Seven Books of History Against the Pagans

five miles. The island of Crete is bounded to the east by the Carpathian Sea; to the west and north by the Cretan Sea; and to the south by the Libyan Sea, which they also call the Adriatic. It is one hundred and seventy-two miles long and fifty miles wide. The Cyclades islands, of which the first to the east is Rhodes, to the north is Tenedos, to the south is Carpathos, and to the west is Cythera, are bounded to the east by the shores of Asia, to the west by the Icarian Sea, to the north by the Aegean Sea, and to the south by the Carpathian Sea. There are fifty-three Cyclades in total. They occupy fifty miles from north to south and two hundred miles from east to west [33]. The island of Sicily has three promontories: one called Pelorum, which looks toward the north, near which is the city of Messana; the second, called Pachynum, under which is the city of Syracusana, which faces the southeast; the third, called Lilybaeum, where the city of the same name is situated, is directed toward the west. It measures one hundred and fifty-nine miles from Pelorum to Pachynum, and one hundred and seventy-seven from Pachynum to Lilybaeum. It is surrounded to the east by the Adriatic Sea, to the south by the African Sea, which is opposite the Subventani and the Lesser Syrtes; to the west and north it has the Tyrrhenian Sea; and from the north to the northeast, it has the Adriatic Strait, which divides the Tauromenitani of Sicily and the Bruttii of Italy. The islands of Sardinia and Corsica are separated by a small strait of twenty miles. Of these, Sardinia has the Caralitani to the south opposite Numidia; opposite the island of Corsica, that is, toward the north, it has the Ulbienses. Its length is two hundred and thirty [34] miles, and its width is two hundred and eighty miles. It has to the east and north the Tyrrhenian Sea, which faces the port of the city of Rome; to the west the Sardinian Sea; to the southwest the Balearic islands, positioned far away; to the south the Numidian Gulf; and to the north (as I said) Corsica. The island of Corsica is angular with many promontories. It has to