Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/607

 S T K S T R 583 zodiac, the tropics, and the arctic circles ; he assumes the earth's circumference as given by Eratosthenes, 252,000 stades ( = 25,200 geographical miles), and his division of the great circle into sixtieth parts; the habitable world, the geographer's proper province, shaped like a chlamys, occupies a quadrilateral space in the northern hemi- sphere, filling little more than one-third of the north temperate zone ; its maximum length is 70,000 stades, its breadth less than 30,000 stades. Whilst correcting the error by which his predecessors placed Massilia and Byzantium in the same latitude, he falls into an equal mistake by placing the former city two degrees south, instead of two degrees north of Byzantium. As Massilia is his cardinal point for measurements, this error distorts his whole map of the Mediterranean and western Europe, the mouths of the Rhine and Danube being in the same latitude. He next gives directions for making a plane map of the world, as a globe of sufficient size, like that of Crates, is too cumbrous. All lines that are circles on a globe must be straight lines on the map. Before describing each country in detail, he gives a general sketch of the habitable world with reference to seas, continents, and peoples, and explains the doctrine of climate and of the shadows projected by objects in consequence of the sun's varying position with respect to them. In the third book, starting from the Straits, he begins his description with Iberia, which he likens in shape to a bull's hide. His chief authorities were Artemidorus, whom he uses for the coasts of the Mediterranean and ocean generally, Eratosthenes, Posidonius, Polybius, Pherecydes, Timosthenes, Asclepiades, Myrleanus, and Dicrearchus. He gives a valuable account of the Roman administrative system, probably gained from his own inquiries, also of the native tribes, of the mines and methods of mining, and of the remains of the Greek and Phoenician settle- ments ; he describes the Balearic Isles, following Artemidorus, and at the end of the book mentions the Cassiterides, which he seems to have identified with the Scilly Isles, probably erroneously, and describes their inhabitants as wearing long black garments, and walking about with long wands in their hands, looking like the Furies of tragedy. It is remarkable that he has no notion of the proximity of the Tin Islands to Britain, but treats them in connexion with Spain. The fourth book deals with Gaul in its fourfold division under Augustus, gives a meagre account of Britain, its trade and relations with Rome, and mentions Ireland, the natives of which were said to be cannibals and to hold their women in common, and finally treats of the Alps. His authorities were Posidonius, who had travelled iu Gaul and Britain, Artemidorus, Ephorus, Timagenes, Aristotle, Polybius, Asinius Pollio, and Caesar. For Britain Pytheas, as quoted by others, furnished some important details. His description of Gallia Narbonensis is fuller than that of the rest of Gaul. He mentions the four great Roman roads converging at Lyons, prob- ably following the chorography of Agrippa. He conceives the Pyrenees as running north and south, and parallel to the Rhine, and Britain as lying north of Gaul, extending from the Pyrenees to the Rhine's mouths. Of the Alpine region he gives an excellent description. He undoubtedly must have gathered much informa- tion for this book at Rome. The fifth and sixth books contain an accurate description of Italy and the adjacent islands. Besides his own observation he used Eratosthenes, Polybius, Artemidorus, Ephorus, Fabius Pictor, Coalius, Antiochus of Syracuse for south- ern Italy, and the "chorographer," who was certainly a Roman, as he gave his distances in miles, and who probably was Agrippa, the chief objection to such an authorship being the wrong assump- tion that Strabo was not in Italy after 24 B.C., whilst Agrippa's work was not published until after his death 12 B.C. The sixth book ends with a short but valuable sketch of the extent and con- dition of the Roman empire. The seventh comprises northern and eastern Europe, both north and south of the Danube, Illyricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, the coast of Thrace and the Euxiue, and Epirus. The part which dealt with Macedonia and Thrace is only known to us from the epitomes. "We do not know his authorities for the German tribes, but he probably used Roman materials. For the other northern tribes he had Posidonius, whilst for the region south of the Danube he had Aristotle's lost work on Politics, Polybius, Posidonius, Thcopompus, and Ephorus. The eighth, ninth, and tenth books contain his description of the mainland of Greece and the islands, which he treats rather as an antiquarian than a geographer, using chiefly, besides Homer, Apollodorus. Demetrius of Scepsis, Ephorus, and Endoxus. Personally he had but little knowledge. With the eleventh begins Asia. Divided from Europe by the Don, it is split up into two large masses by the Taurus. Beginning with the region bounded by the Taurus, Caspian, and Euxine, he next describes the part east of the Caspian, then those