Geography (Geographicae Enarrationis Libri Octo)

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He did not wish to accept those things which are consistent with reason, since there was no such argument there from which any similar conclusion might follow. But throughout the entire distance, whether it were greater or lesser, he contended that the quality of the sky was similar, just as if one could not correctly conjecture through a peculiar philosophical mode, except in those things which were entirely manifest. Therefore, the former distance—that is, the one which is from the Euphrates to the stone tower, of eight hundred and seventy-six schoeni an ancient Persian unit of measurement for land distance—must be contracted to only eight hundred schoeni on account of the detours of the roads, and to twenty-four thousand stadia ancient units of length. For one should believe him, because in that continuity, and through parts measured out and already traveled, he has achieved a true dimension, but that he has very many detours is manifest from those things which Marinus himself supposes. For let it be granted that the road which is from the crossing of the Euphrates through Hierapolis, to the Tigris, and from there through the Garamæi of Assyria, and Media, into Ecbatana, and the Caspian Gates, and through Parthia to Hecatompylos, falls upon the parallel which passes through Rhodes. For that is also written according to him through the mentioned regions; yet the road which leads from Hecatompylos to the city of Hyrcania must necessarily decline toward the north, since the city of Hyrcania is placed, in a certain way, in the middle of the parallel which passes through Smyrna, and the one which passes through the Hellespont. Therefore, the one which passes through Smyrna must be written above the region of Hyrcania itself, but the one through the Hellespont passes through the southern parts of the Hyrcanian sea, which are a little more northern than the city of the same name. Again, the road from this place to Antiochia in Margiana, through Aria, first indeed declines to the south from Aria, which is situated under the same parallel that passes through the Caspian Gates. From there it turns to the Arctos North, since that Antiochia is located under the parallel which passes through the Hellespont; from which the road that leads to Bactra extends toward the east, but the one which follows from there to the ascent of the mountainous region of the Comedi extends toward the north. But that which is through the mountains themselves, until it reaches the valley which receives the plains, tends toward the south. Indeed, he places the northernmost and westernmost parts of the mountainous region, where the ascent is, under the parallel which passes through Byzantium. But the southern ones, and those which lean toward the east, are under the one which passes through the Hellespont. Therefore, he reports that it is reciprocal, such that it now leans toward the east, and soon toward the south. From there, it is fitting that the road which is as far as the stone tower of fifty schoeni should decline toward the north. For he says that, ascending the valley, the stone tower is encountered, from which

it joins the mountains which tend toward the east to the mountain Imaus, which rises from Palimbothra toward the north. If, therefore, to the sixty parts which are collected from the twenty-four thousand stadia that are from the stone tower to the Serae, there are added forty-five and one-fourth parts, the interval from the Euphrates to the Serae along the parallel of Rhodes will be one hundred and five and one-fourth parts. Furthermore, from those things which he himself supposes by a particular number of stadia, as if under the same parallel, it is collected that the distance which is from the meridian of the Fortunate Islands as far as the Sacred Promontory of Spain is two and a half parts. Hence to the mouths of the Baetis the Guadalquivir River and to Calpe the Rock of Gibraltar, two and a half parts equally for each; but the one which follows from the mouths of the Baetis to Caralis as far as Sardinia is twenty-five parts. From Caralis to Lilybaeum in Sicily, four and a half parts, and from there to Pachynus three, and again from Pachynus to Taenarum in Laconia, ten parts. From there to Rhodes eight and one-fourth, and from Rhodes to Issus eleven and one-fourth. From Issus to the Euphrates two and a half, so that this entire distance is collected to be seventy-two parts. The length of the whole known earth from the meridian through the Fortunate Islands as far as the Serae is one hundred and seventy-seven and one-fourth parts.

CAPVT XIII.

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THEREFORE, one could also conjecture such a length through the intervals which he himself places in navigation, from India as far as the gulf of the Sinae and the Cattigara, if he were to consider the voyages according to the sinuosities and irregularities, as well as the positions, following the approximation of additions. For he says that from the promontory which is after the Colchicus gulf, which is called Cory, the Argaricus gulf is taken, which contains three thousand and four hundred stadia as far as the city of Curura. original: "Corymq̃ Cururrę ciuitatẽ, quæ fi a borea sita esse." - The text appears to contain an OCR error here, likely referring to the orientation of the city. It is collected, therefore, that this voyage, if a third part is subtracted according to the consequence of the Gangetic gulf, consists of two thousand and thirty stadia almost in the equality of the course, from which, if for the sake of continuity a third part is again removed, one thousand three hundred and fifty stadia will almost be discovered, according to the position toward the North; which space, if it were transferred to the parallel line of the equinoctial and as if toward the Apeliotes the East wind, by the diminution of the half, with the angle being congruently intercepted, we will have the distance which is between the two meridians, and of that which is through the Cory promontory and that which is through the Curura city, six hundred and seventy-five stadia, and almost one and one-third parts, because the parallels through these places do not differ significantly from the greatest circle.