[24] Such and so great is the extent of the Ægæan Sea towards the north.1 Again, starting from Rhodes, the [Mediterranean] forms the seas of Egypt, Pamphylia, and Issus, extending in an easterly direction from Cilicia to Issus, a distance of 5000 stadia, along the coasts of Lycia, Pamphylia, and the whole of Cilicia. From thence Syria, Phœnicia, and Egypt surround the sea to the south and west as far as Alexandria. The Island of Cyprus is situated in the Gulfs of Issus and Pamphylia, close to the Sea of Egypt. The passage between Rhodes and Alexandria from north [to south] is about 4000 stadia;2 sailing round the coasts it is double this distance. Eratosthenes informs us that, although the above is the distance according to some mariners, others avow distinctly that it amounts to 5000 stadia; while he himself, from observations of the shadows indicated by the gnomon, calculates it at 3750. That part of the Mediterranean Sea which washes the coasts of Cilicia and Pamphylia together with the right side of the Euxine, the Propontis, and the sea-coast beyond this as far as Pamphylia, form a kind of extensive Chersonesus, the isthmus of which is also large, and reaches from the sea near Tarsus3 to the city of Amisus,4 and thence to the Themiscyran5 plain of the Amazons. In fact the whole region within this line as far as Caria and Ionia, and the nations dwelling on this side the Halys,6 is entirely surrounded by the Ægæan and the aforementioned parts of the Mediterranean and Euxine Seas.7 This is what we call Asia properly,8 although the whole continent bears the same name.
1 The extent of the Ægæan amongst the ancients was the same as the Egio-Pelago, or Archipelago, with us. It was comprehended between the southern coasts of Crete, the western coasts of Peloponnesus, the southern coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, and the western borders of Asia Minor. Strabo however, in his description, seems to comprise under the name of the Ægæan not only those parts of the Mediterranean south of the meridian of Cape Matapan, but also the Propontis and the Euxine, as far as the mouth of the river Halys, now Kizil-Ermak. In this however he seems to be unique.
2 This is just the distance, says Gosselin, from the northern part of Rhodes to Alexandria, but the route, instead of being from north to south as supposed by the ancients, is S. S. W.
3 Tarsous.
4 Samsoun.
5 Themiscyra, a town of Cappadocia at the mouth of the Thermodon, (now the Termeh,) belonging to the kingdom of the Amazons. The territories around it bore the same name. The plain is now comprehended in the modern Djanik.
6 Kizil-Ermak.
7 Lit. the before-mentioned parts of the sea on either side.
8 Asia Minor, or Anadoli.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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