The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Geography of Strabo Vol. I., translated by H. C. Hamilton.

523 Strabo is too fond of this kind of special pleading; before, in order to controvert Hipparchus, he estimated this distance at 3000 stadia; now he adds an additional thousand stadia in order to get a latitude which shall be the southern limit of the habitable earth.

524 The Greek has Κιναμωμοφόρου Ἰνδικῆς. We have omitted the latter word altogether from the translation, as being a slip of the pen. Strabo certainly never supposed the Cinnamon Country to be any where in India.

526 Perhaps it may aid the reader in realizing these different reasonings if we give a summary of them in figures.

Strabo supposes that Hipparchus, reckoning from the equator to the limits of the inhabited earth,		8,800	stadia
should have fixed the southern extremity of India more to the north by		4,000
and the northern extremity of India, according to the measures of Deimachus, still more to the north by		30,000
		——
	Total	42,800
Now, Strabo adds, following Hipparchus, the northern shores of Keltica and the mouth of the Dnieper, are distant from the equator		34,000
Ierne, in a climate almost uninhabitable, was, according to Strabo’s own impression, situated to the north of Keltica		5,000
		——
		39,000
Then, according to Hipparchus, the habitable latitudes would extend still farther than Ierne by		3,800
		——
	Total	42,800

The great fertility of Bactriana, according to Strabo, appeared to be inconsistent with a position so far towards the north. In this he was correct.

527 These 4000 stadia do not accord with the distances elsewhere propounded by Strabo. Possibly he had before him various charts constructed on different hypotheses, and made his computations not always from the same.

531 The astronomical cubit of the ancients equalled 2 degrees. It therefore follows that in the regions alluded to by Hipparchus, the sun at the winter solstice rose no higher than 18 degrees above the horizon. This would give a latitude of a little above 48 degrees. We afterwards find that Hipparchus placed the mouth of the Dnieper, and that part of France here alluded to, under 48° 29′ 19″, and we know that at this latitude, which is only 20′ 56″ different from that of Paris, there is no real night during the longest days of the summer.

533 Lit., during the winter days, but the winter solstice is evidently intended.

534 Read about 10,500. This correction is borne out by the astronomical indications added by Hipparchus.

535 Strabo supposed the latitude of Ireland to be 52° 25′ 42″. Countries north of this he considered to be altogether uninhabitable on account of their inclemency.

536 Equinoctial hours.

537 Read 10,500, as above.

539 The equinoctial line.

540 There is no doubt that the expressions which Deimachus appears to have used were correct. It seems that he wished to show that beyond the Indus the coasts of India, instead of running in a direction almost due east, as the Greeks imagined they did, sloped in a direction between the south and the north-east, which is correct enough. As Deimachus had resided at Palibothra, he had had an opportunity of obtaining more exact information relative to the form of India than that which was current at Alexandria. This seems the more certain, as Megasthenes, who had also lived at Palibothra, stated that by measuring India from the Caucasus to the southern extremity of the continent, you would obtain, not its length, as the Greeks imagined, but its breadth. These correct accounts were obstinately rejected by the speculative geographers of Alexandria, because they imagined a certain uninhabitable zone, into which India ought not to penetrate.

541 The truth of these facts depends on the locality where the observations are made. In the time of Alexander the most southern of the seven principal stars which compose the Greater Bear had a declination of about 61 degrees, so that for all latitudes above 29 degrees, the Wain never set. Consequently if Deimachus were speaking of the aspect of the heavens as seen from the northern provinces of India, the Punjaub for instance, there was truth in his assertion, that the two Bears were never seen to set there, nor the shadows to fall in contrary directions. On the other hand, as Megasthenes appears to be speaking of the south of India, that is, of the peninsula situated entirely south of the tropic, it is certain that he was right in saying that the shadows cast by the sun fell sometimes towards the north, at others towards the south, and that accordingly, as we proceeded towards the south, the Bears would be seen to set. The whole of Ursa Major at that time set at 29 degrees, and our present polar star at 13 degrees. β of the Lesser Bear was at that time the most northern of the seven principal stars of that constellation, and set at 8° 45′. So that both Bears entirely disappeared beneath the horizon of Cape Comorin.

