The Geography

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...But so that we ourselves do not seem to conjecture distances to a certain multitude, let us compare the navigation from the Golden Chersonese to Cattigara with the navigation made from Aromata to the promontory of Prasum: namely, placed at twenty days to Zabae, and some others to Cattigara; and similarly twenty days from Rhapta according to Theophilus, and many others to Prasum with Dioscorus. As Marinus did, let us equally admit "some days" for "many."

Since, therefore, from manifest reason and from their own observation of the heavens, we have shown Prasum to have its site under the parallel distant toward the south from the equinoctial by sixteen and a third and a twelfth degrees; and from the same equinoctial toward the north the parallel of Aromata is distant by four and a fourth degrees; the distance from Aromata to Prasum is gathered to consist of twenty and two-thirds degrees. Whence not incongruously is the distance from the Golden Chersonese to Zabae and hence to Cattigara to be placed at just as many degrees.

From the Golden Chersonese to Zabae, however, it is not necessary to contract the distance, because it is passed as if it were situated under the equinoctial circle, since the places which lie between are opposed to the south. Truly the distance from Zabae to Cattigara he ought to contract, since that navigation is made toward the south and the eastern region, so that we may have the site according to the norm of the equinoctial. If therefore we assign a half of the degrees to each distance on account of the unknown excess of it; then take away a third part of the degrees which are from Zabae to Cattigara (ten and a third) on account of the noted inclination, we have the distance from the Golden Chersonese to Cattigara equated to the equinoctial site: roughly seventeen and a sixth degrees.

It has been shown from the Cory promontory as far as the Golden Chersonese the degrees are thirty-four and four-fifths. Whence the whole distance from Cory as far as Cattigara is gathered as almost fifty-two degrees. But the meridian indeed which is written through the beginning of the Indus river is a little more western according to Marinus than the northern promontory of the island of Taprobane [Sri Lanka], which is opposed to Cory; and from this the meridian designated through the mouths of the Baetis [vetij] river is distant by eight spaces of hours; truly one hundred and twenty degrees.

Furthermore, this meridian of Baetis is distant from the meridian noted through the Fortunate Isles by five degrees. Whence it is gathered: the meridian through Cory is distant from the meridian described through the Fortunate Isles by a little more than one hundred and twenty-five degrees. The meridian through Cattigara is distant from the meridian of the same islands by a little more than one hundred and seventy-seven degrees, according to almost the same distance of degrees collected in the Rhodian parallel.

But let the longitude as far as the metropolis of the Sinae [China] be placed at a full one hundred and eighty degrees; truly twelve hours; since all confess it to be more eastern than Cattigara. It is gathered, therefore, that the longitude through the island of Rhodes is seventy-two thousand stadia.

[Term: Concerning those things in the particular exposition in which Marinus dissents.]

[Initial D]
THE GENERAL distances we have thus contracted: namely, longitude in the eastern region, and latitude in the north, from the causes noted. Furthermore, the sites of certain cities, in many places, we have thought should be emended: where he handed down repugnant and reprobate expositions according to diverse annotations taken from various and uncertain editions: as in the unfair precepts of opposite places. For he says Tarraco is opposed to Caesarea which is called Iol, and through this he says the meridian is led, and through the Pyrenean mountains: which are not a little more eastern than Tarraco. He also mentions Pachynus to be opposed to Great Leptis and Huenra [?] of the Theeni. From Pachynus truly to Huenra he collects the distance to be four hundred stadia. But from Leptis to the Theeni he handed down it was over one thousand and fifty stadia, from those things which Timosthenes asserts. Then he says Tergeste is opposed to Ravenna. From the interior gulf of the Adriatic Sea which is near...

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NOTES ON ABBREVIATIONS AND READINGS

• Stadia / Schoini: Standard Greek and Egyptian units of distance. Marinus uses 500 stadia to 1 degree.
• Equinoctialis: Refers to the Equator.
• Fixas: Short for stellae fixae (fixed stars).
• Proper Nouns: Several OCR corruptions were identified and corrected based on geographic context (e.g., vetij -> Baetis, maem -> Maes, rbetico -> Arctico).
• Agisymba: A region in sub-Saharan Africa (likely Chad/Niger area) which Ptolemy argues should be moved further north toward the Equator based on the presence of rhinoceroses.
• Cattigara: A port in the far east, likely in modern-day Vietnam or Southern China.
• Schoini: A schoenus (schoinos) was an Egyptian unit often calculated by Marinus and Ptolemy as being roughly 30 stadia.