<head>VIII. On <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Thrace&groupId=1030&placeId=509">Thrace</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a>, and Greece</head>Among other improbable things Theopompus states that the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ionian Sea&groupId=650&placeId=1190">Ionian Sea</a> and the Adriatic have an underground connexion, Chian and Thasian pottery being found in the Naro, and again that the two seas are visible from a certain mountain, and that the Liburnian islands have a circumference of as much as 500 stades, and that one of the mouths of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a> falls into the Adriatic.
These and some assertions of Eratosthenes are mere vulgar errors, as Polybius says in speaking of the latter and other writers.
From <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apollonia&groupId=1066&placeId=1873">Apollonia</a> the Via Egnatia runs east to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a>. It has been measured and marked with milestones as far as <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cypsela&groupId=520&placeId=983">Cypsela</a> and the river Hebrus, the distance being 535 miles.
If we reckon the mile, as most people do, at 8 stades, this makes 4280 stades, but if like Polybius we add to the 8 stades 2 plethra, i.e. the third of a stade, we must add 678 stades, the third of the number of miles.
Travellers starting from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apollonia&groupId=1066&placeId=1873">Apollonia</a> and from Epidamnus strike this road at an equal distance from their point of departure.
The whole road is called Via Egnatia, but the first section passing through the town of Lychnidus and through Pylon, the point on the road which separates <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Illyria&groupId=647&placeId=1186">Illyria</a> from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a>, derives its name from Candavia, a mountain of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Illyria&groupId=647&placeId=1186">Illyria</a>.
Thence it passes along Mt. Barnus through Heraclia Lyncestis, and Eordea to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Edessa&groupId=554&placeId=1038">Edessa</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pella&groupId=1089&placeId=1913">Pella</a> and finally Thessalonica.
The length of this part is according to Polybius 267 miles.
From Perinthus to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Byzantium&groupId=415&placeId=767">Byzantium</a> the distance is 630 stades, from the Hebrus and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cypsela&groupId=520&placeId=983">Cypsela</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Byzantium&groupId=415&placeId=767">Byzantium</a> as far as the Cyanean rocks it is 3100 according to Artemidorus, and the whole distance from the Ionian gulf at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apollonia&groupId=1066&placeId=1873">Apollonia</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Byzantium&groupId=415&placeId=767">Byzantium</a> is 7320 stades,
Polybius adding a further 180 stades, as he reckons the mile at 8 1/3 stades.
The circumference of the Peloponnesus sailing from cape to cape is 4000 stades according to Polybius.
Polybius says that the distance due north from Cape <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Malea&groupId=730&placeId=1337">Malea</a> to the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a> is about 1000 stades, but Artemidorus corrects him, and no wonder. According to him the distance from the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a> to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Malea&groupId=730&placeId=1337">Malea</a> is 6500 stades. The reason of the discrepancy is that Polybius does not reckon the distance in a straight line, but by the route some general chanced to follow.
Walbank Commentary