Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/70

 56 STRABO. BOOK I. two continents than the Nile, since it extends almost entirely from sea to sea, whereas the Nile is so remote from the ocean that it does not by any means divide the whole of Asia from Africa. On this account I believe it was the Gulf which the poet looked upon as dividing into two portions the whole southern regions of the inhabited earth. Is it possible, then, that he was unacquainted with the isthmus which separates this Gulf from the Egyptian Sea ? 1 29. It is quite irrational to suppose that he could be accu- rately acquainted with Egyptian Thebes, 2 which is separated from our sea 3 by a little less than 5000 4 stadia ; and yet ig^ norant of the recess of the Arabian Gulf, and of the isthmus there, whose breadth is not more than 1000 stadia. Still more, would it not be ridiculous to believe that Homer was aware the Nile was called by the same name as the vast country [of Egypt], and yet unacquainted with the reason why? especially since the saying of Herodotus would occur to him, that the country was a gift from the river, and it ought there- 1 The Mediterranean. 2 Aristotle accounts for Homer's mentioning Thebes rather than Mem- phis, by saying that, at the time of the poet, the formation of that part of Egypt by alluvial deposit was very recent. So that Memphis either did not then exist, or at all events had not then obtained its after celebrity. Aristotle likewise seems to say that anciently Egypt consisted only of the territory of the Thebaid, mi TO apxalov 17 AiyvTrroc, 0i?/3ai KaXovpsvai. 3 The Mediterranean. 4 Gosselin says, " Read 4000, as in lib. xvii. This correction is indi- cated by the following measure given by Herodotus ; From the sea to Heliopolis 1500 stadia From Heliopolis to Thebes . . . . 4860 6360 The stadium made use of in Egypt at the time of Herodotus consisted of lllli to a degree on the grand circle, as may be seen by comparing the measure of the coasts of the Delta furnished by that historian with our actual information. The length of this stadium may likewise be ascer- tained by reference to Aristotle. In the time of Eratosthenes and Strabo, the stadium of 700 to a degree was employed in Egypt. Now 6360 sta- dia of 1111^ to a degree make just 4006 stadia of 700: consequently these two measures are identical, their apparent inconsistency merely re- sulting from the different scales by which preceding authors had expressed them." This reasoning seems very plausible, but we must remark that Col. Leake, in a valuable paper " On the Stade as a Linear Measure," published in vol. ix. of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, is of opinion that Gosselin's system of stadia of different lengths cannot be maintained.