Another mountain also closes the end of the
Mediterranean sea, between the two hills to the west, where stand the
pillars of Ercoles or Hercules. To the west again is Mount Atlas, quite to
the sea; to the south the hills called AEsperos, and to the south again the
nation called Ausolum[83], which inhabits quite to the sea.
$ 15. Having thus stated the boundaries of Africa, we shall now speak of
the islands in the Mediterranean: Cyprus lies opposite to Cilicia, and
Isauria on that arm of the sea called Mesicos, being 170 miles long, and
122 miles broad. The island of Crete is opposite to the sea called
Artatium, northwest is the sea of Crete, and west is the Sicilian or
Adriatic sea. It is 100 miles long, and 150 miles broad. There are
fifty-three of the islands called the Cyclades. To the east of them is the
Risca Sea, to the south the Cretisca or Cretan, to the north the Egisca or
Egean, and to the west the Adriatic. The island of Sicily is triangular,
and at each end there are towns. The northern is Petores[84], near which is
the town of Messina; the south angle is Lilitem[85], near which is a town
of the same name. The island is 157 miles long from east to west, and 70
broad to the eastward. To the north-east is that part of the Mediterranean
called the Adriatic, to the south the Apiscan sea, to the west the Tyrrhene
sea, and to the north the [86] sea, all of which are narrow and liable to
storms. Opposite to Italy, a small arm of the sea divides Sardinia from
Corsica, which strait is twenty-two miles broad. To the east of it is that
part of the Mediterranean called the Tyrrhenian sea, into which the river
Tiber empties itself. To the south is the sea which lies opposite to
Numidia. To the west the Balearic islands, and to the north Corsica. The
island of Corsica lies directly west from the city of Rome. To the south of
Corsica is Sardinia, and Tuscany is to the north. It is sixteen miles long,
and nine broad[87]. Africa is to the south of the Balearic islands, Gades
to the west, and Spain to the north. Thus I have shortly described the
situation of the islands in the Mediterranean.
[1] Anglo-Saxon version from Orosius, by AElfred the Great, with an English
translation, by Daines Barrington, 8vo. London, 1773. Discoveries in
the North, 54.
[2] This word is always employed by Alfred to denote the ocean, while
smaller portions are uniformly called sae in the singular,
saes in the plural. - Barr
[3] Called Wenadel sea in the Anglo-Saxon original; probably because it
had been crossed by the Vandals or Wends, in going from Spain to the
conquest of Africa. - E.
[4] In the translation by Barrington, this sentence is quite
unintelligible. "All to the northward is Asia, and to the southward
Europe and Asia are separated by the Tanais; then south of this same
river (along the Mediterranean, and west of Alexandria) Europe and
Asia join." - E.
[5] Riffing, in the Anglo-Saxon. - E.
[6] Sermondisc in the Anglo-Saxon, Sarmaticus in Orosius. - E.
[7] Rochouasco in Anglo-Saxon, Roxolani in Orosius. - E.
[8] Certainly here put for Ireland. - E.
[9] Taprobana, Serendib, or Ceylon. - E.
[10] By the Red Sea must be here meant that which extends between the
peninsula of India and Africa, called the Erithrean Sea in the
Periplus of Nearchus. - E.
[11] The Persian gulf is here assumed as a part of the Red Sea. - E.
[12] He is here obviously enumerating the divisions of the latter Persian
empire. Orocassia is certainly the Arachosia of the ancients; Asilia
and Pasitha may be Assyria and proper Persia. - E.
[13] The Saxon word is beorhta or bright, which I have ventured to
translate parched by the sun, as this signification agrees well
with the context. - Barr.
[14] The true Niger, running from the westwards till it loses itself in the
sands of Wangara, seems here alluded to; and the Bahr el Abiad, or
Western Nile, is supposed to be its continuation, rising again out of
the sand. - E.
[15] This ought certainly to be after, and seems to allude to the
Bahr el Abiad. - E.
[16] Literally a great sea. - Barr.
[17] This is a mistake, as it only takes a wide turn to the west in
Dongola, around what has been falsely called the Isle of Meroe. The
cliffs of the Red Sea seem to imply the mountains of Nubia, and the
wide sea may be the lake of Dembea. - E.
[18] A strange attempt to account for the regular overflow of the Nile. - E.
[19] This account of the boundaries of Old Scythia is extremely vague. It
seems to imply an eastern boundary by an imaginary river Bore, that
the Caspian is the western, the northern ocean on the north, and Mount
Caucasus on the south. - E.
[20] In the translation by Barrington, this portion of Scythia is strangely
said to extend south to the Mediterranean; the interpolation surely of
some ignorant transcriber, who perhaps changed the Euxine or Caspian
sea into the Mediterranean. - E.
[21] Called by mistake, or erroneous transcription, Wendel sea, or
Mediterranean in the text and translation. - E.
[22] The Cwen sea is the White sea, or sea of Archangel. The Kwen or Cwen
nation, was that now called Finlanders, from whom that sea received
this ancient appellation. - Forst.
[23] East Francan in the original. The eastern Franks dwelt in that part of
Germany between the Rhine and the Sala, in the north reaching to the
Ruhre and Cassel, and in the south, almost to the Necker; according to
Eginhard, inhabiting from Saxony to the Danube.
