BIBLIOTHECA AUGUSTANA

 

Isidorus Characenus

floruit ca. 50 a. Chr. n.

 

Περίπλους τῆς οἰκουμένης

 

Textus:

Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax

An Account of the Overland Trade Route

Between the Levant and India

The greek text with a translation and

commentary by Wilfred H. Schoff

Philadelphia: Published by the Commercial Museum, 1914

Facsimile: Internet Archive

 

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21. Plinius Hist. Nat., II, 112:

Pars nostra terrarum, de qua memoro, ambienti oceano velut innatans longissime ab ortu ad occasum patet, hoc est ab India ad Herculis columnas Gadibus sacratas LXXXV. LXVIII mill. pass., ut Artemidoro auctori placet, ut vero Isidoro, XCVIII. et XVIII. M.

 

22. Id. II, 112:

Latitudo autem terrae a meridiano situ ad septentriones dimidio fere minor colligitur XLIIII. LXXXX milia. Sequuntur partes hujus mensurae quae pertinent a meridie ultima usque ad ostum Tanais (V fr. Artemid.) Dein Plinius pergit: Ab ostio Tanais nihil modi quam diligentissimi auctores fecere; Artemidorus ulteriora incomperta existumavit, quum circa Tanaim Sarmatarum gentis degere fateretur ad septentriones versus; Isidorus adjecit duodeciens centena millia quinquaginta usque ad Thulen, quae conjectura divinationes est.

 

23. Id. V. 9:

Universam vero (Asiam) cum Aegypto ad Tanaim Artemidorus et Isidorus LXIII LXXV M. p. (esse tradunt).

 

24. Id. IV. 37:

Longitudinem ejus (Europae) Artemidorus atque Isidorus a Tanai Gadis LXXXII XIIII M. p. prodiderunt.

 

25. Id. V. 6:

Isidorus a Tingi Canopum XXXV. XCIX M. p., Artemidorus XL M. minus quam Isidorus (esse existumant).

 

26. Id. V, 43:

A Chalcedone Sigeum Isidorus CCCXXII (CCCXII et CCCLXII v. 1.) M. D. p. tradit.

 

27. Id, V. 35:

Hujus (Cypri) circuitum Timosthenes CCCCXXVII M. D. prodidit, Isidorus CCCLXXV.

 

28. Id. V. 36:

Distat (Rhodus) ab Alexandria Aegypti DLXXXIII M., ut Isidorus tradit; ut Eratosthenes, CCCCLXIX M.; ut Mucianus, D. a Cypro CLXVI.

 

29. Id. V. 37:

Ioniae ora habet ... Samon liberam circuitu LXXXVII. M D. p., aut, ut Isidorus, C M.

 

30. Id. V. 38:

(Chius insula) circuitu CXXV M. p. colligit, ut veteres tradidere, Isidorus IX M. adicit.

 

31. Id. V. 39:

Tota insula (Lesbus) circuitur, ut Isidorus, CLXVIII M. p., ut veteres, CXCV M.

 

32. Id. IV. 5:

Peloponnesus ... inter duo maria, Aegaeum et Ionium, platani folio similis, propter angulosos recessus circuitu DLXIII M. p. colligit, auctore Isidoro. Eadem per sinus paene tantundem adicit.

 

33. Id. IV. 30:

Haec (Britannia) abest a Gesoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo trajectu L M: circuitu patere XXXXVIII. LXXV M. Pytheas et Isidorus tradunt.

 

 

 

21. (Pliny, Natural History, II, 112.)

Our part of the earth, of which I propose to give an account, floating as it were in the ocean which surrounds it, stretches out to the greatest extent from east to west, viz., from India to the Pillars consecrated to Hercules at Gades, being a distance of 8568 miles, according to the statement of Artemidorus, or according to that of Isidore, 9818 miles.

 

22. (Ibid., II, 112.)

The breadth of the earth from south to north, is commonly supposed to be about one-half only of its length, viz., 4490 miles; (then follow parts of these measurements from the southern extremities to the mouth of Tanais). Beyond the Tanais the most diligent authors have not been able to obtain any accurate measurement. Artemidorus supposes that everything beyond is undiscovered, since he confesses that, about the Tanais, the tribes of the Sarmatae dwell, who extend toward the North Pole. Isidore adds 1250 miles, as the distance to Thule; but this is mere conjecture.

 

23. (Ibid., V, 9.)

The whole distance (of Asia) to the Tanais, including Egypt, is, according to Artemidorus and Isidore, 6375 miles.

 

24. (Ibid., IV, 37.)

Artemidorus and Isidore have given the length of it (Europe) from the Tanais to Gades, as 8214 miles.

 

25. (Ibid., V, 6.)

Isidore speaks of the distance from Tingi to Canopus as being 3599 miles. Artemidorus makes this last distance forty miles less than Isidore.

 

26. (Ibid. V, 43.)

From Chalcedon to Sigeum, Isidore makes the distance 322 ½ miles.

 

27. (Ibid., V, 35.)

Timosthenes states that the circumference of this island [Cyprus] is 427 miles, Isidore 375.

 

28. (Ibid., V, 36.)

The fairest of them all is the free island of Rhodes, 125, or if we would rather believe Isidore, 103 miles in circumference . . . . . . It is distant from Alexandria in Egypt, according to Isidore, 583 miles; but according to Eratosthenes, 469. Mucianus says that its distance from Cyprus is 166.

 

29. (Ibid., V, 37.)

The coast of Ionia has Samos, a free island, eighty-seven miles in circumference, or, according to Isidore, 100.

 

30. (Ibid., V, 38.)

The free island of Chios . . . . . . is 125 miles in circumference, according to the ancient writers; Isidore, however, makes it nine more.

 

31. (Ibid., V, 39.)

The circumference of the whole island [Lesbos] is, according to Isidore, 168 miles; but the older writers say 195.

 

32. (Ibid., IV, 5.)

The Peloponnesus . . . . . . situated between two seas, the Aegean and the Ionian, is in shape like the leaf of a plane-tree, in consequence of the angular indentations made in its shores. According to Isidore, it is 563 miles in circumference; and nearly as much again, allowing for the coast-line on the shores of its bays.

 

33. (Ibid., IV, 30.)

This island [Britain] is distant from Gesoriacum, on the coast of the nation of the Morini, at the spot where the passage across is shortest, fifty miles. Pytheas and Isidore say that its circumference is 4875 miles.