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[3]

Sosicrates, who, according to Apollodorus, had an exact knowledge of this island, determines its length (not?)1 to exceed 2300 stadia, and its breadth (about 300),2 so that according to Sosicrates the circuit of the island is not more than 5000 stadia, but Artemidorus makes it 4100. Hieronymus says, that its length is 2000 stadia, and its breadth irregular, and that the circuit would exceed the number of stadia assigned by Artemidorus. Throughout one-third of its length, (beginning from the western parts, the island is of a tolerable width).3 Then there is an isthmus of about 100 stadia, on the northern shore of which is a settlement, called Amphimalla;4 on the southern shore is Phœnix,5 belonging to the Lampeis.

The greatest breadth is in the middle of the island.

Here again the shores approach, and form an isthmus narrower than the former, of about 60 stadia in extent, reckoning from Minoa,6 in the district of the Lyctii,7 to Therapytna,8 and the African sea. The city is on the bay. The shores then terminate in a pointed promontory, the Samonium, looking towards Ægypt and the islands of the Rhodians.9

1 Not in the text of Kramer. Casaubon's conjecture.

2 The words of the text are, πλάτει δὲ ὑπὸ τὸ μέγεθος, which Meineke translates, ‘Its width is not in proportion to its length.’ Kramer says that the preposition ὑπὸ suggests the omission of the words τετοͅκοσίων or τριακοσίων που, and that the words τ. μ. are probably introduced from the margin, and are otherwise inadmissible.

3 It is impossible to say what words should fill up the hiatus in the text, but probably something to this effect, ἀπὸ τῶν ἑσπερἰων μερῶν ἀρξαμένις ν̔ νῆσος πλατεῖά ἐστι. Kramer. Groskurd proposes νῆσος αίθνιδίως στενοχωρεῖ the island suddenly narrows.

4 On the bay of Armiro.

5 Castel Franco. Acts of Apostles, xxvii. 12.

6 Porto Trano. At the bottom of the bay of Mirabel.

7 Near Lytto.

8 Girapetra.

9 By the islands of the Rhodians are meant Caso, Nisari, Scarpanto, &c.

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