Message #20001

[Bianca]

STRABO - Book III Chapter 5





8.   I do not know how Poseidonius, who in other instances has represented the Phoenicians as clever p149people, can here charge them with foolishness rather than shrewdness. In the first place, a day and night is measured by the revolution of the sun, which, at one time, is below the earth, but, at another, shines above the earth. And yet Poseidonius says that the movement of the ocean is subject to periods like those of the heavenly bodies, since, behaving in accord with the moon, the movement exhibits first the diurnal, secondly the monthly, and thirdly the yearly period; for when the moon rises above the horizon to the extent of a zodiacal sign,175 the sea begins to swell, and perceptibly invades the land until the moon is in the meridian; but when the heavenly body begins to decline, the sea retreats again, little by little, until the moon rises a zodiacal sign above her setting; than remains stationary until such time as the moon reaches the setting itself, and, still more than that, until such time as the moon, moving on below the earth, should be a sign distant from the horizon; then invades the land again until the moon reaches the meridian below the earth; then retreats until the moon, moving round towards her risings, is a sign distant from the horizon; but remains stationary again until the moon is elevated a sign above the earth, and then it again invades the land. This, he continues, is the diurnal period. As for the monthly period, he says the flux and reflux become greatest about the time of the conjunction,176 and then diminish until half-moon;177 and, again, they increase until the full moon and diminish again until the waning half-moon;178 and then, until the p151conjunction, the increases take place again, and the increases are further increased in respect both to duration and to speed.179 As for the annual periods, he says that he learned of them from the people at Gades, who told him that both the retreat and the invasion grew greatest at the time of the summer solstice. And from this he himself surmises that they are diminished from that solstice up to the equinox,180 increased up to the winter solstice, then diminished up to the spring equinox, and then increased up to the summer solstice. But if these periods repeat themselves every separate day and night, the sea invading the land twice and also retreating twice during the combined time of day and night, in regular order both within the day-time and within the night-time, how is it possible for the filling up of the well to occur "often" at the time of the ebb-tides181 but for the failure not also to occur often? or often, but not equally often? or even equally often indeed, but for the people of Gades to have been incapable of observing these phenomena that were taking place every day, and yet to have been capable of observing the annual periods from what occurred only once a year? Furthermore, that Poseidonius really believes these people, is clear from the surmise which he adds to their story, namely, that the diminutions, and, in turn, the increases, take place from one solstice on to the other, and also that recurrences take place from the latter solstice back to the former. Moreover, that other p153supposition of Poseidonius is not reasonable either, namely, that, although they were an observant people, they did not see the phenomena that occurred and yet believed in the things that did not occur.182