A. D. 20. lAj 



the centripetal force or gravitation, of the earth, as fundamental princi- 

 ples of geography ; and he gives rules for conftrudling globes, which, 

 he fays, ought not to be lefs than ten feet in diameter, and alfo for maps. 

 But he has injudicioufly negleited the great and important improvement 

 of fixing the pofitions of places by their latitude and longitude, which 

 was introduced by Hipparchus. Strabo traveled over mofl of the 

 countries between Armenia in the eafl and Etruria in the weft, and 

 from the Ihore of the Euxine fea (near which at Amafia he was born) 

 as far fouth as the borders of Ethiopia. In defcribing the countries 

 which he had feen, he is generally very accurate ; but in thofe beyond 

 his own knowlege he is frequently very erroneous. And it muft be 

 acknowleged, that he is too conceited of his own opinions ; whence he 

 is betrayed into frequent and even indecent abufe of fome authors, who 

 appear to have been at lead not inferior to himfelf in accuracy of in- 

 formation, particularly Herodotus, Pytheas, Megafthenes, and Eratof- 

 thenes ; wherein he has been implicitly followed by many, who lived 

 in later ages, when the veracity of thofe great men, and the errors of 

 Strabo, have been demonflrated by experimental philofophy and new 

 difcoveries. But, fetting afide thefe defeds, his work, upon the v;hole,. 

 as it is one of the oldeft, is alfo in many refpeds the beft, general fyf- 

 tem of ancient geography, which has come down to our times * : and I 

 have to acknowlege many and great obligations to it in the courfe of 

 this work. 



30 — There were bankers or exchangers in Judaea, who made a trade 

 of receiving money in depofit, and paying intereft for it. \^Malbew, c. 

 25.] I have not d.'covered any inftance of fuch a profeflion in Greece 

 or Rome, where the borrowers upon intereft were apparently only thofe 

 who wanted money for their own occafions. The Roman nummularii 

 feem to have been only exchangers of one fpecies of money for another, 

 and perhaps they were employed to pay the public money. [See S.ictoru - 

 in Galba, <r. 9.] 



41 — The firil knowlege of the exiftence of the ifland of Taprobane 

 (Seylan or Ceylon) was conveyed to Europe by the writings of Onefi- 

 critiis, one of the commanders of Alexander's fleet ; and his account of 

 its magnitude was not near fo much exaggerated as thofe of fucceeding 

 writers, who even made it a feparate world. It was known before this 

 time, that ivory, turtle-fliell, and other merchandize, were carried from.. 

 it to the ports of India ; that the navigators of thofe feas ventured to ■• 

 go out of fight of land, and, like the northern Europeans in the middle 

 ages, ufed birds to point out the land they wanted to go to, whereby 

 they in fome meafure made up for the want of a compafs j and that 



* The works of Pytheas, Megafthenes, Eratofthenes, and many other antient geographers, are only 

 known to us by quotations from ihcm preferved by Strabo, Pliny, and forae »tLcr writers. 



T2 



