Strabo, Geography, Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator), 17.1.46

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[46] Next to the city of Apollo is Thebes, now called Diospolis,

with her hundred gates, through each of which issue two hundred men, with horses and chariots,¹

according to Homer, who mentions also its wealth;

not all the wealth the palaces of Egyptian Thebes contain.²

Other writers use the same language, and consider Thebes as the metropolis of Egypt. Vestiges of its magnitude still exist, which extend 80 stadia in length. There are a great number of temples, many of which Cambyses mutilated. The spot is at present occupied by villages. One part of it, in which is the city, lies in Arabia; another is in the country on the other side of the river, where is the Memnonium. Here are two colossal figures near one another, each consisting of a single stone. One is entire; the upper parts of the other, from the chair, are fallen down, the effect, it is said, of an earthquake. It is believed, that once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from the part of the statue which remains in the seat and on its base. When I was at those places with Aelius Gallus, and numerous friends and soldiers about him, I heard a noise at the first hour (of the day), but whether proceeding from the base or from the colossus, or produced on purpose by some of those standing around the base, I cannot confidently assert. For from the uncertainty of the cause, I am disposed to believe anything rather than that stones disposed in that manner could send forth sound.

Above the Memnonium are tombs of kings in caves, and hewn out of the stone, about forty in number; they are executed with singular skill, and are worthy of notice. Among the tombs³ are obelisks with inscriptions, denoting the wealth of the kings of that time, and the extent of their empire, as reaching to the Scythians, Bactrians, Indians, and the present Ionia; the amount of tribute also, and the number of soldiers, which composed an army of about a million of men.

The priests there are said to be, for the most part, astronomers and philosophers. The former compute the days, not by the moon, but by the sun, introducing into the twelve months of thirty days each five days every year. But in order to complete the whole year, because there is (annually) an excess of a part of a day, they form a period from out of whole days and whole years, the supernumerary portions of which in that period, when collected together, amount to a day.⁴ They ascribe to Mercury all knowledge of this kind. To Jupiter, whom they worship above all other deities, a virgin of the greatest beauty and of the most illustrious family (such persons the Greeks call pallades) is dedicated. She prostitutes herself with whom she pleases, until the time occurs for the natural purification of the body; she is afterwards married; but before her marriage, and after the period of prostitution, they mourn for her as for one dead.