542 This would be at Syene under the tropic.

543 Small zones parallel to the equator; they were placed at such a distance from each other, that there might be half an hour’s difference between each on the longest day of summer. So by taking an observation on the longest day, you could determine the clima and consequently the position of a place. This was equivalent to observing the elevation of the pole. At the end of this second book Strabo enters into a long description of the climata.

544 This observation, taken at the time of Hipparchus, would indicate a latitude of 16° 48′ 34.”

545 Nearchus in speaking of the southern extremity of India, near Cape Comorin, was correct in the assertion that in his time the two Bears were there seen to set.

546 Hipparchus fixed the latitude of Meroe at 16° 51′ 25″, and the extremity of India at 18°. In the time of Alexander, the Lesser Bear was not observed to set for either of these latitudes. Strabo therefore drew the conclusion, that if Hipparchus had adopted the opinion of Nearchus, he would have fixed the extremity of India south of Meroe, instead of north of that city.

547 Now ruins, near Jerobolos, or Jerabees, the ancient Europus; not Decr or Deir.

548 Probably the present Barena, a branch of the Taurus.

549 This is rather free, but the text could not well otherwise be rendered intelligibly.

550 σφραγίδας is the Greek word; for which section is a poor equivalent, but the best we believe the language affords.

551 The name of a considerable portion of Asia.

552 From Eratosthenes’ description of India, preserved by our author in his 15th book, we gather that he conceived the country to be something in the form of an irregular quadrilateral, having one right, two obtuse, and one acute angle, consequently none of its sides parallel to each other. On the whole Eratosthenes’ idea of the country was not near so exact as that of Megasthenes.

553 The Caspian Gates are now known as the Strait of Firouz Koh.

554 The ruins of Babylon, still called Babil, are on the Euphrates, near Hilleh. Susa is now Suz or Schuss, and not Schoster or Toster. The ruins of Persepolis remain, and may be seen near Istakar, Tchilminar, and Nakchi-Rustan.

555 Between Thapsacus and Armenia.

557 The Altun-Suyi, or River of Gold.

560 Viz. at the Gates of the Caspian.

561 This ancient embouchure of the Euphrates is now known as Khor-Abdillah.

563 Thought by Col. Rawlinson to be the Chal-i-Nimrud, usually supposed to mark the site of the Median wall of Xenophon.

564 Situated on the Tigris.

565 A line drawn from the frontiers of Carmania to Babylon would form with the meridian an angle of about 50°. One from the Caspian Gates to Thapsacus would form with the parallel merely an angle of about 30°.

566 Namely, 1000 stadia, by the hypothesis of Hipparchus, or 800 according to Eratosthenes.

568 Hipparchus found by this operation that the distance from the parallel of Babylon to that of the mountains of Armenia was 6795 stadia.

569 See Humboldt, Cosmos ii. p. 556, note, Bohn’s edition.

570 Eratosthenes estimated 252,000 stadia for the circumference of the earth.

571 Odyssey ix. 291; Iliad xxiv. 409.

572 Strabo estimated the length of the continent at 70,000 stadia from Cape St. Vincent to Cape Comorin, and 29,300 stadia as its breadth.

573 The ancient geographers often speak of these kind of resemblances. They have compared the whole habitable earth to a soldier’s cloak or mantle, as also the town of Alexandria, which they styled χλαμυδοειδές. Italy at one time to a leaf of parsley, at another to an oak-leaf. Sardinia to a human foot-print. The isle of Naxos to a vine-leaf. Cyprus to a sheep-skin; and the Black Sea to a Scythian bow, bent. The earliest coins of Peloponnesus, struck about 750 years before the Christian era, bear the impress of a tortoise, because that animal abounded on the shores, and the divisions and height of its shell were thought to offer some likeness to the territorial divisions of the little states of Peloponnesus and the mountain-ridges which run through the middle of that country. The Sicilians took for their symbol three thighs and legs, arranged in such an order that the bended knees might resemble the three capes of that island and its triangular form.

574 The chain of the Taurus.

576 The Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

579 Ariana, or the nation of the Arians.

581 Viz. of the Euphrates.

583 Syria, properly so called, extended from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. Between the Euphrates and the Tigris lay Mesopotamia, and beyond the Tigris, Assyria. The whole of these countries formerly bore the name of Syria. The Hebrews denominated Mesopotamia, Syria of the Rivers. The name Assyria seems to be nothing more than Syria with the article prefixed. Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris.

