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Polybius [writes]: "at the same time, in regard to the sailing voyage from Libya and the passage by sea, the city was very favorably situated for the Carthaginians".[1]
And elsewhere: "for from the palisade to [the] sea [sc. the distance was] was 120 stades, but the passage by sea [was] a little more than 60. And for this reason there was obscurity and continuity of outward appearance".[2]
And elsewhere: "they [or: I] saw a vision of the sea passage spanned by a bridge[3] from Byzantium as far as Kalchedon".[4]

*di/arma: *polu/bios: a(/ma de\ pro\s to\n a)po\ *libu/hs plou=n kai\ pela/gion di/arma li/an eu)fuw=s e)/keito toi=s *karxhdoni/ois h( po/lis. kai\ au)=qis: h)=n me\n ga\r a)po\ tou= xa/rakos e)pi\ qa/lattan rk# sta/dia: to\ de\ di/arma braxu\ plei=on c#. kai\ dia\ tou=to h)=n a)dhlo/ths kai\ sune/xeia th=s e)pifa/sews. kai\ au)=qis: ei)=don o)/yin gegefurwme/nou tou= qalatti/ou dia/rmatos a)po\ tou= *buzanti/ou e(/ws *kalxhdo/nos.

[1] Polybius 10.8.2, on New Carthage (web address 1).
[2] Quotation unidentifiable. (Adler mentions Toup's attribution of the passage to Polybius, but it does not appear in the standard texts.)
[3] Or "blocked," as by a dam? See LSJ.
[4] Quotation unidentifiable. Polybius (4.39.5, web address 2) gives this distance as fourteen stades -- more than two miles -- though other authorities have a lower figure; see F.W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius, I (Oxford 1957) 489. Kalcedon (Chalcedon, Barrington Atlas map 53 grid B3) lies across the mouth of the Bosphorus approximately 5km southeast from Byzantium.

David Whitehead (modified translation and notes; augmented keywords) on 4 April 2004@07:18:58.
Catharine Roth (added link) on 22 April 2004@00:51:02.
David Whitehead (another keyword; tweaks and cosmetics) on 10 February 2011@10:37:08.
David Whitehead on 2 July 2012@04:57:17.
David Whitehead (tweaked tr; expanded n.4) on 29 October 2015@09:29:45.
Ronald Allen (Fixed broken link. Added map ref. to n.4.) on 14 February 2018@23:21:51.
Ronald Allen (Added second link) on 20 February 2018@21:46:13.

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