Book 11
11.7
The greatest length of this portion, reckoned from the Hyrcanian Sea to the (Eastern) Ocean opposite Imaus, is about 30,000 stadia,That is, from the Caspian Gates to Thinae. Gossellin. the route being along the mountainous tract of Taurus; the breadth is less than 10,000 stadia.Strabo does not here determine either the parallel from which we are to measure, nor the meridian we are to follow to discover this greatest breadth, which according to him is less than 10,000 stadia. This passage therefore seems to present great difficulties. The difficulties respecting the parallel can only be perceived by an examination and comparison of the numerous passages where our author indicates the direction of the chain of mountains which form the Taurus. We have said before, thatI do not see where this statement is to be found, except implicitly. Strabo seems to refer us in general to various passages where he endeavours to determine the greatest length of the habitable world, in b. ii. Du Theil. from the bay of Issus to the eastern sea along the coast of India is about 40,000 stadia, and to Issus from the western extremities at the pillars 30,000 stadia. The recess of the bay of Issus is little, if at all, more to the east than Amisus; from Amisus to Hyrcania is about 10,000 stadia in a line parallel to that which we have described as drawn from the bay of Issus to India. There remains therefore for the portion now delineated the above-mentioned length towards the east, namely, 30,000 stadia.I am unable to fix upon the author’s train of thought. For immediately after having assigned to this portion of the Habitable Earth (whose dimensions he wishes to determine) 30,000 stadia as its greatest length, and 10,000 stadia as its greatest breadth, Strabo proceeds to prove what he had just advanced respecting its greatest length. Then he should, it seems, have endeavoured to furnish us, in the same manner, with a proof that its greatest breadth is not more, as he says, than 10,000. But in what follows there is nothing advanced on this point; all that he says is to develope another proposition, viz. that the extent of the Hyrcanian—Caspian Sea is at the utmost 6000 stadia. The arguments contained in this paragraph on the whole appear to me strange; they rest on a basis which it is difficult to comprehend; they establish explicitly a proposition which disagrees with what the author has said elsewhere, and lastly they present an enormous geographical error. It will therefore be useful to the reader to explain, as far as I understand it the argument of our author. 1.The exact form of the chlamys is unknown to us, but it was such, that its greatest breadth was to be found, if not exactly in, at least near, the middle of its length. The Habitable Earth being of the form of a Chlamys, its greatest breadth would be found about the middle of its greatest length. 2. The greatest length of the Habitable World being 70,000 stadia, its greatest breadth ought to be found at the distance of 35,000 stadia from its eastern or western extremity, but this greatest breadth is only 30,000 stadia, and it does not extend, on the north, beyond the parallel of the mouth of the Hyrcanian Sea. B. ii. 3. The meridian which passes at the distance of 35,000 stadia from the eastern or western extremities of the Habitable Earth, is that which, drawn from the mouth of the Hyrcanian Sea to the Northern Ocean, and prolonged in another direction through the mouth of the Persian Gulf to the sea called Erythraean, would pass through the city Artemita. Consequently it is on the meridian of Artemita that we must look for the greatest breadth of the Habitable Earth. 4. On this same meridian, we must reckon from the parallel of the last habitable country in the south to the mouth of the Persian Gulf; about 8000 stadia; then from the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Artemita, 8000 stadia; and from Artemita to the bottom of the Hyrcanian Sea, 8000 stadia: total 24,000 stadia. 5. It being established that the breadth of the Habitable Earth is 30,000 stadia, and not to extend it northwards beyond the parallel of the mouth of the Hyrcanian Sea, where it communicates with the Northern Ocean, the distance to this point from the bottom of this same sea must. be calculated at 6000 stadia. Du Theil. Again, since the breadth of the longest part of the habitable earth, which has the shape of a chlamys, (or a military cloak,) is about 30,000 stadia, this distance would be near the meridian line drawn through the Hyrcanian and the Persian Seas, for the length of the habitable earth is 70,000 stadia. If therefore from Hyrcania to ArtemitaThe modern Shirban is supposed to occupy its site. in Babylonia are 8000 stadia according to Apollodorus of Artemita, and thence to the mouth of the Persian Sea 8000, and again 8000, or a little short of that number, to the places on the same parallel with the extremities of Aethiopia, there would remain, to complete the breadth as I have described it, of the habitable earth, the number of stadiaNamely 6000. B. ii. c. i. § 17. which I have mentioned, reckoning from the recess of the Hyrcanian Sea to its mouth. This segment of the earth being truncated towards the eastern parts, its figure would resemble a cook’s knife, for the mountainous range being prolonged in a straight line, answers to the edge, while the shape of the coast from the mouth of the Hyrcanian Sea to Tamarus on the other side terminates in a circular truncated line.