584 Mesene comprehends the low and sandy grounds traversed by the Euphrates, immediately before it discharges itself into the Persian Gulf.

586 Moadieh, near to Aboukir.

587 Along the coasts of Egypt, past Palestine and Syria, to the recess of the Gulf of Issus, where Cilicia commences.

588 Canopus, near to Aboukir.

589 It was a mistake common to Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, to fancy that Rhodes and Alexandria were under the same meridian. The longitude of the two cities differs by 2° 22′ 45″.

591 The following is a Resumé of the argument of Hipparchus, “The hypotenuse of the supposed triangle, or the line drawn from Babylon to the Caspian Gates being only 6700 stadia, would be necessarily shorter than either of the other sides, since the line from Babylon to the frontiers of Carmania is estimated by Eratosthenes at 9170, and that from the frontiers of Carmania to the Caspian Gates above 9000 stadia. The frontiers of Carmania would thus be east of the Caspian Gates, and Persia would consequently be comprised, not in the third, but in the second section of Eratosthenes, being east of the meridian of the Caspian Gates, which was the boundary of the two sections.” Strabo, in the text, points out the falsity of this argument.

592 Viz. 6700 stadia.

593 These two words, continues Hipparchus, are not in the text, but the argument is undoubtedly his.

595 400 stadia, allowing 700 to a degree, would give 34′ 17″ latitude. According to present astronomical calculations, the distance between the parallels of Rhodes and Athens is 1° 36′ 30″.

596 Viz. 400 stadia, or 34′ 17″ of latitude.

597 The difference of latitude between Thapsacus and Pelusium is about 4° 27′.

598 The text here is evidently corrupt.

599 Gosselin makes some sensible remarks on this section; we have endeavoured to render it accurately, but much fear that the true meaning of Strabo is now obscured by corruptions in the text.

600 Moadieh, the mouth of the river close to Aboukir.

601 Certain little islets at the mouth of the canal of Constantinople, in the Black Sea. These islands want about a degree and a quarter of being under the same meridian as Moadieh.

602 Gosselin remarks, that the defile intended by Strabo, was probably the valley of the river Kur, or the ancient Cyrus, in Georgia; and by Mount Caspius we are to understand the high mountains of Georgia, whence the waters, which fall on one side into the Black Sea, and on the other into the Caspian, take their rise.

603 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.

604 On the contrary, Mount Caspius is east of the meridian of Thapsacus by about 2500 stadia, of 700 to a degree.

605 Now Iskouriah. Dioscurias, however, is 800 stadia from the Phasis, of 700 to a degree.

606 According to our improved charts, the distance from the meridian of the Cyaneæ to that of the Phasis is 6800 stadia, of 700 to a degree; from the Cyaneæ to Mount Caspius, 8080.

607 The meridian of Mount Caspius is about 2625 stadia nearer the Caspian Gates than that of Thapsacus.

608 μετὰ τὸν Πόντον, literally, after the Pontus.

609 Gosselin observes, that Eratosthenes took a general view of the salient points of land that jutted into the Mediterranean, as some of the learned of our own time have done, when remarking that most of the continents terminated in capes, extending towards the south. The first promontory that Eratosthenes speaks of terminated in Cape Malea of the Peloponnesus, and comprised the whole of Greece; the Italian promontory likewise terminated Italy; the Ligurian promontory was reckoned to include all Spain, it terminated at Cape Tarifa, near to the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. As the Ligurians had obtained possession of a considerable portion of the coasts of France and Spain, that part of the Mediterranean which washes the shores of those countries was named the Ligurian Sea. It extended from the Arno to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in accordance with this nomenclature that Eratosthenes called Cape Tarifa, which projects farthest into the Strait, the Ligurian promontory.

611 Cape Malio, or St. Angelo.

612 Strabo means the Saronic Gulf, now the Bay of Engia.

613 The peninsula of Gallipoli by the Dardanelles.

614 πρὸς τὸ Σούνιον. 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.

615 Or Black Gulf; the Gulf of Saros.

616 The Gulfs of Contessa, Monte-Santo, Cassandra, and Salonica.

617 Durazzo, on the coast of Albania.

618 The Gulf of Salonica.

619 Read 13,500 stadia.

620 It was an error alike shared in by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Strabo, that Alexandria and Rhodes were under the same meridian, notwithstanding the former of these cities is 2° 22′ 45″ east of the latter.

