Strait of Messina

He shattered a political system, recognized for over a hundred years, in the interests not of the rights of man, but of French glory and French supremacy.

By his victories, France won an empire touching the Baltic beyond Hamburg and the Adriatic in Illyria, fenced about with vassal states from the Vistula to the Straits of Messina, calling to remembrance the dominions of Charlemagne.

The maps of Germany and Italy were changed out of all recognition.

The Holy Roman Empire and the states of the Church, picturesque survivals of the Middle Ages, shared the fate of Holland, the political monument of the Reformation.

Manteuffel gave way, and the old Germanic confederation was restored.

Thus at the bidding of one determined champion of reaction, the dream of a united Germany seemed to have faded away.

The old order appeared to have triumphed from the Baltic to the Straits of Messina, sentimental enthusiasm to have failed before gross material force, and the unrest of progress to have been stilled forever by the calming influence of stability.

The calm, however, was as deceptive as the sentiment which had produced the unrest.

Syracuse had consolidated the eastern part under its own sway and also most of the foot of the Italian boot.

So they'd extended their power across the Straits of Messina to southern Italy and incorporated a lot of the cities there, including Locri, the home of Dionysius' mother.

Yes, and now we have what the professor introduces as an expansionist power that threatens anybody nearby.

And they're looking to chew their way up the Italian boot if they can go forward.

The Romans come in, they take control of the Greek cities in southern Italy, Taranto, all the way down to Reggio, ancient Rhegium.

And as you say, so they're at the Strait of Messina.

They're on the right-hand side, and then Messina on the left-hand side.

So you've got two Greek cities, Messina and Reggio, Rhegium, uh, with the Carthaginians on one side and the Romans on the other.

The lessons learned during these engagements carried forward to seventeen ninety-eight when Nelson’s victory at the Nile severed Napoleon’s eastern flank completely.

The early of Mediterranean maneuvers taught British commanders that control of key chokepoints—like Gibraltar, Toulon, and the Strait of Messina—could dictate larger strategic outcomes.

Thus, the actions of seventeen ninety-five laid groundwork for Britain’s decisive naval successes in the Napoleonic Wars.

In sum, the Mediterranean in seventeen ninety-five was more than a backdrop.

Um, but they think that a lot of the stuff, like the monsters, may be, again, symbolic about, uh, s- seafaring, um, things that you had to navigate around, basically.

Like Scylla and, uh, Charybdis are the opposing currents of the Strait of Messina.

Mm-hmm.

Or the sirens are maybe the shoals along the Mediterranean-

And I want to know more, but, um, feel like they're a little out of place for the show.

I, there's some scholarly disagreements over some kind of fascinating things like, um, how intentional Homer was, uh, charting an actual route that Odysseus takes in the real world, like geographically, many like later stuff point to Thranacia as, um, like Sicily, the Island off of Italy, uh, whereas Skyla and Charybdis are supposed to be in the Strait of Messina.

And, uh, there's a lot of disagreement over how intended this route is supposed to be.

All right.

aristotle fixing its circumference at four hundred thousand stadia or forty thousand miles but eratosthenes attempted a more accurate measurement he compared the length of a shadow thrown by the sun at alexandria and at cyane near the first cataract of the nile which he assumed to be on the same meridian of longitude and to be about five thousand stadia or five hundred miles distant from the difference in length of the shadows he deduced that this distance represented one-fiftieth of the circumference of the earth which would accordingly be about two hundred and fifty thousand stadia or twenty five thousand geographical miles as the actual circumference is twenty four thousand eight hundred ninety nine english miles this was a very near approximation considering the rough means eratosthenes had at his disposal having thus estimated the size of the earth eratosthenes then went on to determine the size of that portion which the ancients considered to be habitable north and south of the lands known to him eratosthenes and all the ancients considered to be either too cold or too hot to be habitable this portion he reckoned to extend thirty eight thousand stadia or thirty eight hundred miles in reckoning the extent of the habitable portion from east to west eratosthenes came to the conclusion that from the straits of gibraltar to the east of india was about eighty thousand stadia or roughly speaking one-third of the earth's surface the remaining two-thirds were supposed to be covered by the ocean and eratosthenes prophetically remarked that if it were not that the vast extent of the atlantic sea rendered it impossible one might almost sail from the coast of spain to that of india along the same parallel sixteen hundred years later as we shall see columbus tried to carry out this idea Eratosthenes based his calculation on two fundamental lines corresponding, in a way, to our equator and meridian of Greenwich.

The first stretched, according to him, from Cape St. Vincent through the Straits of Messina and the island of Rhodes to Issus on the Gulf of Viscanderum.

For his starting line in reckoning north and south, he used a meridian passing through the first Cataract, Alexandria, Rhodes, and Byzantium.

the next two hundred years after eratosthenes death was filled up by the spread of the roman empire by the taking over by the romans of the vast possessions previously held by alexander and his successors and by the carthaginians and by their spread into gaul britain and germany much of the increased knowledge thus obtained was summed up in the geographical work of strabo who wrote in greek about twenty b c he introduced from the extra knowledge thus obtained many modifications of the system of eratosthenes, but, on the whole, kept to his general conception of the world.

A dreary, inhospitable-looking country is this, a fit birthplace for that iron heart, the first Napoleon.

We passed through the Straits of Messina by full moonlight, and never have I beheld a scene of more fairy-like beauty.

The Sicilian coast seemed, for all was vague and shadowy, to rise in gentle slopes from the dark water.

The land looked thickly wooded and well cultivated, and here and there appeared the little white towns, nestling among trees and vineyards, or perched beneath the sheltering rocks, a peaceful and beautiful paradise.