anaximander's book. 247 



detailed observation of the stars, to which his sun-dial and 'sphere' 

 must have added impetus, led inevitably to the postulate of a spher- 

 oidal earth. This postulate, as is well known, came not from geog- 

 raphy, but. from the study of the heavens. Indeed, long after the 

 newer conception of the earth had sprung from the speculations of 

 the Pythagoreans, who were geometers and not at all practical geo- 

 graphers, the maps of the geographers, though gradually modified, 

 preserved the impress of their Ionian originators and of their concep- 

 tion of the disk earth. 



As to Anaximander's map, we do not know through what inter- 

 mediaries the notice regarding it came to the handbook of Diogenes 

 Laertius. His testimony does not, however, stand alone, but is 

 supported by the geographical tradition. The filiation in detail of 

 the works on geography in which his map is mentioned need not 

 detain us here. Leaving aside several unimportant notices ^* which 

 add nothing to our enlightenment, we may confine ourselves to the 

 statements of Agathemerus and Strabo. The former says ^^ " Anaxi- 

 mander of Miletus, who 'heard' Thales, first had the hardihood to 

 depict the inhabited earth on a tablet. After him Hecataeus of 

 Miletus, a man who had travelled widely, refined his work to the point 

 of admiration. Hellanicus of Lesbos, indeed, a man of wide learning, 

 handed down the fruits of his research unaccompanied with a formal 

 representation. ^^ Then Damastes of Sige, borrowing chiefly from the 

 works of Hecataeus, wrote a geographical work; in due order Democ- 

 ritus and Ephorus and certain others composed systematic Tours of 

 the Earth and Geographies." Of this statement it need only be said 

 that it contains a selected list of geographers, whether they prepared 

 maps or not, extending roughly down to the time of Eratosthenes. 

 The list is carelessly drawn and the phrasing is at more than one 

 point ambiguous; but the difficulties which it presents do not specially 

 concern us here. 



To Strabo we are indebted for two passages relating to i\naximander 

 as a geographer. Beginning his geographical treatise he says, " Geog- 

 raphy, which I have now chosen to consider, I hold as much the 

 pursuit of the philosopher as any other science. That my opinion is 

 sound is clear from many considerations. For not only were the 



24 Eustathius, Comrn. in Diotiys. (.Miiller, Geogr. Gr. Minor. II. 208, 14) and 

 Schol. in Dionys. {ibid. II. 428, 7). 



25 V^ I. 15, 9 quotes the first sentence only. For full text see Miiller, o.c. II. 

 471. 



26 This is the accepted meaning of the phrase airXaaTics wapkbuiKe ttju laropiav, 

 but it is not certain: it is possibly a criticism of the literary style of Hellanicus. 



