Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/254

, which, indeed, is of great value as a compilation of the facts then known about the different countries of the world, was not, like Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy, a scientific geographer. He neglected mathematical and astronomical data, and, instead of following Hipparchus's method of projection, of which he knew, he expressly says that he describes the world as if it were spread out as a vast plain. Indeed, there is some reason to think that Strabo did not even prepare a map to accompany his work. From his descriptions, however, a map may be made, as was done by both D'Anville and Gosselin, and we find that it does not differ greatly from that of Eratosthenes. Almost the only improvements are in a better outline of the coasts of Iberia and Gaul, in a' truer longitude for the Sicilian Straits, and in a correct distance from these straits to Rhodes. On the other hand, Strabo loses sight of Thule, says that Africa is not circumnavigable, and makes greater errors in latitude and longitude than his distinguished predecessor.

The leading Roman writers on geography were Pomponius Mela, who wrote a treatise in three books, and Pliny, who devoted a part of his great work on natural history to geography.

Marin of Tyre deserves a glance. Phœnicia was the great commercial nation of the earlier ages. Her mariners brought tin from Britain and spices from the far East. She certainly had opportunities to surpass all other nations in geographical work. But we should almost infer that, when Cadmus brought letters from Phœnicia to Greece, as we learned in boyhood, he left no letters there; for, with all her wealth and opportunities, Phœnicia did little for literature or science. Wholly absorbed by the commercial spirit, she forgot all else. It is the same to-day. Commerce alone has never opened any great field to science. Arab traders have known the region about the sources of the Nile for centuries, but science was never the gainer. Some disinterested spirit must enter in. Patrons of science must send out explorers, or missionary workers must give their lives to opening up the dark places of the earth. In the last days of Tyre, however, one scientific name does appear—that of Marin. He collected some valuable information in regard to the east coast of Africa, of which Ptolemy made use. He also attempted in a crude way to use the method of projection in map-making.

Lastly appears the great name of Ptolemy (middle of the second century). As the scholars of Alexandria had the honor of collecting and carefully editing all the great literary works of antiquity, preparatory to the centuries of darkness through which the world was to pass, so, under the hand of Ptolemy, was put into compact and durable form what had then been gained of geographical science. If he is the great man who makes grand use of his knowledge, then was Ptolemy greater than Hipparchus; for, what Hipparchus had thought out three centuries before him, Ptolemy now used to reëstablish—almost