BOOK VI. xxxviii. 207-210 



also given the length of the route from the Straits 

 of Sicily to Alexandria as 1350 miles. The Avhole 

 leiigth of the coastUne round the bays specified, 

 starting at the same point and ending at the Sea of 

 Azov,amounts to 15,509 miles — although Artemidorus 

 puts it at 756 miles more, and also reports that the 

 total coastUne including the shores of Azov measures 

 17,390 miles. 



This is the measurement made by persons throAving 

 out a challenge to Fortune not by force of arms, but 

 by the boldness they have displayed in time of 

 peace. 



We will now compare the dimensions of particular Dimen$io7i 

 parts of the earth, however great the difficulty "lniij^^t^ 

 that will arise from the discrepancy of the ac- 

 counts given by authors ; nevertheless the matter 

 will be most suitably presented by giving the 

 breadth in addition to the length." The following, 

 then, is the formula for the area of Europe . . . 

 length *> 8148 miles. As for Africa — to take the 

 average of all the various accounts given of its 

 dimensions — its length -svorks out at 3798 miles, and 

 the breadth of the inhabited portions nowhere 

 exceeds 750 miles ; but as Agrippa made it 910 

 miles at the Cyrenaic part of the country, by in- 

 cluding the African desert as far as the country of 

 the Garamantes, the extent then known, the entire 

 length that will come into the calculation amoimts 

 to 4708 miles. The length of Asia is admittedly 

 6375 miles, and the breadth should properly be 

 calculated from the Ethiopic Sea to Alexandria on 

 the Nile, making the measurement run through 

 Meroe and Syene, which gives 1875 miles. It is 

 consequently clear that Europe is a little less than 



493 



