39. At Ptolemais in Phœnicia,952 and at Sidon953 and Tyre,954 the longest day consists of fourteen hours and a quarter. These cities are north of Alexandria by about 1600 stadia, and north of Carthage about 700. In the Peloponnesus, and about the middle of Rhodes, at Xanthus955 in Lycia, or a little to the south of this place, and at 400 stadia south of Syracuse,956 the longest day consists of fourteen and a half equinoctial hours. These places are distant from Alexandria 3640 stadia.... This parallel, according to Eratosthenes, passes through Caria, Lycaonia, Cataonia, Media, the Caspian Gates, and India next the Caucasus.957
40. In the parts of the Troad next Alexandria958 in Amphipolis,959 Apollonia in Epirus,960 the countries just south of Rome and north of Neapolis, the longest day consists of fifteen hours. This parallel is distant from that of Alexandria in Egypt 7000 stadia to the north, above 28,800 stadia north of the equator, and 3400 stadia from the parallel of Rhodes; it is south of Byzantium, Nicæa,961 and Marseilles 1500 stadia. The parallel of Lysimachia962 is a little to the north, and according to Eratosthenes passes through Mysia,963 Paphlagonia, Sinope,964 Hyrcania,965 and Bactra.966
41. About Byzantium the longest day consists of fifteen and a quarter equinoctial hours; the proportion borne by the gnomon to the shadow at the summer solstice, is as 120 to 42, minus one-fifth. These places are distant967 from the middle of Rhodes about 4900 stadia, and 30,300 from the equator. Sailing into the Euxine and advancing 1400 stadia to the north, the longest day is found to consist of fifteen and a half equinoctial hours. These places are equi-distant between the pole and equatorial circle; the arctic circle is at their zenith, the star in the neck of Cassiopeia is within this circle, the star forming the right elbow of Perseus being a little more to the north.
42. In regions 3800 stadia north of Byzantium the longest day consists of sixteen equinoctial hours; the constellation Cassiopeia being brought within the arctic circle. These regions are situated around [the mouth of] the Dnieper and the southern parts of the Mæotis, at a distance from the equator of 34,100 stadia; and the northern part of the horizon during almost all the summer nights is illuminated by the light of the sun; a certain degree of light continuing from sunset to sunrise. For the summer tropic is distant from the horizon only the half and the twelfth part of a sign968 [of the zodiac], and this therefore is the greatest distance of the sun below the horizon at midnight. With us when the sun is at this distance from the horizon before sunrise and after sunset, the atmosphere is enlightened to the east and west respectively. In the winter the sun when at the highest is nine cubits above the horizon.969 These places, according to Eratosthenes, are distant from Meroe rather more than 23,000 stadia,970 for he says that [from the parallel of Meroe] to the Hellespont971 there are 18,000 stadia, and thence to the Dnieper 5000 more. In regions distant 6300 stadia from Byzantium, and north of the Mæotis, the sun during the winter time is, when highest, six cubits [above the horizon]. The longest day consists of seventeen hours.
43. The countries beyond this which border upon the regions uninhabitable on account of their cold, have no interest to the geographer. He who desires to learn about them, and the celestial phenomena which Hipparchus has described, but which we pass over as being too much in detail for our present undertaking, must seek for them in that author. The statements of Posidonius concerning the periscii, the amphiscii, and the heteroscii are likewise too detailed. Still we must touch on these points sufficiently to explain his view, and to point out how far such matters are serviceable in geography, and how far not. The terms made use of refer to the shadows cast from the sun. The sun appears to the senses to describe a circle parallel to that of the earth.972 Of those people for whom each revolution of the earth produces a day and a night, the sun being carried first over, then under, the earth, some are denominated amphiscii, others heteroscii. The amphiscii are the inhabitants of countries in which when a gnomon is placed perpendicularly on a plane surface, the shadow which it casts at mid-day, falls first to one side then to the other, as the sun illumines first this side, then that. This however only occurs in places situated between the tropics. The heteroscii are those amongst whom the shadow always falls to the north, as with us; or to the south, as amongst those who inhabit the other temperate zone. This occurs in all those regions where the arctic circle is less than the tropic. Where however it becomes the same as or greater than the tropic, this shows the commencement of the periscii, who extend thence to the pole. In regions where the sun remains above the horizon during an entire revolution of the earth, the shadow must evidently have turned in a complete circle round the gnomon. On this account he named them periscii. However they have nought to do with geography, inasmuch as the regions are not habitable on account of the cold, as we stated in our review of Pytheas. Nor is there any use in determining the size of this uninhabitable region, [it is enough to have established] that those countries, having the tropic for their arctic circle, are situated beneath the circle which is described by the pole of the zodiac973 in the [diurnal] revolution of the earth, and that the distance between the equator and the tropic equals four-sixtieths of the great circle [of the earth].
BOOK III.
SPAIN.
CHAPTER I.
1. Having thus given a general view of Geography, it will now be proper to describe each separate country in detail, as we engaged to do. We fancy that the method which we have adopted in the division of our subject, up to this point, has been correct; and we now recommence with Europe and the various countries into which it is divided, on the same principles as formerly, and induced by the same reasons.
2. The first division of this continent towards the west is Iberia, as we before stated. The greater part of this country is but little fitted for habitation; consisting chiefly of mountains, woods, and plains covered with a light meagre soil, the irrigation of which is likewise uncertain. The part next the north, which borders on the ocean, is extremely cold, and besides its rugged character, has no communication or intercourse with other [countries], and thus to dwell there is attended with peculiar hardship. Such is the character of this portion; on the other hand, almost the whole of the south is fertile, especially what is beyond the Pillars [of Hercules]. This however will be shown more in detail, but we must first describe the figure and extent [of the country].
3. In shape it resembles a hide stretched out in length from west to east, the forepart974 towards the east, its breadth being from north to south. Its length is about 6000 stadia; the greatest breadth is 5000; while there are parts considerably less [Pg 206] CAS. 137 than 3000, particularly in the vicinity of the Pyrenees, which form the eastern side. This chain of mountains stretches without interruption from north to south,975 and divides Keltica976 from Iberia. The breadth both of Keltica and Iberia is irregular, the narrowest part in both of them from the Mediterranean to the [Atlantic] Ocean being near the Pyrenees, particularly on either side of that chain; this gives rise to gulfs both on the side of the Ocean, and also of the Mediterranean; the largest of these are denominated the Keltic or Galatic Gulfs,977 and they render the [Keltic] Isthmus narrower than that of Iberia.978 The Pyrenees form the eastern side of Iberia, and the Mediterranean the southern from the Pyrenees to the Pillars of Hercules, thence the exterior [ocean]979 as far as the Sacred Promontory.980 The third or western side runs nearly parallel to the Pyrenees from the Sacred Promontory to the promontory of the Artabri, called [Cape] Nerium.981 The fourth side extends hence to the northern extremity of the Pyrenees.
*Note. The pages of Casaubon’s edition of 1620 are given to facilitate reference to various editions and translations of Strabo.
4. We will now commence our detailed account, beginning from the Sacred Promontory.