he Hellespont than between those of the
Bosphorus; yet all the ancient writers speak of the Hellespontic strait
as broader than the other: they agree in giving it seven stadia in its
narrowest width, (Herod. in Melp. c. 85. Polym. c. 34. Strabo, p. 591.
Plin. iv. c. 12.) which make 875 paces. It is singular that Gibbon, who
in the fifteenth note of this chapter reproaches d'Anville with being
fond of supposing new and perhaps imaginary measures, has here adopted
the peculiar measurement which d'Anville has assigned to the stadium.
This great geographer believes that the ancients had a stadium of
fifty-one toises, and it is that which he applies to the walls of
Babylon. Now, seven of these stadia are equal to about 500 paces, 7
stadia = 2142 feet: 500 paces = 2135 feet 5 inches.--G. See Rennell,
Geog. of Herod. p. 121. Add Ukert, Geographie der Griechen und Romer, v.
i. p. 2, 71.--M.]

[Footnote 18: See Wood's Observations on Homer, p. 320. I have, with
pleasure, selected this remark from an author who in general seems to
have disappointed the expectation of the public as a critic, and still
more as a traveller. He had visited the banks of the Hellespont; and had
read Strabo; he ought to have consulted the Roman itineraries. How
was it possible for him to confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas,
(Observations, p. 340, 341,) two cities which were sixteen miles distant
from each other? * Note: Compare Walpole's Memoirs on Turkey, v. i.
p. 101. Dr. Clarke adopted Mr. Walpole's interpretation of the salt
Hellespont. But the old interpretation is more graphic and Homeric.
Clarke's Travels, ii. 70.--M.]

[Footnote 19: Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on thirty lines
of Homer's catalogue. The XIIIth Book of Strabo is sufficient for our
curiosity.]

[Footnote 20: Strabo, l. xiii. p. 595, [890, edit. Casaub.] The
disposition of the ships, which were drawn upon dry land, and the posts
of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly described by Homer. See Iliad,
ix. 220.]

[Footnote 21: Zosim. l. ii. [c. 30,] p. 105. Sozomen, l. ii. c. 3.
Theophanes, p. 18. Nicephorus Callistus, l. vii. p. 48. Zonaras,
tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 6. Zosimus places the new city between Ilium and
Alexandria, but this apparent difference may be reconciled by the large
extent of its circumference. Before the foundation of Constantinople,
Thessalonica is mentioned by Cedrenus, (p. 283,) and Sardica by Zonaras,
as the intended capital. They both suppose with ver