Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/26

 12 STRABO. BOOK I. to Eratosthenes, were Anaximander, the disciple and fellow- citizen of Thales, and Hecatasus the Milesian. Anaximander Eratosthenes, we must first of all mention what he did for geography, which was closely connected with his mathematical pursuits. It was Eratosthenes who raised geography to the rank of a science ; for previ- ous to his time it seems to have consisted, more or less, of a mass of in- formation scattered in books of travel, descriptions of particular countries, and the like. All these treasures were accessible to Eratosthenes in the libraries of Alexandria ; and he made the most profitable use of them, by collecting the scattered materials, and uniting them into an organic system of geography, in his comprehensive work entitled Tewypa^tica, or as it is sometimes but erroneously called, ytwypa^otJ/ifj/a or yfwypa^ta. It consisted of three books, the first of which, forming a sort of Intro- duction, contained a critical review of the labours of his predecessors from the earliest to his own times, and investigations concerning the form and nature of the earth, which, according to him, was an immoveable globe, on the surface of which traces of a series of great revolutions were still visible. He conceived that in one of these revolutions the Mediter- ranean had acquired its present form ; for according to him it was at one time a large lake covering portions of the adjacent countries of Asia and Libya, until a passage was forced open by which it entered into commu- nication with the ocean in the west. The second book contained what is now called mathematical geography. His attempt to measure the magni- tude of the earth has been spoken of above. The third book contained the political geography, and gave descriptions of the various countries, derived from the works of earlier travellers and geographers. In order to be able to determine the accurate site of each place, he drew a line parallel with the equator, running from the Pillars of Hercules to the extreme east of Asia, and dividing the whole of the inhabited earth into two halves. Connected with this work was a new map of the earth, in which towns, mountains, rivers, lakes, and climates were marked accord- ing to his own improved measurements. This important work of Eratos- thenes forms an epoch in the history of ancient geography : but unfor- tunately it is lost, and all that has survived consists in fragments quoted by later geographers and historians, such as Polybius, Strabo, Marcianus, Pliny, and others, who often judge of him unfavourably, and controvert his statements ; while it can be proved that in a great many passages they adopt his opinions without mentioning his name. Marcianus charges Eratosthenes with having copied tBe substance of the work of Timos- thenes on Ports, (irfpi Xt/isvw?',) to which he added but very little of his own. This charge may be well-founded, but cannot have diminished the value of the work of Eratosthenes, in which that of Timosthenes can have formed only a very small portion. It seems to have been the very overwhelming importance of the geography of Eratosthenes, that called forth a number of opponents, among whom we meet with the names of Polemon, Hipparchus, Polybius, Serapion, and Marcianus of Heracleia. written in verse, and treated of the form of the earth, its temperature, the different zones, the constellations, and the like. * * * Eratosthenes distinguished himself also as a philosopher, historian, grammarian, &c."
 * * * Another work of a somewhat similar nature, entitled 'Epjwi/c, was