south of the Caucasus, Media, and Armenia. His authorities are Artemidorus, Eratosthenes, Theophanes, Herodotus, Apollodorus of Artemita, Patrocles, Metrodorus of Scepsis, Hypsicrates of Amisus, Posidonius, and Aristobulus. In the twelfth he describes Asia Minor, basing his description on oral information, personal observation, and the Greek writers. In the thirteenth he continues with Asia Minor, devoting much space to the Troad, his sources being Demetrius, Menecrates, and the Greek mythographers. With the fourteenth he ends Asia Minor and the islands lying off it, using, in addition to the authorities for the last, Pherecydes, Thucydides, Anaximenes of Lampsacus, Herodotus, Ephorus, Artemidorus, Eratosthenes, and Posidonius. The fifteenth deals with India and Persia, giving much valuable information from Patrocles, Aristobulus, Nearchus, the historians of the campaigns of Alexander and Seleucus, and with reserve from Megasthenes, Onesicritus, Deimachus, and Clitarchus. In the sixteentla he treats of Assyria, under which he includes Babylonia and Mesopotamia, Syria,' Phoenicia, Palestine, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the coast of Ethiopia, and Arabia. For Asia he used the historians of Alexander, Eratosthenes and Herodotus ; for Judtea and Syria probably Posidouius, himself a native of Apamea; for Arabia and the coast of Libya Eratosthenes and Artemidorus, the latter of whom followed Agatharchides of Cnidus. Strabo must have got many details about Arabia from jElius Gallus and the Stoic Athenodorus. The last book comprises Egypt, Ethiopia, and the north coast of Libya. He describes Egypt from his own observation, having gained much information at Alexandria in addition to that of Eudoxus, Aristo, Eratosthenes, Polybius, and Posidonius, using the last three with the addition of Iphicrates for Libya, and for Ethiopia Petronius, Herodotus, and Agatharchides. Though probably acquainted with the work of Juba, he did not make much use of it. The book concludes with a summary of the provinces of the Roman empire, as organized by Augustus into senatorial and imperial. EDITIONS. Aldus, Venice, 1516; Hopper and Heresbach, Basel, 1549; Xylander, Basel, 1571 ; Casaubon, Geneva, 1587, Paris, 1620 (Casaubon revised the text) ; Almeloveen, Amsterdam, 1707, reprinted Casaubon's text ; Falconer, Oxford, 1807, reprinted Almeloveen's text; Siebenkees and Tzschucke, Leipslc, 1811; Koray, Pans, 1815-18, the first really critical edition; Kramer, Berlin, 1844-52; C. Miiller, Paris, 1853 : Meineke, Leipsic, 1877. TRANSLATIONS. Latin : Guarini and Gregorio, 1471 ; Xylander, 1571. French : Koray and Letronne, 1805-19. German : Groskurd, 1833 (with dissertations). Italian : Ambrosoli, 1828. DIS- SERTATIONS, <fcc. Bunbury, Ancient Geography ; Heeren ; Hasenmuller ; Niese, Hermes, 1878. (W. RI.) STKADELLA, ALESSANDRO, composer, singer, and performer on various instruments, was one of the most accomplished Italian musicians of the 17th century. The generally accepted statement that he was born at Naples about 1645 rests upon no trustworthy founda- tion ; and the few biographical notices that we possess savour so strongly of romance that we can only be said to know him truly through his works, which show extra- ordinary genius, and have exercised a highly beneficial influence upon Italian art. The story of his life was first circumstantially narrated in Bonnet-Bourdelot's Histoire de la Musique et de ses JE/ets (Paris, 1715). According to this account, Stradella not only produced some successful operas at Venice, but also attained so great a reputation by the beauty of his voice that a Venetian nobleman engaged him to instruct his mistress, Ortensia, in singing. Stradella, the narrative goes on to say, shamefully betrayed his trust, and eloped with Ortensia to Home, whither the outraged Venetian sent two paid bravi to put him to death. On their arrival in Rome the assassins learned that Stradella had just completed a new oratorio, over the performance of which he was to preside on the following day at S. Giovanni in Laterano. Taking advantage of this circumstance, they determined to kill him as he left the church ; but the beauty of the music affected them so deeply that their hearts failed them at the critical moment, and, confessing their treachery, they entreated the composer to ensure his safety by quitting Rome immediately. Thereupon Stradella fled with Orten- sia to Turin, where, notwithstanding the favour shown to him by the regent of Savoy, he was attacked one night by another band of assassins, who, headed by Ortensia's father, left him on the ramparts for dead. Through the connivance of the French ambassador the ruffians suc- ceeded in making their escape; and in the meantime Stradella, recovering from his wounds, married Ortensia, by consent of the regent, and removed with her to Genoa. Here he believed himself safe ; but a year later he and Ortensia were murdered in their house by a third party of assassins in the pay of the implacable Venetian. Bonnet-Bourdelot gives 1670 as the date at which the assassina- tion actually took place; but the oratorio San .Giovanni Batata, assumed to be that which saved its author's life, is dated Roma,