88 SCIENCE IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY 



regards Italy. His writings abound in narrative and 

 vivid descriptions, gathered in the course of his travels 

 from Armenia as far as Sardinia, and from the Euxine 

 to Ethiopia. This period was rich in geographical 

 literature, of which we only possess a small portion, 

 comprising some fragments of Polemon ; and a 

 description, by an unknown author, of Thebes in 

 Greece as a town with somewhat unsafe streets, 

 but charming with its fruitful gardens and veiled 

 women. 



Although the mathematical and astronomical side 

 of geography was not neglected by Strabo, it is 

 Posidonius (133-49 B - c -) to whom it is most indebted. 

 Posidonius was a native of Syria, but settled at Rhodes, 

 where his school was frequented by Cicero and Pompey. 

 Although a Stoic, he was interested in mathematics 

 and natural science. He wrote an important work on 

 the Ocean and a Commentary on the Timaeus of Plato, 

 in which he treats of the mystic arithmetic of the 

 Pythagoreans. Besides this, he was a champion of 

 divination and astrology, the constructor of a planet- 

 arium, and a student of meteorology and astronomical 

 problems. Geminus has given us a sketch of these 

 works, and in the second century Cleomedes made use 

 of them in his summary of astronomy (de Motit circulari, 

 p. 90, 22). It certainly cannot be denied that 

 Posidonius made original researches in geography and 

 ethnography, but his claim to fame chiefly rests on the 

 fact that he popularized and brought the principal 

 geographical and astronomical attainments of the Greek 

 science of his period within the reach of the cultivated 

 public of Rome. In doing this, he often passes over in 

 silence interesting theories, which thus, for long cen- 

 turies, fell again into oblivion, for example, the helio- 

 centric hypothesis of Aristarchus, and the explanation 

 of the tides by Seleucus. 