621 This is an error peculiar to Eratosthenes. The meridians of Carthage and the Strait of Messina differ by 5° 45´.

622 The Strait of Messina.

623 Spain and France.

624 The Getæ occupied the east of Moldavia and Bessarabia, between the Danube and the Dniester. The Bastarnæ inhabited the north of Moldavia and a part of the Ukraine.

625 The Greek has simply, κατὰ τὴν ἠπειρῶτιν, in the continent, but Strabo, by this expression, only meant to designate those parts of the continent best known and nearest to the Greeks. The other countries, in regard to which he pleads for some indulgence to be shown to Eratosthenes, are equally in the same continent. Kramer and other editors suspect an error in the text here.

626 According to Plutarch, both Thales and Pythagoras had divided the earth into five zones. Since Parmenides lived one hundred and fifty years after the first of these philosophers, he cannot be considered the author of this division. As Posidonius and Strabo estimated the breadth of the torrid zone at 8800 stadia, and Parmenides is said to have nearly doubled it, this would give 17,600 stadia, or 25° 8′ 34″, taking this at 25° it would appear that Parmenides extended the torrid zone one degree beyond the tropics.

627 The Arctic Circles of the ancients were not the same as ours, but varied for every latitude. Aristotle limited the temperate zone to those countries which had the constellation of the crown in their Arctic Circle, the brilliant star of that constellation in his time had a northern declination of about 36° 30´, consequently he did not reckon that the temperate zone reached farther north or south than 53° and a half. We shall see that Strabo adopted much the same opinion, fixing the northern bounds of the habitable earth at 54° 25′ 42″. Gosselin.

628 For the circumference.

629 Viz. none for those who dwell under the equator, or at the poles.

630 Strabo’s argument seems to be this. It matters but little that there may not be Arctic Circles for every latitude, since for the inhabitants of the temperate zone they do certainly exist, and these are the only people of whom we have any knowledge. But at the same time the objection is unanswerable, that as these circles differ in respect to various countries, it is quite impossible that they can fix uniformly the limits of the temperate zone.

631 The polar circles, where the shadow, in the summer season, travels all round in the twenty-four hours.

632 Those who live north and south of the tropics, or in the temperate zones, and at noon have a shadow only falling one way.

633 Having at mid-day in alternate seasons the shadow falling north and south.

634 Viz. Posidonius allowed for each of these small zones a breadth of about 30´, or 350 stadia, of 700 to a degree.

635 A plant, the juice of which was used in food and medicine. Bentley supposes it to be the asa-fœtida, still much eaten as a relish in the East.

636 Posidonius was here mistaken; witness the Niger, the Senegal, the Gambia, &c.

637 The expression of Strabo is so concise as to leave it extremely doubtful whether or not he meant to include the human race in his statement. Looking at this passage, however, in connexion with another in the 15th Book, we are inclined to answer the question in the affirmative.

638 Or living on fish, a name given by the Greek geographers to various tribes of barbarians; but it seems most frequently to a people of Gedrosia on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. It is probably to these that Strabo refers.

639 Viz. the Heteroscii, or inhabitants of the temperate zones.

640 The ancients named the people of southern Africa, Ethiopians; those of the north of Asia and Europe, Scythians; and those of the north-west of Europe, Kelts.

641 That is, by arctic circles which differed in respect to various latitudes. See Book ii. chap. ii. § 2, p. 144.

642 Viz. the partition of the earth into two hemispheres, by means of the equator.

643 Gosselin concludes from this that Eratosthenes and Polybius gave to the earth the form of a spheroid flattened at the poles. Other philosophers supposed it was elongated at the poles, and flattened at the equator.

644 Gosselin justly observes that this passage, which is so concise as to appear doubtful to some, is properly explained by a quotation from Geminus, which states the arguments adduced by Polybius for believing that there was a temperate region within the torrid zones.

645 Strabo seems to confound the account (Herodotus iv. 44) of the expedition sent by Darius round southern Persia and Arabia with the circumnavigation of Libya, (Herod. iv. 42,) which Necho II. confided to the Phœnicians about 600 B. C., commanding them distinctly “to return to Egypt through the passage of the Pillars of Hercules.” See Humboldt’s Cosmos, ii. 488, note, Bohn’s edition.