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ὁδὸς ἐς Ἡλίου πόλιν: i.e. sailing up the Pelusiac arm, which is the natural approach to Heliopolis; like a true Greek, H. went everywhere he could by water; by this route his measurement of 1,500 stades is roughly right. In c. 9 he is found to give the distance from the sea to Heliopolis as 1,260 stades

(i.e. from the sea to Thebes ... ... 6,120

less from Heliopolis to Thebes ... ... 4,860

1,260); but in that passage he is reckoning directly north and south, in estimating the size of Egypt.

The reference to Athens (cf. 156. 6; 177. 2) is one of the passages on which Kirchhoff bases his theory that Bk. II was written at Athens, but of course it proves nothing. (Cf. Introd. § 10.) For the altar and its use as a starting-point for measurements cf. vi. 108. 4 n.

The town of Pisa had been destroyed in 572 B.C.; the distance here given by H. is very exact.

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