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[11]
After Scylletium comes the territory of the Crotoniates, and three capes of the Iapyges; and after these, the Lacinium,1 a temple of Hera, which at one time was rich and full of dedicated offerings. As for the distances by sea, writers give them without satisfactory clearness, except that, in a general way, Polybius gives the distance from the strait to Lacinium as two thousand three hundred stadia,2 and the distance thence across to Cape Iapygia as seven hundred. This point is called the mouth of the Tarantine Gulf. As for the gulf itself, the distance around it by sea is of considerable length, two hundred and forty miles,3 as the Chorographer4 says, but Artemidorus says three hundred and eighty for a man well-girded, although he falls short of the real breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much.5 The gulf faces the winter-sunrise;6 and it begins at Cape Lacinium, for, on doubling it, one immediately comes to the cities7 of the Achaeans, which, except that of the Tarantini, no longer exist, and yet, because of the fame of some of them, are worthy of rather extended mention.
1 The Lacinium derived its name from Cape Lacinium (now Cape Nao), on which it was situated. According to Diod. Sic. 4.24, Heracles, when in this region, put to death a cattle-thief named Lacinius. Hence the name of the cape.
2 Strabo probably wrote "two thousand" and not "one thousand" (see Manner, t. 9. 9, p. 202), and so read Gosselin, Groskurd, Forbiger, Müller-Dübner, and Meineke. Compare Strabo's other quotation (5. 1. 3) from Polybius on this subject. There, as here, unfortunately, the figures ascribed to Polybius cannot be compared with his original statement, which is now lost.
3 240 Roman miles=1,920, or 2,000 (see 7. 7. 4), stadia.
4 See 5. 2. 7, and the footnote.
5 This passage ("although . . . much") is merely an attempt to translate the Greek of the manuscripts. The only variant in the manuscripts is that of "ungirded" for "well-girded." If Strabo wrote either, which is extremely doubtful, we must infer that Artemidorus' figure, whatever it was pertained to the number of days it would take a pedestrian, at the rate, say of 160 stadia (20 Roman miles) per day, to make the journey around the gulf by land. Most of the editors (including Meineke) dismiss the passage as hopeless by merely indicating gaps in the text. Groskurd and C. Müller not only emend words of the text but also fill in the supposed gaps with seventeen and nine words, respectively. Groskurd makes Artemidorus say that a well-girded pedestrian can complete the journey around the gulf in twelve days, that the coasting-voyage around it is 2,000 stadia, and that he leaves for the mouth the same number (700) of stadia assigned by Polybius to the breadth of the mouth of the gulf. But C. Müller writes: "Some make it less, saying 1,380 stadia, whereas Artemidorus makes it as many plus 30 (1,410), in speaking of the breadth of the mouth of the gulf." But the present translator, by making very simple emendations (see critical note 2 on page 38), arrives at the following: Artemidorus says eighty stadia longer (i.e., 2,000) although he falls short of the breadth of the mouth of the gulf by as much (i.e., 700 - 80 = 620). It should be noted that Artemidorus, as quoted by Strabo, always gives distances in terms of stadia, not miles (e.g., 3. 2. 11, 8. 2. 1, 14. 2. 29, et passim), and that his figures at times differ considerably from those of the Chorographer (cp. 6. 3. 10).
6 i.e., south-east.
7 As often Strabo refers to sites of perished cities as cities.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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