§2.2.1ἴδωμεν δὲ καὶ Ποσειδώνιον ἅ φησιν ἐν τοῖς περὶ ὠκεανοῦ· δοκεῖ γὰρ ἐν αὐτοῖς τὰ πολλὰ γεωγραφεῖν, τὰ μὲν οἰκείως τὰ δὲ μαθηματικώτερον.
Let us also look at what Posidonius says in his work On the Ocean; for in it he seems for the most part to write geographically, in part appropriately, in part in a more mathematical manner.
οὐκ ἄτοπον οὖν ἔνια καὶ τῶν ὑπὸ τούτου λεγομένων διαιτῆσαι, τὰ μὲν νῦν τὰ δʼ ἐν τοῖς καθʼ ἕκαστα ὡς ἂν ὑποπίπτῃ, μέτρου τινὸς ἐχομένους.
It is not out of place, therefore, to judge some of the things said by him, some now and others in the individual parts as they happen to come up, while keeping to a certain measure.
ἔστιν οὖν τι τῶν πρὸς γεωγραφίαν οἰκείων τὸ τὴν γῆν ὅλην ὑποθέσθαι σφαιροειδῆ καθάπερ καὶ τὸν κόσμον, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραδέξασθαι τὰ ἀκόλουθα τῇ ὑποθέσει ταύτῃ· τούτων δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ πεντάζωνον αὐτὴν εἶναι.
Now, it is one of the things appropriate to geography to assume that the whole earth is spherical, just like the universe, and to accept the other things that follow from this assumption; and among these is also the view that it consists of five zones.
§2.2.2φησὶ δὴ ὁ Ποσειδώνιος τῆς εἰς πέντε ζώνας διαιρέσεως ἀρχηγὸν γενέσθαι Παρμενίδην· ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνον μὲν σχεδόν τι διπλασίαν ἀποφαίνειν τὸ πλάτος τὴν διακεκαυμένην ὑπερπίπτουσαν ἑκατέρων τῶν τροπικῶν εἰς τὸ ἐκτὸς καὶ πρὸς ταῖς εὐκράτοις· Ἀριστοτέλη δὲ αὐτὴν καλεῖν τὴν μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν, τὰς δὲ μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν καὶ τῶν ἀρκτικῶν εὐκράτους.
Posidonius says indeed that Parmenides was the originator of the division into five zones; but that he represents the scorched zone as being almost double in width, exceeding both of the tropics outwards and towards the temperate zones; while Aristotle calls the region between the tropics itself the scorched zone, and the regions between the tropics and the polar circles temperate.
ἀμφοτέροις δʼ ἐπιτιμᾷ δικαίως· διακεκαυμένην γὰρ λέγεσθαι τὸ ἀοίκητον διὰ καῦμα· τῆς δὲ μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν πλέον ἢ τὸ ἥμισυ τοῦ πλάτους οὐκ οἰκήσιμόν ἐστιν ἐκ τῶν ὑπὲρ Αἰγύπτου στοχαζομένοις Αἰθιόπων, εἴπερ τὸ μὲν ἥμισυ τοῦ παντὸς πλάτους ἐστὶν ὃ διαιρεῖ ἐφʼ ἑκάτερα ὁ ἰσημερινός, τούτου δὲ τὸ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς Συήνης, ἥπερ ἐστὶν ὅριον τοῦ θερινοῦ τροπικοῦ, εἰς Μερόην εἰσὶ πεντακισχίλιοι, τὸ δʼ ἐνθένδε ἕως τῆς Κινναμωμοφόρου παραλλήλου, ὅσπερ ἐστὶν ἀρχὴ τῆς διακεκαυμένης, τρισχίλιοι.
And he censures both of them justly; for the "scorched" zone is so called because it is uninhabitable on account of heat; but of the region between the tropics, more than half of the width is uninhabitable, for those who conjecture from the Ethiopians beyond Egypt, if indeed that which the equator divides on either side is half of the entire width, and of this, the part from Syene, which is the boundary of the summer tropic, to Meroe is five thousand, and that from there to the parallel of the Cinnamon-bearing country, which is the beginning of the scorched zone, is three thousand.
τοῦτο μὲν οὖν τὸ διάστημα πᾶν ἐστι μετρητόν, πλεῖταί τε γὰρ καὶ ὁδεύεται· τὸ δʼ ἑξῆς μέχρι τοῦ ἰσημερινοῦ λόγῳ δείκνυται κατὰ τὴν ὑπʼ Ἐρατοσθένους γενομένην ἀναμέτρησιν τῆς γῆς ὅτι ἐστὶ σταδίων ὀκτακισχιλίων ὀκτακοσίων· ὃν δὴ λόγον ἔχει τὰ μύρια ἑξακισχίλια ὀκτακόσια πρὸς τὰ ὀκτακισχίλια, τοῦτον ἂν ἔχοι τὸ μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν διάστημα πρὸς τὸ τῆς διακεκαυμένης πλάτος.
Now this entire distance is measurable, for it is sailed and travelled by land; but the next part as far as the equator is shown by calculation, according to the measurement of the earth made by Eratosthenes, to be eight thousand eight hundred stadia; whatever ratio sixteen thousand eight hundred has to eight thousand, this same ratio the distance between the tropics would have to the width of the scorched zone.
