[4] The Nile, when it leaves the boundaries of Ethiopia, flows in a straight line towards the north, to the tract called the Delta, then ‘cloven at the head,’ (according to the expression of Plato,) makes this point the vertex, as it were, of a triangle, the sides of which are formed by the streams, which separate on each side, and extend to the sea, one on the right hand to Pelusium, the other on the left to Canobus and the neighbouring Heracleium, as it is called ; the base is the coast lying between Pelusium and the Heracleium. An island was therefore formed by the sea and by both streams of the river, which is called Delta from the resemblance of its shape to the letter (
[4] The Nile, when it leaves the boundaries of Ethiopia, flows in a straight line towards the north, to the tract called the Delta, then ‘cloven at the head,’ (according to the expression of Plato,) makes this point the vertex, as it were, of a triangle, the sides of which are formed by the streams, which separate on each side, and extend to the sea, one on the right hand to Pelusium, the other on the left to Canobus and the neighbouring Heracleium, as it is called ; the base is the coast lying between Pelusium and the Heracleium. An island was therefore formed by the sea and by both streams of the river, which is called Delta from the resemblance of its shape to the letter (
1 In the text ὀστράκινα
Parvula fictilibus solitum dare vela phaselis,
Et brevibus pictæ remis incumbere testæ.
”
Juv xv. 12i.
2 In the text
3 The Mediterranean.
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