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TRAVEL UNDER FAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES, BY SEA

STARTING	DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TIME
From Ostia to	Africa	270 miles	2 days
Ostia	Gibraltar	935 miles	7 days
Ostia	Spain (northern)	510 miles	4 days
Ostia	Marseille	380 miles	3 days
Messina (Sicily)	Alexandria	830 miles	6, 7 days
Puteoli	Alexandria	1000 miles	9 days
Corinth	Puteoli	670 miles	4.5 days
Rhegium	Puteoli	175 miles	1.5 days
Puteoli	Tauromenium (Sicily)	205 miles	2.5 days
Alexandria	Ephesus	475 miles	4.5 days
Carthage	Syracuse	260 miles	2.5 days
Carthage	Gibraltar	820 miles	7 days

 

Compare: Record Speeds, BY SEA, in the 16th century

STARTING	DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TIME
Genoa	Palamos, Spain	.	5 days
Messina	Palamos, Spain	.	6 days
Rhodes	Alexandria	.	3 days
Nicosia, Cyprus	Constantinople	.	14 days
Lepanto	Venice	.	11 days
Lepanto	Naples	.	17 days

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TRAVEL UNDER AVERAGE CIRCUMSTANCES, BY SEA

STARTING	DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TIME
Epidamnus (Dyrrachium)	Rome	600 miles	4.5 days
Crete	Egypt	310 miles	3, 4 days
Rhodes	Alexandria	325 miles	3.5 days
Sea of Azov	Rhodes	880 miles	9.5 days
Byzantium	Rhodes	445 miles	5 days
Byzantium	Gaza	855 miles	10 days
Thessalonike	Askalon	800 miles	12 days

 

Compare: AVERAGE CIRCUMSTANCES, BY SEA, 16th century

STARTING	DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TIME
Constantinople	Alexandria	770 miles	14 days
Hellespont	Chios	.	2 days
Messina (Sicily)	Alexandria	830 miles	9 days

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TRAVEL UNDER UNFAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES, BY SEA

STARTING	DESTINATION	DISTANCE	TIME
Askalon	Thessalonike	800 miles	13 days
Rhodes	Gaza	410 miles	7 days
Rhodes	Byzantium	445 miles	10 days
Gaza	Byzantium	855 miles	20 days
Alexandria	Marseille	1500 miles	30 days
Puteoli	Ostia	120 miles	2.5 days

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Sources
Lionel Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Princeton 1971) pp. 220 ff. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean . . . in the Time of Philip II (NY 1972) I, pp. 358 ff.

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