________________
OCTOBER, 1884.)
PTOLEMY'S GEOG. BK. I, CH. 12.
319
Garamaioi of Assyria, and through passing through these mountains it pursues Media to Ekbatana and the Kaspian & southern course as far as the ravine that Gates, and through Parthia to Hekatom- opens into the plain country. $ 8. For the pylos Marinos considers to lie along the northern parts of the mountain region and parallel which passes through Rhodes, for he those furthest to the west where the ascent traces (in his map) this parallel as passing begins, are placed by him under the parallel of through these regions. $ 6. But the route from Byzantium, and those in the south and the Hekatom pylos to the capital city of east under the parallel of the Hellespont. Hyrkania must, of necessity, diverge to the For this reason, he says, that this route makes north, because that city lies somewhere between a detour of equal length in opposite directions, the parallel of Smyrna and that of the Helles- that in advancing to the east it bends towards pont, since the parallel of Smyrna is traced as the south, and thereafter probably runs up passing below Hyrkania and that of the Helles- towards the north for 50 schoni, till it reaches pont through the southern parts of the Hyrke- the Stone Tower. $ 9. For to quote his own nian Sea from the city bearing the same name, words, “When the traveller has ascended the which lies a little farther north. $ 7. But, ravine he arrives at the Stone Tower, after again, the route herefrom to Antiokheial which the mountains that trend to the east (Merv) of Margiana through Areia, at first unite with Imaus, the range that runs up to the bends towards the south, since Areia lies north from Palimbothra." § 10. If, then, to under the same parallel as the Kaspian Gates, the 60 degrees made up of the 24,000 stadia, we and then afterwards turns towards the north, add the 45 degrees which represent the disAntiokheia being situated under the parallel of tance from the Stone Tower to Sêrs, we get the Hellespont. The route after this runs 1057 degrees as the distance between the in an eastward direction to Baktra whence Euphrates and Sêra as measured along the it turns towards the north in ascending the parallel of Rhodes.16 $ 11. But, further, we mountains of the K6 med oi, and then in can infer from the number of stadia which he 15 The actual latitudes of the places here mentioned
Stadis. may be compared with those of Ptolemy :
Thence to Alexandreia of the Areioi (Herat).. 6,400 Real Lat. Ptolemy's Lat.
Thence to Baktra, called also Zariaspa (Balkh) 3,870 Byzantium..........
41° 43° 5
Thence to the Jazartes, which Alexander Hellespont
41° 15
reached, about ............... Smyrna ................
88° 28 88° 35'
37° Issus
.. 36° 85 Making a total of ...............
................ 22,670" Rhodes
38° 24 36° 25
He also assigns the following distances from the Hierapolis.................
86° 28 36° 15 Kaspian Gates to India :
Stadia. Ekbatana ............
34° 50 87° 45 "To Hekatompylos .........
1,960 Kaspian Gates..................
35° 80
To Alexandreia of the Areioi (Herat)............ 4,530 Hekatompylos .................
35° 40 37° 50
Thence to Prophthasis in Drangs (a little
north of lake Zarah ............ Antiokheis (Merv) ............... 37° 35 40 20
Thence to the City Arakhotos (Ulan Robat)... Baktra (Balkh) ... 86' 40 41°
Then to Ortospana (K Abul) on the 3 roads Stone Tower (TAshkand) ...... 42° 58 19
from Baktra.......... Sera Metropolis (Ho-nan)...... 38° 35 83° 58
Thence to the confines of India
1,000 20 St. Martin identifies Sera, the Metropolis of the Seres, with a site near Ho-nan-fu. He says, (Etudes, p. Which together amount to .............
15,300" 432) "At the time when the caravan journey reported by
The sum total however is only.............. Maes was made in the first half of the first century of
er is only................... 15,210
Pliny (lib. VI, 6. xxi) Bays: "Diognetus and Baeton, his our era), the Han surnamed Eastern held the reins of
(Alexander's) measurers, have recorded that from the Kas government, and their residence was at Lo-yang DOAR pianGates to Hekatompylos of the Parthians there were the present City of Ho-nan-fou, not far from the southern
as many miles as we have stated, thence to Alexandria bank of the lower Hoang-ho. It is there then we should Arion a city built by that king, 575 miles, to Prophthasia look to find the place which in their ignorance of the
of the Drangae 198 miles, to the town of the Arakhosii language of the country, and in their disdain for barbar. 565 miles, to Hortoepanum 175 miles, thence to Alexan. ous names, the Greek traders designated merely as the der's town (Opiane) 50 miles. In some copies numbers Metropolis of the Sêres." The road these traders took differing from these are found. They state that the lastappears to have been the same by which Hiuen-Tsiang
named city lay at the foot of Caucasus ; from that the travelled towards India.
distance to the Cophes and Peucolatis, town of the We may here insert for comparison with Ptolemy's dis
Indians, was 287 miles, and thenoe to the river Indus and tances two itineraries, one by Strabo and the other by
town of Tarila 60 miles, to the Hydaspes, a famous river, Pliny. Strabo (lib. XI, c. viii, 9) says: “These are the 120 miles, to the Hypasis, no menn river [1XXXIXT] 390— distances which he (Eratosthenes) gives :
which was the limit of Alexander's progress, although Stadia.
ke crossed the river and dedicated altars on the far-off From the Kaspian Sea to the Kyros about ... 1,800
bank, as the letters of the king himself agree in stat. Thonoe to the Kaspian Gates ..................... 5,600
ing." The Kaspian Gates formed a point of great import
400
***...........
5,000
37
..
1,600
2,000
