Geography

​The Peloponnesus, then, is like a plane-tree leaf in its shape, being nearly equal in length and in breadth, about one thousand four hundred stadia: the one from west to east, which is that from Chelonatas through Olympia and the territory of Megalopolis to the Isthmus; the other from south to north, which is that from Maleae through Arcadia to Aegium. Its circumference is four thousand stadia for one who does not follow the gulfs, as Polybius says, and Artemidorus adds four hundred more; but for one who follows the gulfs, it is more than five thousand six hundred. And as for the Isthmus, at the diolcos, through which they haul the boats across from one sea to the other, it has been stated that it is forty stadia wide.

​The western part of this peninsula is held by the Eleians and Messenians, washed by the Sicilian Sea; and they also take in a part of the coast on either side: the Eleian territory turning towards the north and containing the beginning of the Corinthian Gulf as far as Cape Araxus, opposite to which lie Acarnania and the islands situated in front of it, namely Zacynthus, Cephallenia, Ithaca, and the Echinades, to which Dulichium belongs; while the greater part of Messenia is open towards the south and the Libyan Sea as far as the place called Thyrides near Taenarum. Next after Eleia is the nation of the Achaeans, looking towards the north and stretching along the Corinthian Gulf, ending at Sicyonia; and from there Sicyon and Corinth succeed as far as the Isthmus. And after Messenia come Laconica and Argia, the latter also extending as far as the Isthmus. The gulfs here are the Messenian, the Laconian, and thirdly the Argolic, and fourthly the Hermionic and the Saronic (which some call the Salaminian), of which some are filled by the Libyan Sea, others by the Cretan Sea and the Myrtoan Sea; and some also call the Saronic Strait a sea. In the middle lies Arcadia, situated above all the others and bordering upon all the other nations.

​The Corinthian Gulf begins from the mouths of the Evenus (though some say of the Achelous, which bounds the Acarnanians and the Aetolians) and from Cape Araxus. For there, for the first time, the coasts on either side draw remarkably close to each other; and as they advance further, they completely meet at Rhium and Antirrhium, leaving a strait of only about five stadia. Rhium, belonging to the Achaeans, is a low-lying cape, having a sickle-like curvature inwards; and indeed it is also called Drepanum; it lies between Patrae and Aegium, containing a temple of Poseidon. Antirrhium is situated on the borders of Aetolia and Locris, and they call it the Molycrian Rhium. Then, from there, the coastline on either side recedes again moderately, and advancing into the Crisaean Gulf, ends there, being closed by the western boundaries of Boeotia and the Megarid. The Corinthian Gulf has a circumference of two thousand two hundred and thirty stadia from the Evenus to Araxus; and if from the Achelous, it would be more by about one hundred stadia. However, from the Achelous to the Evenus dwell the Acarnanians, and next, as far as Antirrhium, the Aetolians, and the remaining part as far as the Isthmus belongs to the Phocians, Boeotians, and the Megarid, being two short of one thousand one hundred and twenty stadia; and the sea from Antirrhium as far as the Isthmus is called Alcyonis, being a part of the Crisaean Gulf. And from the Isthmus to Araxus, it is thirty in addition to [...]. To speak in outline, then, such and so great is the situation of the Peloponnesus and of the land opposite it as far as the innermost recess, and such is also the gulf between them. Next we shall speak of each part, making our beginning from Eleia.