Book 2
4.2
The ignorance of Eratosthenes respecting the western and northern portions of Europe, we have before remarked. But both he and Dicaearchus must be pardoned for this, as neither of them were personally familiar with those localities. But how can one excuse Polybius and Posidonius? especially Polybius, who treats as mere hearsay what Eratosthenes and Dicaearchus report concerning the distances of various places; and many other matters, about which, though he blames them, he is not himself free from error. Dicaearchus states that there are 10,000 stadia from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars, and something above this number from the Peloponnesus to the recess of the Adriatic.On the contrary, the distance in a right line from Cape Tenarum, off the Peloponnesus, to the recess of the Adriatic Gulf, is only about half the distance from the Peloponnesus to the Pillars of Hercules. This mistake of Dicaearchus is a proof of the very slight acquaintance the Greeks could have had with the western portions of the Mediterranean in his time, about 320 years before the Christian era. He supposes 3000 stadia between the Peloponnesus and the Strait of Sicily; thus there would remain 7000 between the Strait of Sicily and the Pillars.Literally, He assigns 3000 to the interval which stretches towards the Pillars as far as the Strait, and 7000 from the Strait to the Pillars. The distance from Cape Tenarum to the Strait of Messina is in proportion to the distance from the Strait of Messina to Gibraltar, about 3 to 10, not 3 to 7 as given by Dicaearchus.
