of Dalmatia and Istria. It is now comprehended in the district of Murlaka. 8 In all 6250 stadia.
 * Santa Maura, an island in the Ionian Sea. 6 Corfu.