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"That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion, because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper portion it carries a stone water-course as an elder tree has in it a vein of pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos."
The new walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order.
The Amalekite, a free man with sharp eyes, who was highly esteemed in the senator's house, and even by Phoebicius himself, as a trustworthy and steady man, had expected this question, and eagerly replied: "At two stadia beyond el Heswe I met a large caravan from Petra, which rested yesterday in the oasis here; a woman, such as you describe, was running with it.
Looking towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side.
They say that upon the Acropolis of Athens rises the gigantic figure of Pallas, all of bronze and gold, with a lance that seems to burn in the sunlight, and that it guides the mariners like a flame from many stadia out at sea. Is that true? Many, many nights have I dreamt of something like that, and I see Erotion returned from Athens a great artist, and raising a colossal work upon our Acropolis.
Here we found in the recess of a certain bay a small island, having a circuit of five stadia, where we settled a colony, and called it Cerne. We judged from our voyage that this place lay in a direct line with Carthage; for the length of our voyage from Carthage to the Pillars was equal to that from the Pillars to Cerne.
Whether these dimensions and the proportions of the corridor suffice for our recognizing them as elephants' stalls, remains to be settled by a more accurate investigation. The partition-walls, which separate the apartments, have a thickness of 1.1 metre = 3 1/2 feet. Oros. iv. 22. Fully 2000 paces, or as Polybius must have said 16 stadia, are=about 3000 metres.
The speaker's manner changed; fixing his big eyes upon the sailor's lesser orbs, he continued: "A few stadia north of Sidon there is what may be called a bay. It is about four miles across. Two little rivers empty into it, one on each side. Near the middle of the bend of the shore there is a well of sweet water, with flow enough to support a few villagers and their camels. Do you know the bay?"
Crassus had with him four cohorts of the legionary soldiers, and a very few horsemen, and five lictors, with whom he got upon the road with great difficulty just as the enemy was falling upon him; and now being about twelve stadia short of joining Octavius, he fled to another hill not so difficult for cavalry nor yet so strong, but one that lay below Sinnaca, and was connected with it by a long ridge, which stretched through the middle of the plain.
Hence the circumference of the earth was fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand stadia, not far from the truth. The circumference being known, the diameter of the earth was easily determined. The moderns have added nothing to this method.
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