1.

Sicily is triangular in form, and on this account was at first called Trinacria, but afterwards the name was softened and it was changed into Thrinacia.2216 Three low headlands bound the figure: Pelorias is the name of that towards Cænys and the Columna Rheginorum which forms the strait; Pachynus2217 is that which stretches towards the east, and is washed by the Sea of Sicily, looking towards the Peloponnesus and in the direction of the passage to Crete; the third is Lilybæum,2218 and is next to Africa, looking towards that region and the setting of the sun in winter.2219 Of the sides which these three headlands bound, two are somewhat concave, while the third is slightly convex, it runs from Lilybæum to Pelorias, and is the longest, being, as Posidonius has said, 1700 stadia adding further twenty. Of the others, that extending to Pachynus from Lilybæum is the longer, while the shortest faces the Strait and Italy, extending from Pelorias to Pachynus, being about 1120 or 1130 stadia. Posidonius shows that the circumference is 4400 stadia, but in the Chorography the distances are declared to exceed the above numbers, being severally reckoned in miles. Thus from Cape Pelorias to Mylæ,2220 25 miles; from Mylæ to Tyndaris,2221 25; thence to Agathyrnum,2222 30; from Agathyrnum to Alæsa,2223 30; from Alæsa to Cephalœdium,2224 30; these are but insignificant places; from Cephalœdium to the river Himera,2225 which runs through the midst of Sicily, 18; from thence to Panormus,2226 35; [thence] to the Emporium2227 of the Ægestani, 32; leaving to Lilybæum2228 a distance of 38; thence having doubled the Cape and coasting the adjacent side to Heracleum,2229 75; and to the Emporium2230 of the Agrigentini, 20; and to2231 [Pg 402]
[CAS. 266] Camarina,2232 another 20; then to Pachynus, 50; thence again along the third side to Syracuse, 36;2233 from Syracuse to Catana, 60; then to Tauromenium,2234 33; thence to Messana, 30.2235 Thus on foot2236 from Pachynus to Pelorias we have 168 [miles], and from Messana2237 to [Cape] Lilybæum, on the Via Valeria,2238 we have 2352239 [miles]. Some have estimated the circuit in a more simple way, as Ephorus, who says that the compass of the island by sea takes five days and nights. Posidonius attempts to determine the situation of the island by climata,2240 and places Pelorias to the north, Lilybæum to the south, and Pachynus to the east. We however consider that of necessity all climata are set out in the manner of a parallelogram, but that districts portrayed as triangles, and especially such triangles as are scalene,2241 and whereof no one side lies parallel to a side of the parallelogram, cannot in any way be assimilated to climata on account of their obliquity. However, we must allow, that in treating of Sicily, Pelorias, which lies to the south of Italy, may well be called the most northern of the three angles, so that we say that the line which joins it2242 to Pachynus faces the east but looks towards the north.2243 Now this line [of coast] will make the side next the Strait [of Messina], and it must have a slight inclination towards the winter sunrise;2244 for thus the shore slightly changes its direction as you travel from Catana towards Syracuse and Pachynus. Now the transit from Pachynus to the mouth of the Alpheus2245 is 4000 stadia. But when Artemidorus says that from Pachynus to Tænarum2246 it is 4600, and from the Alpheus to the Pamisus is 1130 stadia,2247 he appears to me to lie open to the objection of having given distances which do not accord with the 4000 stadia from Pachynus to the Alpheus. The line run from Pachynus to Lilybæum (which is much to the west of Pelorias) is considerably diverged from the south towards the west, having at the same time an aspect looking towards the east and towards the south.2248 On one side it is washed by the sea of Sicily, and on the other by the Libyan Sea, extending from Carthage to the Syrtes. The shortest run is 1500 stadia from Lilybæum to the coast of Africa about Carthage; and, according to report, a certain very sharp-sighted person,2249 placed on a watch-tower, announced to the Carthaginians besieged in Lilybæum the number of the ships which were leaving Carthage. And from Lilybæum to Pelorias the side must necessarily incline towards the east, and look in a direction towards the west and north, having Italy to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea with the islands of Æolus to the west.2250