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

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Current edition Perseus

Geography (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 17.1.46 focus

[46] μετὰ δὲ τὴν Ἀπόλλωνος πόλιν αἱ Θῆβαι (καλεῖται δὲ νῦν Διὸς πόλις) αἵθʼ ἑκατόμπυλοί εἰσι, διηκόσιοι δʼ ἀνʼ ἑκάστην ἀνέρες ἐξοιχνεῦσι σὺν ἵπποισιν καὶ ὄχεσφιν. Ὅμηρος μὲν οὕτω· λέγει δὲ καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον οὐδʼ ὅσα Θήβας Αἰγυπτίας, ὅθι πλεῖστα δόμοις ἐνὶ κτήματα κεῖται. καὶ ἄλλοι δὲ τοιαῦτα λέγουσι, μητρόπολιν τιθέντες τῆς Αἰγύπτου ταύτην· καὶ νῦν δʼ ἴχνη δείκνυται τοῦ μεγέθους αὐτῆς ἐπὶ ὀγδοήκοντα σταδίους τὸ μῆκος· ἔστι δʼ ἱερὰ τὰ πλείω. καὶ τούτων δὲ τὰ πολλὰ ἠκρωτηρίασε Καμβύσης· νυνὶ δὲ κωμηδὸν συνοικεῖται, μέρος μέν τι ἐν τῇ Ἀραβίᾳ ἐν ᾗπερ ἡ πόλις, μέρος δέ τι καὶ ἐν τῇ περαίᾳ ὅπου τὸ Μεμνόνιον· ἐνταῦθα δὲ δυεῖν κολοσσῶν ὄντων μονολίθων ἀλλήλων πλησίον, ὁ μὲν σώζεται, τοῦ δʼ ἑτέρου τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς καθέδρας πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γενηθέντος, ὥς φασι. πεπίστευται δʼ ὅτι ἅπαξ καθʼ ἡμέραν ἑκάστην ψόφος ὡς ἂν πληγῆς οὐ μεγάλης ἀποτελεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ μένοντος ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ καὶ τῇ βάσει μέρους· κἀγὼ δὲ παρὼν ἐπὶ τῶν τόπων μετὰ Γάλλου Αἰλίου καὶ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν συνόντων αὐτῷ φίλων τε καὶ στρατιωτῶν περὶ ὥραν πρώτην ἤκουσα τοῦ ψόφου· εἴτε δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς βάσεως εἴτε ἀπὸ τοῦ κολοσσοῦ εἴτʼ ἐπίτηδες τῶν κύκλῳ καὶ περὶ τὴν βάσιν ἱδρυμένων τινὸς ποιήσαντος τὸν ψόφον, οὐκ ἔχω διισχυρίσασθαι· διὰ γὰρ τὸ ἄδηλον τῆς αἰτίας πᾶν μᾶλλον ἐπέρχεται πιστεύειν ἢ τὸ ἐκ τῶν λίθων οὕτω τεταγμένων ἐκπέμπεσθαι τὸν ἦχον. ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ Μεμνονίου θῆκαι βασιλέων ἐν σπηλαίοις λατομηταὶ περὶ τετταράκοντα, θαυμαστῶς κατεσκευασμέναι καὶ θέας ἄξιαι· ἐν δὲ ταῖς Θήβαις ἐπί τινων ὀβελίσκων ἀναγραφαὶ δηλοῦσαι τὸν πλοῦτον τῶν τότε βασιλέων καὶ τὴν ἐπικράτειαν, ὡς μέχρι Σκυθῶν καὶ Βακτρίων καὶ Ἰνδῶν καὶ τῆς νῦν Ἰωνίας διατείνασαν, καὶ φόρων πλῆθος καὶ στρατιᾶς περὶ ἑκατὸν μυριάδας. λέγονται δὲ καὶ ἀστρονόμοι καὶ φιλόσοφοι μάλιστα οἱ ἐνταῦθα ἱερεῖς· τούτων δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ τὰς ἡμέρας μὴ κατὰ σελήνην ἄγειν ἀλλὰ κατὰ ἥλιον, τοῖς τριακονθημέροις δώδεκα μησὶν ἐπαγόντων πέντε ἡμέρας κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν ἕκαστον· εἰς δὲ τὴν ἐκπλήρωσιν τοῦ ὅλου ἐνιαυτοῦ, ἐπιτρέχοντος μορίου τινὸς τῆς ἡμέρας, περίοδόν τινα συντιθέασιν ἐξ ὅλων ἡμερῶν καὶ ὅλων ἐνιαυτῶν τοσούτων ὅσα μόρια τὰ ἐπιτρέχοντα συνελθόντα ποιεῖ ἡμέραν. ἀνατιθέασι δὲ τῷ Ἑρμῇ πᾶσαν τὴν τοιαύτην μάλιστα σοφίαν· τῷ δὲ Διὶ ὃν μάλιστα τιμῶσιν, εὐειδεστάτη καὶ γένους λαμπροτάτου παρθένος ἱερᾶται, ἃς καλοῦσιν οἱ Ἕλληνες παλλάδας· αὕτη δὲ καὶ παλλακεύει καὶ σύνεστιν οἷς βούλεται μέχρι ἂν ἡ φυσικὴ γένηται κάθαρσις τοῦ σώματος· μετὰ δὲ τὴν κάθαρσιν δίδοται πρὸς ἄνδρα, πρὶν δὲ δοθῆναι πένθος αὐτῆς ἄγεται μετὰ τὸν τῆς παλλακείας καιρόν.

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. Il. ix. 383.

2. Il. ix. 381.

3. For θήκαις, tombs, in the text, Kramer is of opinion that we should read θήβαις, Thebes, which is also the translation of the passage by Guarini.

4. The meaning of the passage is clear, and can be understood, as critics have already explained, only as implying the intercalation of a 366th day every fourth year. Some have asserted that Julius Caesar adopted this method of intercalating a day from the civil practice of the Alexandrines; others, on the contrary, appear disposed to believe that J. Caesar was the first to give an idea of it, according to the advice of Sosigenes. There is truth and error in both these opinions.

On the one hand, it is certain that Strabo, who visited Egypt a short time after the conquest of the country by the Romans, would not have omitted to attribute to them the institution of this year, if it really belonged to them. So far from doing so, he says (above, § 29) distinctly, that this method of intercalation was known and practised by the priests of Heliopolis and Thebes. Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt just at the time of the first arrival of the Romans, gives the same account as Strabo. Can we therefore believe that the Egyptians before this period were ignorant of the bissextile intercalation?

On the other hand; it is not less certain that this method of intercalation was only introduced into civil use at Alexandria from the time of Julius Caesar: before this period, the incomplete year of 365 days was adopted throughout the whole of Egypt, as is attested by a host of authorities, and confirmed by the date of the Rosetta stone, which only applies to this method of reckoning. Hence we see (I.) that Julius Caesar really obtained the idea of a fixed year of 365 1/4 days from the Egyptians, where it was employed for scientific or religious purposes only, whilst the incomplete year was the vulgar and common year; (II.) that he made this fixed year the common year, both among the Romans and Alexandrines, who were a people most readily disposed to adopt foreign innovations. It is, however, probable that the rest of Egypt preserved the ancient use of the incomplete year.

Strabo Geography 17.1.46

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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