SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD 



no consequence) the earth which we inhabit is situated, 

 surrounded by a sea and similar to an island. This, 

 as we said before, is evident both to our senses and to 

 our reason. But let any one doubt this, it makes no 

 difference so far as geography is concerned whether you 

 believe the portion of the earth which we inhabit to be 

 an island or only admit what we know from experience 

 namely, that whether you start from the east or the 

 west you may sail all around it. Certain intermediate 

 spaces may have been left (unexplored), but these are 

 as likely to be occupied by sea as uninhabited land. 

 The object of the geographer is to describe known 

 countries. Those which are unknown he passes over 

 equally with those beyond the limits of the inhabited 

 earth. It will, therefore, be sufficient for describing 

 the contour of the island we have been speaking of, if we 

 join by a right line the outmost points which, up to this 

 time, have been explored by voyagers along the coast 

 on either side." 3 



We may pass over the specific criticisms of Strabo 

 upon various explorations that seem to have been of 

 great interest to his contemporaries, including an 

 alleged trip of one Eudoxus out into the Atlantic, and 

 the journeyings of Pytheas in the far north. It is 

 Pytheas, we may add, who was cited by Hipparchus 

 as having made the mistaken observation that the 

 length of the shadow of the gnomon is the same at 

 Marseilles and Byzantium, hence that these two places 

 are on the same parallel. Modern commentators have 

 defended Pytheas as regards this observation, claiming 

 that it was Hipparchus and not Pytheas who made the 

 second observation from which the faulty induction 



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