BOOK II. Lxix. 176-LXX1. 178 



on a line of their own. These things could not 

 occur without the earth's being situated at the 

 centre. 



LXX. But the three circles intertwined between Theseasons. 

 the zones aforesaid are the cause of the differences 

 of the seasons : the Tropic of Cancer on the side of the 

 highest part of the zodiac to the northward of us, and 

 opposite to it the Tropic of Capricorn towards the 

 other pole, and also the equator that runs in the 

 middle circuit of the zodiac. 



LXXI. The cause of the remaining facts that Oeography 

 surprise us is found in the shape of the earth itself, '^^trmioiny. 

 which together with the waters also the same argu- 

 ments prove to resemble a globe. For this is un- 

 doubtedly the cause why for us the stars of the 

 northern region never set and their opposites of the 

 southern region never rise, while on the contrary 

 these northern stars are not visible to the antipodes, 

 as the curve of the earth's globe bars our view of the 

 tracts between. Cave-dweller Country " and Egypt 

 wliich is adjacent to it do not see the Great and Little 

 Bear, and Italy does not see Canopus and the con- 

 stellation called Berenice's Hair, also the one that 

 in the reign of his late Majesty Augustus received 

 the name of Caesar's Throne, constellations that are 

 conspicuous there. And so clearly does the rising 

 vault curve over that to observers at Alexandria 

 Canopus appears to be elevated nearly a quarter of 

 one sign above the earth, whereas from Rhodes it 

 seems practically to graze the earth itself, and on the 

 Black Sea, where the North Stars are at their highest, 

 it is not visible at all. Also Canopus is hidden from 

 Rhodes, and still more from Alexandria ; in Arabia in 

 November it is hidden during the first quarter of the 



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