BOOK II. cxii. 247-cxiii. 248 



Eratosthenes and also in all the rest of his researches 

 is remarkable, adds a little less than 26,000 stades. 



Dionysodorus (for I will not withhold this outstand- 

 ing instance of Greek folly) has a different creed. 

 He belonged to Melos, and was a celebrated geo- 

 metrician ; his old age came to its term in his native 

 place ; his female relations who were his heirs 

 escorted his obsequies. It is said that while these 

 women on the following days were carrying out the 

 due rites they found in the tomb a letter signed with 

 his name and addressed to those on earth, which stated 

 that he had passed from liis tomb to the bottom of 

 the earth and that it was a distance of 42,000 stades. 

 Geometricians were forthcoming who construed this 

 to mean that the letter had been sent from the centre 

 of the earth's globe, which was the longest space 

 downward from the surface and was also the centre 

 of the sphere. From this the calculation followed 

 that led them to pronounce the circumference of the 

 globe to be 252,000 " stades. 



CXIII. To this measurement the principle of 

 uniformity, which leads to the conclusion that the 

 nature of things is self-consistent, adds 12,000 stades, 

 making the earth the -^^ih part of the whole world. 



373 