κἂν τῶν νεωτέρων δὲ ἀναμετρήσεων εἰσάγηται ἡ ἐλαχίστην ποιοῦσα τὴν γῆν, οἵαν ὁ Ποσειδώνιος ἐγκρίνει περὶ ὀκτωκαίδεκα μυριάδας οὖσαν, περὶ ἥμισύ που ἀποφαίνει τὴν διακεκαυμένην τῆς μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν ἢ μικρῷ τοῦ ἡμίσους μείζονα, ἴσην δὲ καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν οὐδαμῶς.
And even if the smallest of the more recent measurements is introduced—the one which makes the earth smallest, which Posidonius approves as being about one hundred and eighty thousand stadia—it represents the scorched zone as being about half of the region between the tropics, or slightly larger than half, but in no way equal and the same.
τοῖς τε ἀρκτικοῖς οὔτε παρὰ πᾶσιν οὖσιν οὔτε τοῖς αὐτοῖς πανταχοῦ τίς ἂν διορίζοι τὰς εὐκράτους, αἵπερ εἰσὶν ἀμετάπτωτοι;
And by the polar circles, which neither exist for all people nor are the same everywhere, who would define the temperate zones, which are immutable?
τὸ μὲν οὖν μὴ παρὰ πᾶσιν εἶναι τοὺς ἀρκτικούς, οὐδὲν ἂν εἴη πρὸς τὸν ἔλεγχον· δεῖ γὰρ παρὰ τοῖς τὴν εὔκρατον οἰκοῦσιν εἶναι πᾶσι, πρὸς οὕσπερ καὶ λέγεται μόνους εὔκρατος.
Now, the fact that polar circles do not exist for all people would be of no relevance to the refutation; for they must exist for all those who inhabit the temperate zone, in relation to whom alone indeed it is called temperate.
τὸ δὲ μὴ πανταχοῦ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, ἀλλὰ μεταπίπτειν, καλῶς εἴληπται.
But the point that they are not in the same manner everywhere, but change, is well taken.
§2.2.3αὐτὸς δὲ διαιρῶν εἰς τὰς ζώνας πέντε μέν φησιν εἶναι χρησίμους πρὸς τὰ οὐράνια, τούτων δὲ περισκίους δύο τὰς ὑπὸ τοῖς πόλοις μέχρι τῶν ἐχόντων τοὺς τροπικοὺς ἀρκτικούς, ἑτεροσκίους δὲ τὰς ἐφεξῆς ταύταις δύο μέχρι τῶν ὑπὸ τοῖς τροπικοῖς οἰκούντων, ἀμφίσκιον δὲ τὴν μεταξὺ τῶν τροπικῶν· πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἀνθρώπεια ταύτας τε καὶ δύο ἄλλας στενὰς τὰς ὑπὸ τοῖς τροπικοῖς, καθʼ ἃς ἥμισύ πως μηνὸς κατὰ κορυφήν ἐστιν ὁ ἥλιος, δίχα διαιρουμένας ὑπὸ τῶν τροπικῶν.
But he himself, dividing the earth into the zones, says that five of them are useful for celestial phenomena, and of these, two are periscian, under the poles as far as those places that have the tropics as polar circles, and two are heteroscian, next to these, as far as those who live under the tropics, and one is amphiscian, the region between the tropics; but for human affairs, he says there are these and two other narrow zones under the tropics, along which the sun is overhead for about half a month, being divided in two by the tropics.
ἔχειν γάρ τι ἴδιον τὰς ζώνας ταύτας, αὐχμηράς τε ἰδίως καὶ ἀμμώδεις ὑπαρχούσας καὶ ἀφόρους πλὴν σιλφίου καὶ πυρωδῶν τινων καρπῶν συγκεκαυμένων· ὄρη γὰρ μὴ εἶναι πλησίον ὥστε τὰ νέφη προσπίπτοντα ὄμβρους ποιεῖν, μηδὲ δὴ ποταμοῖς διαρρεῖσθαι· διόπερ οὐλότριχας καὶ οὐλόκερως καὶ προχείλους καὶ πλατύρρινας γεννᾶσθαι· τὰ γὰρ ἄκρα αὐτῶν συστρέφεσθαι· καὶ τοὺς ἰχθυοφάγους δὲ κατὰ ταύτας τὰς ζώνας οἰκεῖν.
For he says these zones have something peculiar, being uniquely parched and sandy, and barren except for silphium and certain scorched, wheat-like fruits; for he says that mountains are not nearby so that clouds striking them might produce rain, nor indeed are they traversed by rivers; on which account curly-haired, curly-horned, prominent-lipped, and flat-nosed creatures are born, for their extremities are shrivelled; and the Fish-eaters also live along these zones.
ὅτι δὲ ταῦτʼ ἴδια τῶν ζωνῶν τούτων, δηλοῦν φησὶ τὸ τοὺς νοτιωτέρους αὐτῶν ἔχειν τὸ περιέχον εὐκρατότερον καὶ τὴν γῆν καρπιμωτέραν καὶ εὐυδροτέραν.
And he says that the fact that these characteristics are peculiar to these zones is shown by the circumstance that those who live further south than they have a more temperate climate and a more fertile and well-watered land.