i8$ A. D. 77. 



Their knov/Iege of the furface of the earth was more defective than 

 could be fuppofed poflible, if we had not the mofl convincing proofs of 

 it. Even Strabo and PUny beheved, that the two temperate zones were 

 the only habitable portions of the earth ; and Pliny, like the poets, af- 

 ferts, that there can be no communication between them on account of 

 the intolerable fcorching heat of the intermediate torrid zone. Not- 

 with (landing this aflertion he names feveral places within the tropic, 

 where he obferves that the fun for iome time projeds fliadows fouth- 

 ward ; and he even mentions a mountain of India called Maleus, which, 

 as he defcribes it, having the fun for fix months on its north, and other 

 fix on its fouth, fide, ought to be on the equinoclial line *. [Strabo. L. ii, 

 p. 171. — PUn. L. ii, cc. 68, 73, L. vi, cc. 19, 29 et pajfwi.'] The antient 

 geographers, however, allowed lefs than its true breadth to the torrid 

 zone. They were ftill ignorant of the Cafpian fea being an inland lake. 

 Pliny fays, that Arabia is of the fame figure, and fize, and precifely in 

 the fame latitude as Italy ; with which it has nothing in common, ex- 

 cept being a peninfula and flretching to the fouth- eafl. After examin- 

 ing the accounts of Polybius, Agrippa and Artemidorus, he gives the 

 following comparative view of the magnitude of the great divifions of 

 the earth, viz. Europe fomewhat above a third, Afia abotit a fourth, 

 and Africa about a fifth, of the whole. [Hi/l. nat. L. ii, 67; L. \'\,cc. 13, 

 28, -^-^P^ Such was the knowlege obtained of the diflant parts of the 

 world by the beft-informed of the Romans, in the extended ftate of the 

 Roman empire, and the fun-ihine of Roman fcience ! 



79 — Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus the hiflorian, was now 

 the Roman commander in Britain. Having already ferved in it under 

 Suetonius Paulinus, he was acquainted with the nature of the country, 

 and of the people ; and he employed foothing arts, as much as force, to 

 eftablifli the Roman authority : for, at the fame time that he was erect- 

 ing forts, and extending military ways, through the country, he enticed 

 the Britons to alTemble in towns, and to adopt the arts and the luxuries 

 of the Romans. After reducing the Ordovices and Mona {North-Wales 

 and Anglefe}'), he marched northward, along the weftern fhore, and led 

 the firft Roman army into that part of the ifland now called Scotland 

 (a". 80), iubduing the tribes who lay in the line of his march, and making 

 an excurfion as far as the river Tay, whence he returned (a". 81) to the 

 iflhmus between the Forth and the Clyde, which he guarded with a 

 chain of forts : and next year he reduced the fouth-weil part of the 

 country, afterwards called Galloway. 



83 — Britifli liberty furvived now only on the north fide of the Forth ; 



«♦ For this Pliny quotes Bcton, an artiil employ- tial line. Surely, the anticnts, when, thoy fpokc 



.'d by Alexander the Great as a furvcyor, who of fouthcrly fli.ulows, mull have only meant Iha- 



jnoft certair.ly never faw, and can fcarcely be fup- dows not piojedinjj fo far north at noon as thefc 



pofed to have heard of, any place on the equinoc- in their own countri-.'s. 



