iVOTES, BOOA' l'ZZ, IO. 271
;q TfT;X?K€Y inbs ozh, viz. that part of Itdy which is bounded
or enclosed at its narrowest point by the two gulfs. The reason
(d+r yhp TO) is imperfectly expressed : ' You may call this the
boundary because the distance is so small between the two gulfs.'
It is in fact about 20 miles.
It has been asked, 'What does Aristotle purpose in this
digression ?' There is a fallacy in requiring that every part of an
ancient work should have a distinct purpose. Aristotle, like
.\eschylus, Herodotus, Thucydides, ' breaks out ' into the favocrite
subject of geography, and his conceptions of it, as might be ex-
pected in the beginning of such studies, are not perfectly accurate
or distinct.
It is evident that common meals played a great part in the
political organisation of Hellas and the south of Italy. But,
according to Susemihl, no other writer mentions their existence in
Italy.
%$TW is the reading of most RISS., U+TT~ of two only. The 10.5.
11SS. of the old translator appear all to give gwiern. Spru is
conjectured by Heyne, vho compares Arist. Fragm. nUXlTEk1 542,ds rpu#+ ;[iKfbhUV D;X fuuov Bupapirirv, Athen. xii. 523 C. Hence
Goettling's conjecture Xrpiris the district of Siris. Of any district
of Italy called Syrtes or Syrtis there is no mention elsewhere.Kai oi rjv .Spiv 61 KarorKoGvrfs ,. , 6s $rpi Tipaios mi '~prmorAqs,
4 p& 01% riv UUUUlTiwV TdglS c'urri$rv y;yovf VpGTOU, 6 8; XOPLUpbs 6 10. 6.
rorh yivos 70; d.rrrKoij nhjOovs ;[ ~iy;nrov* xoXi yhp hrprcivtr TO^is translated in the English text: 'From this part of the world
originally came the institution of common tables ; the separation
into castes [which was much older] from Egypt, for the reign of
hostris is of far greater antiquity than that of Minos.'
It is also possible to supply the ellipse differently : ' The sepa-
ration into castes came [not from Italy or Crete, but] from Egypt.'
The sentence is then parallel with the other statements. Com-
mon tables existed in Crete and in Italy: the latter were the older,
and therefore are called 'the origin of the institution' ($8 2, 4) ;
similarly, caste existed in Crete and in Egypt; in the latter
XPdVOLS TjV ?YI~ flaUlhhV $ x€UhUTplOS,