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having spoken of the consummation. But the Lord also appears to allude to this, saying: "In the resurrection they are like the angels." 5.256 Therefore, as many of you as are Christians and lay hold of this hope and have the Master Christ as a model and type, when you read this book, pray for me, the sinner, that the Lord of all may not overlook me, but, having had mercy, may count me with you among those on His right hand, overlooking our transgressions, and that I may not fail to obtain this ineffable blessedness, through your prayers and supplications, and by the compassion and love for mankind and grace of our Savior of all, Christ, with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever. Amen. 5.257 Good God, compassionate, long-suffering and most merciful, have mercy on me your unworthy servant and do not condemn me for my sins, for you care for all and know the secrets of each one's thoughts, because through my longing for you and at the request of your mercies, I have not hidden the compassion and goodness and mercies that you have delivered to me, for the benefit of the readers from your teachers whom you have granted me by the providence of our Savior Christ forever. Amen. CHRISTIAN TOPOGRAPHY OF A CHRISTIAN, EMBRACING THE WHOLE WORLD 6.t Concerning the size of the sun BOOK II 6.1 Some people, after the book had been completed, raised arguments with us concerning the shape of the world, saying: How is it possible for the sun to be hidden, according to you, under the northern parts of the earth, which are high and exceed its size by many measures? For in the case of the sphere we speak of, however much greater the sun is than the earth, it will certainly cast a shadow on the other side of the earth. To whom we have most briefly said that such a thing is false and a fabrication, having demonstrated first from the very climates acknowledged by them that it has different shadows, and then also from what we have seen with our own eyes in the regions of Axum in Ethiopia. 6.2 For at the beginning of the summer solstice on the twenty-fifth of the month of Payni, at the sixth hour of the day, when the sun was already about at mid-heaven, we clearly saw that a man's shadow inclines to the south. And I myself, having made an observation here in Alexandria at that same time, I mean on the twenty-fifth of Payni and until the thirtieth, at the sixth hour of the day, standing under the sun, showed the shadow inclining to the northern parts by one foot only. And according to them, Alexandria is the third climate. 6.3 And there was found here the most pious in all things Abba Stephen, the presbyter of Antioch, a most Christian and true man among the perfect, and well-versed in the calculation of the moon according to the very model which we have proposed according to the divine Scripture, and able to predict with ease both solar and lunar eclipses, if he wished to occupy himself with this. Wherefore, being asked in the month of Thoth of the present tenth indiction by a knowledgeable man, Anastasius by name, a learned engineer and experienced beyond many, to predict an eclipse of the sun, he said that it would happen at that time on the twelfth of the month of Mecheir, and a lunar one on the twenty-fourth of Mesore again at the same time. And being amazed, he again asked him about past eclipses; and when he again stated them, the man was amazed. And there were also present certain other engineers and our friends, in whose presence these things were said. 6.4 This God-loving man, therefore, having experience and a desire for such things, having been in both Antioch and Constantinople and having spent many years there, said that he himself had measured the shadows in both places; and he affirmed that in Antioch the shadow was one and a half feet at that same time, but in Byzantium two feet. Now Antioch is of the climate that is through Rhodes, I mean the fourth, and Byzantium is a little beyond the fifth. 6.5 For thus they divide the climates: the first climate they say is that of Meroë, the second that of Syene, the third that of

