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μῆκος. H. (in c. 7. 1 and c. 10) continues his proof that Egypt is alluvial, but digresses here to give its dimensions. σχοῖνοι. Properly a ‘rope’, cp. Eng. ‘cord’ and ‘chain’ as measures. The extent of a σχοῖνος was uncertain, probably because it was a practical measure, not strictly a measure of length (cp. Germ. ‘Stunde’). Strabo (804) says that it varied from 30 to 120 stades. H. gives it a uniform value of 60 stades, and so is inaccurate in his results; here he exaggerates, and makes Egypt, which has really only about 2200 stades of sea-coast, to have ‘3600’. It is noticeable that ‘60 stades’ was the estimate of a σχοῖνος from Thebes to Syene (Artemidorus in Strabo, 804), which confirms H.'s statement that he had been south of Thebes (29 nn.). Lehmann (W. K. P. 1895, pp. 180-2), however, explains more elaborately H.'s errors here and in cc. 9, 149. He argues (1) that the σχοῖνος = the parasang = 30 stades; (2) that H. has taken the figures from his source—probably Hecataeus—and has wrongly doubled the size of the σχοῖνος; (3) that perhaps this mistake is due to the confusion of the smaller and the larger ‘kaspu’—Babylonian measures of one and of two parasangs respectively. His proof may be given in the following table: H. H. corrected. Reality as crow flies. Breadth of Egypt 3,600 st. 1,800 st. = 357.1 km. 355-360 km. From Thebes to Elephantine ... 1,800 ,, 900 ,, = 178.2 ,, 182 km. Heliopolis to Thebes ... 4,860 ,, 2,430 ,, = 482.09 ,, 490.4 km. Lake Moeris (c. 149) 3,600 ,, 1,800 ,, Pliny v. 50, 2,000 st. It is not certain, however, that measurements ‘as the crow flies’ were made before Eratosthenes (circ. 230 B.C.), and the fact that in Egyptian land measurement ‘all angles were treated as though they were right angles’ (Lyons, Survey, p. 48) does not inspire confidence; there is no evidence that Hecataeus or any other Greek before H. had attempted to give measures for Egypt. H. certainly seems to speak in c. 9 as if he were measuring along the river. τοῦ Πλινθινήτεω. Plinthine lay near the later Alexandria, on the Mareotic Lake; H. (18. 2) mentions Marea as one of the border towns towards Libya. Σερβωνίδος. This lake (now dry) lay parallel to the sea on the east side of Egypt (cf. iii. 5. 3 n.). It was much feared for its swampy shores, which were said to be covered with drifted sand, and so to engulf the unwary (cf. Diod. i. 30; Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 592-4): “A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk.
” The army of Darius Ochus in 350 B.C. was said to have perished thus. It lay under Mount Casius, the real boundary of Egypt and Syria (158. 4); this was a sand dune of no great height, the modern Râs el Kasrûn, crowned with a temple to Baal (cf. the Baal-Zephon of Exodus xiv. 2, 9); Pompey was killed at its foot.
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