CHAPTER II. 1. Sicily is triangular in form, and on this account was at first called Trinacria, but afterwards the name was softened and it was changed into Thrinacia.[2216] Three low headlands bound the figure: Pelorias is the name of that towards Cænys and the Columna Rheginorum which forms the strait; Pachynus[2217] is that which stretches towards the east, and is washed by the Sea of Sicily, looking towards the Peloponnesus and in the direction of the passage to Crete; the third is Lilybæum,[2218] and is next to Africa, looking towards that region and the setting of the sun in winter.[2219] Of the sides which these three headlands bound, two are somewhat concave, while the third is slightly convex, it runs from Lilybæum to Pelorias, and is the longest, being, as Posidonius has said, 1700 stadia adding further twenty. Of the others, that extending to Pachynus from Lilybæum is the longer, while the shortest faces the Strait and Italy, extending from Pelorias to Pachynus, being about 1120 or 1130 stadia. Posidonius shows that the circumference is 4400 stadia, but in the Chorography the distances are declared to exceed the above numbers, being severally reckoned in miles. Thus from Cape Pelorias to Mylæ,[2220] 25 miles; from Mylæ to Tyndaris,[2221] 25; thence to Agathyrnum,[2222] 30; from Agathyrnum to Alæsa,[2223] 30; from Alæsa to Cephalœdium,[2224] 30; these are but insignificant places; from Cephalœdium to the river Himera,[2225] which runs through the midst of Sicily, 18; from thence to Panormus,[2226] 35; [thence] to the Emporium[2227] of the Ægestani, 32; leaving to Lilybæum[2228] a distance of 38; thence having doubled the Cape and coasting the adjacent side to Heracleum,[2229] 75; and to the Emporium[2230] of the Agrigentini, 20; and to[2231] [CAS. 266] Camarina,[2232] another 20; then to Pachynus, 50; thence again along the third side to Syracuse, 36;[2233] from Syracuse to Catana, 60; then to Tauromenium,[2234] 33; thence to Messana, 30.[2235] Thus on foot[2236] from Pachynus to Pelorias we have 168 [miles], and from Messana[2237] to [Cape] Lilybæum, on the Via Valeria,[2238] we have 235[2239] [miles]. Some have estimated the circuit in a more simple way, as Ephorus, who says that the compass of the island by sea takes five days and nights. Posidonius attempts to determine the situation of the island by climata,[2240] and places Pelorias to the north, Lilybæum to the south, and Pachynus to the east. We however consider that of necessity all climata are set out in the manner of a parallelogram, but that districts portrayed as triangles, and especially such triangles as are scalene,[2241] and whereof no one side lies parallel to a side of the parallelogram, cannot in any way be assimilated to climata on account of their obliquity. However, we must allow, that in treating of Sicily, Pelorias, which lies to the south of Italy, may well be called the most northern of the three angles, so that