Geography

​Having circumnavigated the Peloponnese, which we said was the first and smallest of the peninsulas that make up Greece, it would be next in order to go over the regions adjacent to it. The second peninsula was the one which adds Megaris to the Peloponnese, so that Crommyon belongs to the Megarians and not to the Corinthians; the third is the one which, in addition to this, takes in Attica, Boeotia, a part of Phocis, and the Epicnemidian Locrians. About these, then, [we shall speak]. Eudoxus says that if one should conceive a straight line drawn from the Ceraunian Mountains to Sunium, the promontory of Attica, extending towards the east, he would leave on his right, to the south, the whole of the Peloponnese, and on his left, to the north, the continuous coastline from the Ceraunian Mountains as far as the Crisaean Gulf, Megaris, and the whole of Attica. He also thinks that the shore from Sunium as far as [the Isthmus] would not even have any [curve] or turn, if there were not adjacent to the [land] the territories next to the Isthmus, namely, the Hermionic Gulf and the Acte; and [in the same way, the coast] extending to the Corinthian Gulf has [such a turn] as to be hollowed out like a gulf in itself, the Rhium and Antirrhium, which draw together into a strait, showing this shape; and likewise also the parts around the innermost recess where the sea happens to terminate.

​Eudoxus having spoken thus—a man who was a mathematician and experienced in figures and climates, and who knew these places—we must conceive this side of Attica, together with Megaris, from Sunium as far as the Isthmus, as being indeed concave, but only slightly so. Here, about the middle of the line mentioned, is Peiraeus, the seaport of Athens. For it is distant from Schoenus, which is near the Isthmus, about three hundred and fifty stadia, and from Sunium three hundred and thirty. The distance from Pei[raeus] to Pegae is also [about equal] to that to Schoenus; however, they say that it exceeds it by ten sta[dia]. Having rounded Sunium, the voyage is towards the north, bending towards the west.

​Attica is a coastland washed by two seas, narrow at first, and then it widens towards the interior, but nevertheless takes a crescent-like curve towards Oropus of Boeotia, having its convex side towards the sea; this is the second, eastern side of Attica. The remaining part is now the northern side, extending from the territory of Oropus towards the west as far as Megaris, being the mountainous country of Attica, which has many names, and separates Boeotia from Attica; so that, as I said before, Boeotia, being washed by two seas, becomes the isthmus of the third peninsula mentioned above, enclosing within it Megaris and Attica on the side near the Peloponnese. For this reason also they say that it was called “Acte” in ancient times, and “Actice” which by a slight change of name is the present “Attica,” because the greater part of it lies under the mountains, flat along the sea and narrow, though having a considerable length, projecting as far as Sunium. These regions, therefore, we shall describe in detail, [starting again from the] coast where we left off.