Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/137

 678 EUBOPA. corner of A&ica (^Od. ir. 351). The geography of the ancieQis, like their physical science, was founded leas upon observation, than upon fiindful cosmo- gonical oorrespondences. They imagined that the earth .was divided into oertaui similar parts, of which those of the northern hemisphere answered generally to those of the southern: that, for example, as the Nile flowed in a northerly direction, so the Ister flowed south; and that the globe was encom- passed by certain zones or belts of which two were uninhabitable from cold, and one from heat. Nor were these theories the only obstructions to more accurate acquaintance with the extent and configu- ration of the earth. The most adventurous navi* gators, the Phoenicians, both of Tyre and Carthage, jealously concealed the course of their voyages as commercial secrets: the Greeks who settled on. the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black seas rarely penetrated far into the interior: the conquests of Alexander, which disclosed so much of Asia, scarcely affected Europe: and the best informed of the ancient writers on geography — ^those of Alexandria — had few, if any, means of ascertaining what regions extended beyond the Carpathian mountains, on the one hand, or the Persian gulf, on the other. The Romans were properly the first surveyors of Europe: yet their knowledge did not extend beyond Jutland, or the western bimk of the Vistula. But within those limits, public roads issuing from the forum traversed every province of the emigre; colonial towns superseded the rude hamlets of the Gauls and Iberians ; and Italian merchants per- vaded every district from Teviotdale to the Lily- baean prom<nitory, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the mouths of the Danube. Yet even the Romans were timid navigators: they were content to import amber from the coasts of the Baltic, but never explored the gulfs and bays of that sea itself. They but imperfectly surveyed the shores of Spain and Gaul, preferred long journeys by land to compendious sea- voyages, and to the last regarded the western ocean with a kind of superstitious awe. (Flor. ii. 17. § 192.) Europe, then, as it was known to the ancients, does not correspond with the modem continent either as respects its boundaries, its divisions, its }^ysical aspect, or its population. We shall ex- amine these points in succession, but must inquire first into the origin of the name itself. I. Name. — The earliest mention of Europe by Greek writers, as a division of the globe, occurs in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (w. 250, 251. and 290, 291), whero it is distinguished from Peloponnesus and the Greek islands. Aeschylus (/Vo^Tn. 177) alludes to a threefold partition of the earth, and mentions the river Phasis, in the region of Mount Caucasus, as the boundary between Asia and Europe, and the Columns of Hercules, at the opposite extremity of the continent, as its boundary on the side of Libya. Libya and Europe, indeed, are sometimes represented as one continent (Agathem. Geograph. ii. 2 ; Sail. B, Jug, 17; Lucan, ix. 411). Respecting the origin of the name Europa various hypotheses have been started. (1). The vulgar opinion, sanctioned by the mythologers, was, that our con- tinent derived its appellation from Europa, "the broad-browed" daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor. But such an etymology satbfied neither geographers generally, nor Herodotus in particular, who indeed wonders (i^< 4^) ^o^ i^ should have come to pass that the thiiee main divisions of the EUROPA. otrth took their names finim three females icspee- tivefy — ^AsJa, Libya, and Enropa. The connection of Europe with Phoenicia ia obvious: Tjrian and Sidonian marinere were the eaiiiest explorers of XhM bays and coast of the Mediterranean, and amoQ^ the first cdonisers of its principal islands and its western shores. Th^ were the first also who passed through the Columns of Hercales, sorvvjed the coasts of Spain and Gaul, and entered tlie German Ocean and perhaps the Baltic sea. And the name Europa bears a close resemblance to tbe Semitic word (Mb — the land of sunset. (Bocliart, Phahg, 34.) Such an appellation the Phoeniaaia of Asia might justly give to the regions wesitward of the Aegean, even as the Italian navigatofs, in the middle ages, looking from the opposite quarter, denominated the eastern extremi^ of the Mediter- ranean the Levant, or the region of sunrise. (2)u Agathemems {Gtograph, L 1. p. S) says that Earns, the SE. wind, is the root of Europe: and Heyd (f <sf- moL Ferwch. p. 33) derives the name firwn e^p^ and iwioy a Scythian word denoting, as he says, the earth or land generally. Perhaps, however, the most satasfectory explanation of the term is that of Hermann (ad Horn. Hymn, 2. c); at least, it is less vague than any of Uie feregoing. The poet a speaking of the inhabitants of Peloponnesns and the isUmds, and Europe; of the latter, as distinct apparently from the fonner twa The Homerid bard was most probably a Greek of Asia Minoc; Now, within a few hours* sail from the Aaatic nudn- hind, and within sight of the islands of Tfaasos and Samothracia, stretched the long and deeply embayed ; line of the Thradan shore — an extent of coast &r | exceeding that of any of tJie Grsdc islands, or even of Peloponnesus itself. Europe, then, as Hermann sug- gests, is the Broad Land (fhplfs &^ as distinguished, from the A^ean islands and the pminsula of Peli^ It is remarkable too that, under the Byzantine empire, one among tiie six dioceses of Thrace was called Enropa, as if a vestige of the original de^ signation still lingered on the spot. It may here be noticed that in mythical genealogy Europa is the wife of Zeus, while Asia is the sister or wife of Prometheus: and thus apparently the line of Zens and the Olympian divinities is connected with our continent; and the line of Prometheus, Epimetliens, Atlas, &C., or the Titanic powers, with Asia and Libya. II. Boundaries. -» These have varied considenibly at different epochs. We have already seen that Europe and Libya were at one time regarded as the same continent The gradual discovery and dis- tinction of Europe on charts, and in the language of the learned or the vulgar, arose from two opposite impulses of mankind — commerce and conquest. In the former the Phoenicians took the lead, in the latter the Greeks; but both of these nations yieki to the Rinnans as discoverers of Europe, inasmuch as they explored the inland regions, while the Greeks and Phoenicians, unless attracted, as in the case of Iberia, by the mineral wealth of the interior, planted their colonies and emporia on the verge only of the Mediterranean and Atlantic We shall perhaps best understand the progress c£ discovery by a reference to the accounts of tlie earliest oosmographers, among whom must be in- cluded Homer. (Strab. Proleg, 1. p. 2.) 1. About 800 B. c, then, the earth seems to have been generally regarded as an irregular ellipse, of which the northern and upper seigmont ooraprised