[3]
As for its size, Sosicrates, whose account of the island, according to Apollodorus, is exact, defines it as follows: In length, more than two thousand three hundred stadia, and in breadth, . . . ,1 so that its circuit, according to him, would amount to more than five thousand stadia; but Artemidorus says it is four thousand one hundred. Hieronymus2 says that its length is two thousand stadia and its breadth irregular, and therefore might mean that the circuit is greater than Artemidorus says. For about a third of its length . . . ;3 and then comes an isthmus of about one hundred stadia, which, on the northern sea, has a settlement called Amphimalla, and, on the southern, Phoenix, belonging to the Lampians. The island is broadest near the middle. And from here the shores again converge to an isthmus narrower than the former, about sixty stadia in width, which extends from Minoa, city of the Lyctians, to Hierapytna and the Libyan Sea; the city is situated on the gulf. Then the island projects into a sharp promontory, Samonium, which slopes in the direction of Aegypt and the islands of the Rhodians.
1 The text is corrupt (see critical note), and no known MS. contains a number for the breadth of the island. Moreover, the Greek words (either three or four) contained in the MSS. at this point are generally unintelligible. According to measurements on Kiepert's wall map, however, the maximum dimensions are 1400 x 310 stadia.
2 On Hieronymus, see notes on 8. 6. 21 and 9. 5. 22.
3 All MSS. omit something here (see critical note). Jones conjectures "(it is) about two hundred stadia" in breadth (the breadth of the western end as given in 10. 4. 2).
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.