Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.57

6.57

conplures autem totam eius longitudinem XL dierum noctiumque velifico navium cursu determinavere et a septentrione ad meridiem XXVIII. L???, Agrippa longitudinis |XXXIII|, latitudinis |XIII| prodidit. Posidonius ab aestivo solis ortu ad hibernum exortum metatus est eam, adversam Galliam statuens, quam ab occidente aestivo ad occidentem hibernum metabatur, totam a favonio; itaque adversum eius venti adflatum iuvare Indiam salubremque fieri haut dubia ratione docuit.

CHAP. 21.—THE NATIONS OF INDIA. But we come now to nations as to which there is a more general agreement among writers. Where the chain of Emodus rises, the nations of India begin, which borders not only on the Eastern sea, but on the Southern as well, which we have already mentioned as being called the Indian Ocean. That part which faces the east runs in a straight line a distance of eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles until it comes to a bend, at which the Indian Ocean begins. Here it takes a turn to the south, and continues to run in that direction a distance of two thousand four hundred and seventy-five miles, according to Eratosthenes, as far as the river Indus, the boundary of India on the west. Many authors have represented the entire length of the Indian coast as being forty days' and nights' sail, and as being, from north to south, two thousand eight hundred and fifty miles. Agrippa states its length to be three thousand three hundred miles, and its breadth, two thousand three hundred. Posidonius has given its measurement as lying from north-east to south-east, placing it opposite to Gaul, of which country he has given the measurement as lying from north-west to south-west; making the whole of India to lie due west of Gaul. Hence, as he has shewn by undoubted proofs, India lying opposite to Gaul must be refreshed by the blowing of that wind, and derive its salubrity there- from.