Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/490

 458 HISTOKY OF OREECE. boldness even more than Phoktean, sailed through the Pillai's of Herakles and from thence northward along the coast of Spain, Gaul, Britain, Germany — perhaps yet farther. Probably no Greek except a Massaliot could have accomplished such a voy- age ; which in his case deserves the greater sympathy, as there was no other reward for the difficulties and dangers braved, ex- cept the gratification of an intelligent curiosity. It seems plain that the publication of his " Survey of the Earth" — much con- sulted by Eratosthenes, though the criticisms which have reached us through Polybius and Strabo dwell chiefly upon its mistakes, real or supposed — made an epoch in ancient geographical knowl- edge. From the western wing of the Hellenic world, we pass to the eastern — the Euxine Sea. Of the Pentapolis on its western coast south of the Danube (Apollonia, JMesembria, Kallatis, Odessus, and probably Istrus) — and of Tyras near the mouth of the river so called (now Dniester) — we have little to record , though Istrus and Apollonia were among the towns whose politi- cal constitutions Aristotle thought worthy of his examination.^ But lierakleia on the south coast, and Pantikapagum or Bos- porus between the Euxine and the Palus Mteotis (now Sea of Azof,) are not thus unknown to history ; nor can Sinope (on the .south coast) and Olbia (on the north-west) be altogether passed over. Though lying apart from the political headship of Athens or Sparta, all these cities were legitimate members of the Hellenic brotherhood. All supplied spectators and competitors for the main follows. Even by those wjio judge liim most scvcrelj, Pytheas is ad- mitted to have been a good mathematician and astronomer CStrabo, iv. p. 201) — and to liave travelled extensively in person. Like Herodotus, ho must have been forced to report a great deal on liearsay ; and all that he could do was to report the best hearsay information which readied him. It is evident that his writings made an epoch in geographical inquiries ; though they doubtless contained numerous inaccuracies. See a fair estimate o'' . Pylheas in Mannert, Geog. der Gr. und Riimer, Introd. i. p. 73-86. The Massaliotic Codex of Homer, possessed and consulted among others by the Alexandrine critics, affords presumption that the celebrity of Massa- Ha as a place of Grecian literature and study (in which character it compel ed with Athens towards the commencement of the IJoman empire) had 'ta foundations laid at least in the third century before the Christian era. ' Aristotle, Tolitic. v. 2. 11 ; v. 5, 2.