Naturalis historia 2.242: Length of the world from India to Gades

2.242

Pars nostra terrarum, de qua memoro, ambienti, ut dictum est, oceano velut innatans longissime ab ortu ad occasum patet, hoc est ab India ad Herculis columnas Gadibus sacratas LXXXV. LXXVIII p., ut Artemidoro auctori placet, ut vero Isidoro, XCVIII. XVIII. Artemidorus adicit amplius a Gadibus circuitu Sacri promunturii ad promunturium Artabrum, quo longissime frons procurrat Hispaniae, DCCCCXCI. D.

CHAP. 112. (108.)—THE DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH. Our part of the earth, of which I propose to give an account, floating as it were in the ocean which surrounds it (as I have mentioned above), stretches out to the greatest extent from east to west, viz. from India to the Pillars consecrated to Hercules at Gades, being a distance of 8568 miles, according to the statement of Artemidorus, or ac- cording to that of Isidorus, 9818 miles. Artemidorus adds to this 491 miles, from Gades, going round by the Sacred Promontory, to the promontory of Artabrum, which is the most projecting part of Spain. This measurement may be taken in two directions. From the Ganges, at its mouth, where it discharges itself into the Eastern ocean, passing through India and Parthyene, to Myriandrus, a city of Syria, in the bay of Issus, is a distance of 5215 miles. Thence, going directly by sea, by the island of Cyprus, Patara in Lycia, Rhodes, and Astypalæa, islands in the Carpathian sea, by Tænarum in Laconia, Lilybæum in Sicily and Calaris in Sardinia, is 2103 miles. Thence to Gades is 1250 miles, making the whole distance from the Eastern ocean 8568 miles.