Note 170 — Chapter I · THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Eratosthenes placed Meroë at 10,000 stades south of Alexandria and the limit of the oikoumene at 3400 stades south of Meroë (Strabo, Geogr., I, 4, 2). He placed the tropic at Syene 5000 stades south of Alexandria (Cleomedes, De motu corp. cael., I, 10). Therefore the limit of the oikoumene according to Eratosthenes must have been 10,000 + 3400 − 5000 = 8400 stades south of the tropic. As Eratosthenes reckoned the circumference of the earth at 252,000 stades (see above, p. 371, note 51), 1° must have contained 700 stades, and the limit of the oikoumene must have fallen in his opinion 8400 ÷ 700 = 12° south of the tropic, or at approximately latitude 11° 30′ N.