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συντελείας εἰπών. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ Κύριος φαίνεται αἰνιττόμενος περὶ τούτου καὶ λέγων· "Ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει ἰσάγγελοί εἰσιν". 5.256 Ὅσοι τοίνυν χριστιανοὶ ὑπάρχετε καὶ ταύτης τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀντιλαμβάνεσθε καὶ δεῖγμα καὶ τύπον ἔχετε τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστόν, ἀναγινώσκοντες τὴν βίβλον εὔξασθε ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ὅπως ὁ πάντων Κύριος μή με ὑπερίδῃ, ἀλλ' ἐλεήσας συναρίθμιόν με ποιήσῃ μεθ' ὑμῶν σὺν τοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν, παρορῶν τὰ ἡμέτερα πλημμελήματα, καὶ μὴ ἀποτύχω ταύτης τῆς μακαριότητος τῆς ἀνεκλαλήτου, εὐχαῖς καὶ δεήσεσιν ὑμετέραις, εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ δὲ καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ καὶ χάριτι τοῦ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ, μεθ' οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ δόξα σὺν τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ πάντοτε καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. 5.257 Θεὲ ἀγαθέ, εὔσπλαγχνε, μακρόθυμε καὶ πολυέλεε, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἀνάξιον δοῦλόν σου καὶ μή με κατακρίνῃς ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις μου, ὅτι σοι μέλει περὶ πάντων καὶ ἐπίστασαι ἑκάστου τὰ κρυπτὰ τῶν διανοιῶν, ὅτι πόθῳ τῷ εἰς σὲ καὶ τῶν σῶν οἰκτιρμῶν αἰτηθεὶς οὐκ ἀπέκρυψα τὴν παραδεδομένην μοί σου εὐσπλαγχνίαν καὶ ἀγαθότητα καὶ οἰκτιρμοὺς πρὸς ὠφελίαν τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων ἐκ τῶν σῶν ὧν ἐχαρίσω μοι διδασκάλων προνοίᾳ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗ ΤΟΠΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ ΠΕΡΙΕΚΤΙΚΗ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΚΟΣΜΟΥ 6.τ Περὶ μεγέθους ἡλίου ΛΟΓΟΣ ʹ 6.1 Τινὲς μετὰ τὸ πέρας εἰληφέναι τὴν βίβλον ἐκίνησαν λόγους πρὸς ἡμᾶς περὶ τοῦ σχήματος τοῦ κόσμου λέγοντες· Πῶς δυνατὸν κρύπτεσθαι τὸν ἥλιον καθ' ὑμᾶς ὑπὸ τὰ βόρεια μέρη τῆς γῆς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πολλοῖς τοῖς μέτροις ὑπερέχοντα τὸ μέγεθος αὐτῆς; Ἐπὶ τῆς γὰρ λεγομένης παρ' ἡμῶν σφαίρας, ὅσῳ δήποτε μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ ἥλιος τῆς γῆς, πάντως ποιήσει σκιὰν κατὰ τὸ ἕτερον μέρος τῆς γῆς. Πρὸς οὓς συντομώτατα εἰρήκαμεν ψευδὲς εἶναι καὶ πλάσμα τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἀποδείξαντες πρῶτον ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ὡμολογημένων κλιμάτων ὡς διαφόρους ἔχει σκιάς, ἔπειτα καὶ ἐξ ὧν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν ἐθεασάμεθα ἐπὶ τὰ μέρη Ἀξώμεως ἐν τῇ Αἰθιοπίᾳ. 6.2 Ἐν τῇ γὰρ ἀρχῇ τῆς θερινῆς τροπῆς κατὰ τὴν εἰκοστὴν πέμπτην τοῦ Παϋνὶ μηνός, ὥραν ἕκτην τῆς ἡμέρας, ὄντος ἤδη περὶ τὸ μεσουράνημα τοῦ ἡλίου, σαφῶς εἴδομεν ὡς ὅτι ἡ σκιὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐπὶ τὸν νότον κλίνει. Λαβὼν δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῇ Ἀλεξανδρέων ἐνταῦθα κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρόν, λέγω δὴ Παϋνὶ εἰκοστῇ πέμπτῃ καὶ ἕως τριακάδος, ὥραν ἕκτην τῆς ἡμέρας, σταθέντες ὑποκάτω τοῦ ἡλίου, ἔδειξα τὴν σκιὰν ἐπὶ τὰ βόρεια μέρη πόδα ἕνα κλίνουσαν καὶ μόνον. Καὶ ἔστι κατ' αὐτοὺς ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια τρίτον κλίμα. 6.3 Εὑρεθεὶς δὲ ἐνταῦθα ὁ τὰ πάντα θεοσεβέστατος ἀββᾶς Στέφανος, ὁ κατὰ Ἀντιόχειαν πρεσβύτερος, χριστιανικώτατος τῶν τελείων καὶ ἀληθινὸς ὑπάρχων, ἠσκημένος δὲ ἀκριβῶς καὶ τὴν ψῆφον τῆς σελήνης κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα μέντοι καὶ αὐτὸς ὃ ὑπεθέμεθα κατὰ τὴν θείαν Γραφήν, δυνάμενός τε προλέγειν εὐχερῶς καὶ ἐκλείψεις ἡλιακὰς καὶ σεληνιακάς, εἰ βουληθείη περὶ τοῦτο ἀσχολεῖσθαι. Ὅθεν ἀπαιτηθεὶς τῷ Θὼθ μηνὶ τῆς παρούσης δεκάτης ἰνδικτιῶνος παρὰ ἀνδρὸς ἐπιστήμονος, Ἀναστασίου τοὔνομα, μηχανικοῦ ἀνδρὸς λογίου καὶ ὑπὲρ πολλοὺς ἐμπείρου, προειπεῖν ἔκλειψιν ἡλίου, ἔφη γενέσθαι ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ κατὰ τὴν δωδεκάτην τοῦ Μεχεὶρ μηνὸς καὶ σεληνιακὴν Μεσορὴ εἰκοστῇ τετάρτῃ πάλιν τῷ αὐτῷ καιρῷ. Καὶ θαυμάσας πάλιν παρ' αὐτοῦ ἀπῄτησε προγεγονυίας ἐκλείψεις· καὶ ταύτας πάλιν ἐξειπών, ἐθαύμασεν ὁ ἀνήρ. Παρῆσαν δὲ καὶ ἕτεροί τινες μηχανικοὶ καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων φίλων, ἐφ' ὧν ταῦτα ἐλαλήθησαν. 6.4 Αὐτὸς οὖν ὁ θεοφιλὴς ἀνὴρ πεῖραν καὶ πόθον ἔχων περὶ τῶν τοιούτων, ἔν τε τῇ Ἀντιοχέων καὶ ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει παραγεγονὼς καὶ πολλὰ ἔτη διατρίψας, ἔλεγε καὶ αὐτὸς μεμετρηκέναι καὶ ἐν ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς τόποις τὰς σκιάς· καὶ ἐν μὲν τῇ Ἀντιοχείᾳ πόδα ἕνα ἥμισυ ἔχειν τὴν σκιὰν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ διεβεβαιοῦτο, ἐν δὲ τῷ Βυζαντίῳ πόδας δύο. Ἔστι δὲ Ἀντιόχεια τοῦ κλίματος τοῦ διὰ Ῥόδου, λέγω δὴτοῦ τετάρτου, τὸ δὲ Βυζάντιον τοῦ πέμπτου ἐπέκεινα μικρόν. 6.5 Οὕτω γὰρ διαιροῦσι τὰ κλίματα· πρῶτον κλίμα τὸ κατὰ Μερόην φασί, δεύτερον τὸ κατὰ Συήνην, τρίτον τὸ