Geography (Geographicae Enarrationis Libri Octo)

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Aethiopian region, which is called Agisymba a region in ancient geography, south of the equator; and the Prassum promontory, he places under that parallel which defines the most southern limit of the known earth, which he also places under the winter tropic. So that according to him, the whole latitude of the globe, with the winter tropic joined, becomes 87 parts, and completes 43,500 stadia units of distance. Which he also attempts to demonstrate as a reasonable southern end, by a certain appearance, as he himself thinks, and also by the journeys which are handed down in histories by land and sea, which each must be considered as if in an excursion. Certainly, in the enumeration of appearances, in his third composition, he speaks thus. The Zodiac the band of constellations the sun appears to traverse in the torrid zone appears entirely over it, on account of which shadows are transmuted in it, and all the stars set and rise. But only the Lesser Bear Ursa Minor begins to appear entirely above the earth in the more northern parts of Ocele a port in Arabia, by 5,500 stadia. For the parallel through Ocele is raised by 11 and two-fifths degrees. But it is handed down by Hipparchus Greek astronomer that the most southern star of the Lesser Bear, the last of the tail, is distant from the pole by 12 and two-fifths parts. Furthermore, he says to those who progress from the equinoctial to the summer tropic, the northern pole is always raised more above the horizon, but the southern pole is depressed more under the horizon. But those who go from the equinoctial to the winter tropic, to them the southern pole is raised above the horizon. But the northern pole sinks under the horizon. Therefore, through these he only exposes what ought to happen to places which are under the equinoctial, or placed between the tropics. And yet, even if history is so, he has not at all added the appearances in places that are more southern than the equinoctial, such as which stars appear over the vertex in those places which are more southern than the equinoctial, or how much the meridional shadows decline toward the south in the equinoxes, or whether all the stars of the Lesser Bear rise or set. And again, which of them do not appear at all when the southern pole is raised above the horizon. In the rest, he says that certain things have been observed as appearances, but not even those can show the proposition by any pact. For he says that those who sail from India into Lymyrica a coastal region of southern India (as Diodorus Samius an ancient author narrates in the third) have Taurus a constellation in the middle of the sky. But the Pleiades a star cluster according to the middle of the antennas. Those who are carried from Arabia into Azania a region on the African coast direct their navigation toward the south and the star Canopus a bright star in the southern sky, which is called the Horse there, and is the most southern. For the rest, certain stars appear among them which are not even named among us. And the Dog Canis Major and Anticanis Procyon

rise earlier, and Orion a constellation entirely before the summer conversions. From these appearing stars, therefore, some clearly show which habitations are more northern than the equinoctial, such as Taurus and the Pleiades, which happen over the vertex, for these stars are more northern than the equinoctial, but some demonstrate that the more northern ones are no more southern than the rest. For Canopus can appear even to those who are far more northern than the summer tropic. And many stars which are always under the earth among us happen to be above the earth in places which are more southern than us, and even to those who are more northern than the equinoctial, such as those who live around Meroe an ancient city in Nubia. Just as Canopus itself, which does not appear here to us who are more northern. And here indeed they call the more southern ones, and no other, which is unknown to us, the Horse. He adds also that it has been detected by mathematical reasons that Orion appears entirely before the summer conversions to those who inhabit under the equinoctial. But the Dog begins to rise before the Procanis, to those who inhabit under the equinoctial, and from them up to Syene an ancient city in Egypt, so that it is not peculiar of these appearances either to show any habitations that are more southern than the equinoctial.

CHAPTER VIII.

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THEREFORE in the measurement of journeys, while he computes the days of travel bit by bit through the earth, from Leptis Magna an ancient city in Libya up to the region of Agisymba, he gathers that this is 4,680 stadia units of distance more southern than the equinoctial. And again according to the days of navigation through the sea, from Ptolemais an ancient city in the Troglodytica region, which is in Troglodytica a region on the Red Sea coast, to the Prassum promontory, he gathers that this is 27,800 stadia more southern than the equinoctial, so that he leads both the Prassum promontory and the region of Agisymba, which is of the Aethiopians, and which, as he himself says, does not yet determine the Aethiopia from the south, to the opposite of those who inhabit the frozen zone. Since 27,800 stadia constitute 50 parts at the equinoctial.