Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. 3 · Royal Society
_SIR,_
7. Justly to determine which the _Portus Icius_ was I find no where sufficient grounds; only _Ptolemy_ calls the Promontory of _Calais-Cliffs_ by the name of Ἴκιον ἄκρον, whence there is reason to conjecture, that the _Portus Icius_ was very near thereto, and that it was either _Ambletuse_ on one side, or _Calais_ on the other. The same _Ptolemy_ places Γισοῤῥίακον ἐπίνειον in the same Latitude with the ἴκιον ἄκρον, but something more to the East, which seems to refute those that have supposed the Ancient Port of _Gessoriacum_ to have been _Boulogne_, whereas by _Ptolemy_'s position, it must be either _Dunkirk_ or _Graveling_, but the former most likely, both by the distance from the Ἴκιον ἄκρον, being about 20 Miles or half a degree of Longitude to the East, or ⅔ of the whole Coast of _Flanders_, which he makes but a degree and quarter from the _Acron Icion_ to the mouth of the _Scheld_ which he calls _Ostia Tabudæ_: As also for that _Pliny_ l. 4. c. 16. speaking of _Gessoriacum_, says the _Proximus Trajectus_ into _Britain_ from thence is 50 Miles, which is too much unless _Gessoriacum_ were something more Easterly than _Calais_. _Dion Cassius_ makes the distance between _France_ and _Britain_ 450 _stadia_ or 56 Miles, and says likewise 'tis the nearest, τὸ Συντομώτατον. But this is in part amended by the explication given in the _Itinerary_ of _Antoninus_, where the space between _Gessacorum_ and _Rutupium_ is said to be 450 _stadia_ (for this was the ordinary passage of the _Romans_ into _Britain_,) _Rutupium_ being more Northerly and _Gessoriacum_ more Easterly than the _termini_ of _Cæsars_ Voyage, and consequently the distance greater than 30 Miles which _Cæsar_ had observ'd; and now lately an accurate Survey has proved the distance between Land and Land to be 26 _English Miles_ or 28½ _Roman Miles_, which shews how near _Cæsars_ estimate was to the Truth.
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