Marinus, however, fixes it
either in thirty-five degrees south, or under the tropic of Capricorn. He
was led into this and similar errors by assigning too great a number of
stadia to the degree. Ptolemy endeavours to correct him, and places Prasum
in latitude 15, 30 south; it is remarkable that the Prasum of Ptolemy is
precisely at Mosambique, the last of the Arabian settlements in the
following ages, and the Prasum of Marinus, if under the tropic of
Capricorn, is the limit of the knowledge of the Arabians on this coast of
Africa.
Marinus, as quoted by Ptolemy, affirms that he was in possession of the
journals of two expeditions under the command of Septimus Flaccus and
Julius Maternus: the former of these officers set off from Cyrene, and the
latter from Leptis; and, according to Marinus, they penetrated through the
interior of Africa to the southward of the Equator, as far as a nation they
styled Agesymba. The error of Marinus with respect to the valuation of the
stadium, has led him to fix this nation in twenty-four degrees south
latitude; if allowance, however, be made for his error, the Agesymba will
still be placed under the Equator,--a great distance for a land expedition
to have readied in the interior of Africa. Flaccus reported that the
Ethiopians of Agesymba, were three months journeying to the south of the
Garamantes, and the latter were 5400 of the stadia of Marinus, distant from
Cyrene.
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