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

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CHAP. IV. § 3.
INTRODUCTION.
159

is not the correct measure [from the Strait of Messina to the 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 let 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 11,200 stadia, while the other is below 8000. Now the greatest distance from Europe to Libya, across the Tyrrhenian Sea,[1] is not above 3000 stadia, and across the Sea of Sardinia[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 geometrical 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 Dicæarchus, 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 Dicæarchus ] is manifested by the proof which you yourself have given when you inform us that from the Peloponnesus to Leucas[p 1] there are 700 stadia; from thence to Corcyra[p 2] the same number; and the same number again from Corcyra to the Ceraunian Mountains;[4] and from the Ceraunian Mountains to Iapygia,[5] following the coast of Illyria on the right, 6150 stadia.[6] But the statement of Dicæarchus, 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.
  3. ↑ Viz. from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules.
  4. ↑ The mountains of Chimera, forming the Cape della Linguetta on the coast of Albania.
  5. ↑ The maritime portion of Liburnia, comprised between the coasts of Dalmatia and Istria. It is now comprehended in the district of Murlaka.
  6. ↑ In all 8250 stadia.
  1. ↑ Santa Maura, an island in the Ionian Sea.
  2. ↑ Corfu.
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