Greek Texts & Translations

nus to Taenarum ^note it is 4600, and from the Alpheus to the Pamisus is 1130 stadia, ^note 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 Lilybaeum (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. ^note 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 Lilybaeum to the coast of Africa about Carthage; and, according to report, a certain very sharp-sighted person, ^note placed on a watch-tower, announced to the Carthaginians besieged in Lilybaeum the number of the ships which were leaving Carthage. And from Lilybaeum 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 Aeolus to the west. ^note 2

The cities situated on the side which forms the Strait are, first Messana, then Tauromenium, ^note Catana, and Syracuse; between Catana and Syracuse were the ruined cities Naxos ^note and Megara, ^note situated where the rivers descending from Aetna fall into the sea, and afford good accommodation for shipping. Here is also the promontory of Xiphonia. They say that Ephorus founded these first cities of the Greeks in Sicily in