Geography

​Near this is the seven-stadium strait near Sestos and Abydos, through which the Aegean and the Hellespont discharge northward into another sea, which they call Propontis, and that one into another called the Euxine Pontus. This latter is in a way a double sea; for near its middle two promontories project, the one from Europe and the northern parts, and the other from Asia opposite to it, narrowing the passage between them and making two large seas. The promontory of Europe is called Criu Metopon, and that of Asia Carambis, being distant from each other about one thousand five hundred stadia. Now the western sea is three thousand eight hundred stadia in length from Byzantium to the mouths of the Borysthenes, and two thousand in width; in this is the island of Leuce. The eastern sea is oblong, terminating in a narrow recess near Dioscurias, extending for five thousand or slightly more stadia, and its width is about three thousand. The circumference of the whole sea is about twenty-five thousand stadia. Some liken the shape of this circumference to a stretched Scythian bow, comparing the string to the so-called right parts of the Pontus (these are the coastwise voyage from the mouth to the innermost recess near Dioscurias; for except Carambis, the rest of the shore has only small indentations and projections, so that it resembles a straight line), and the rest of the shore to the horn of the bow, which has a double curve, the upper being more circular and the lower straighter; and they say that it thus forms two gulfs, of which the western is much more circular than the other.

​Above the eastern gulf, towards the north, lies Lake Maeotis, having its circumference of nine thousand stadia or even slightly more. This discharges into the Pontus at the so-called Cimmerian Bosporus, and the Pontus into the Propontis at the Thracian Bosporus; for they call the mouth at Byzantium the Thracian Bosporus, which is four stadia wide. The Propontis is said to be one thousand five hundred stadia in length from the Troad to Byzantium; and its width is about equal. Here is situated the island of the Cyzicenes and the small islands around it.

​Such and so great is the expansion of the Aegean Sea towards the north; on the other hand, starting from the territory of Rhodes, the sea that forms the Egyptian, Pamphylian, and Issic seas extends towards the east and to Cilicia near Issus, along Lycia, Pamphylia, and the entire Cilician coast for as much as five thousand stadia. From there, Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt enclose the sea to the south and west as far as Alexandria. In the Issic and Pamphylian gulfs, it happens that Cyprus lies, connecting with the Egyptian Sea. The direct crossing from Rhodes to Alexandria with a north wind is about four thousand stadia, while the circumnavigation is double. Eratosthenes says that this is the estimation of mariners regarding the crossing of the sea, some speaking thus, and others not hesitating to say even five thousand, but he himself, by means of shadow-measuring gnomons, found it to be three thousand seven hundred and fifty. Now, the part of this sea next to Cilicia and Pamphylia, the so-called right parts of the Pontus, the Propontis, and the succeeding coast as far as Pamphylia, make a certain large peninsula and a great isthmus for it, namely the one from the sea near Tarsus to the city of Amisus and Themiscyra, the plain of the Amazons. For all the country within this line as far as Caria, Ionia, and the nations inhabiting within the Halys is washed all around by the Aegean and the said parts of the sea on either side; and indeed we call this region particularly, and homonymously with the whole, Asia.