GEOGRAPHY. 



ajafurud or furTeyed with the utmoft care by the fervedly confidered as the great father of chronology, dif 

 IS." tinguifhed himfelf by the cultivation of the fcience of geo 



were me 



Romans." tmgu 



Vegetins De Re Mil. (1. iii. c.6.) has well defcribcd the graphy. (See the article Ekato4THi:;.e.s.) 

 furveys of particular provinces, with which every Roman AVe (hall now recite the names of fome of the principal 



general was regularly furr.i(hed before his march. iEthi- perfuns who have contributed to the improvement of geogra- 



cus, in the preface to his " Cofmographia,'' further informs phy. Pylhcas, the famous geographer ci Marfeillcs, nourini- 



us, that Julius Cxfar ordered a general furvey to be made ed in the time of Alexander; and Ariftotle feems to have be<'n 



of the v.hole Roman empire by a decree of the fenate : no lefs converfant with geography than philofopliy : after 



felc<5ling for this purpofe pcrfons well icllrufted in every Alexander, Selcucus Nicanor, Theophraflus the difciple of 



branch of philofopliy. The three furveyors were Zeno- Ariftotle, Eratofther.es, who pubhnn.-d three books ofgeo- 



do.xus, Theodotus, and Polyclitus, each of whom was graphical comnienlrrics, and corredtcd a chart of Anar.i- 



appointed to fui-vey a different divifion of the empire. , inander, Hipparchi;-, who correfled the obfcrvations of 



This liirvjy commenced in the confuUhip of Julias Ciefar Eratofthenes, and thus furniflied occafion for a difpute 



and Mjrc Antony, ia the year 44 B. C , and continued which greatly contributed to the improvement ofpcogia- 



fur twenty-five years one month and ten days, to the con- phy, Agatharcidcs of Cnidu.-., who lived under Ptolen-.v 



fulfhip of o»ntiu5 Satuniiiius and Lucrotius Cinna, in the Pliiloir.etor, and Miic-.Gas, who, about fifty years afict 



year 19 15. C. The Roman itineraries that are ftill ex- him, publirtied a defcr.ption of the who!e world, Arter.ii- 



tant, evidently (hew with v.!. at accurrcy their furveys were dorus of Ephefus, v.ho gave a defcription of the earth in 



ma-ie in every pror\ince ; and Pliny has filled the 3d, 4th, eleven books, often cited by Hlrabo and Pliny, and ma.Tf 



and 5th books of his Natural Hillory with the geograpliical others, whofe names it would be tetiious to enumerate 



diftinguillied themfeives by the cuKivation and improvemeut 

 of this fcience. Geography was tranfmitted, with the 

 other arts, from Greece to Rome, as we have already men- 

 tioned. V^arro's v.-orks contain many geographical re- 

 marks : Zenodoxuj, Theodorus and Polyclitus were em- 

 ployed under the co:iful(hip of Julius Crfar and Maic 

 Antony, in furveying and meaiurirg the glebe. (See the 

 preceding part of this article). The commentaries of Carfar 

 are well known. Ptolemy encouraged Poiidonius, who 

 made an im.perfeci raenfuration of the e^-lh by ccleftial 

 obfervations, in different places ur.der the fame meridian. 

 (See Degree). Auguflus was a diftinguilhed patron and 

 promoter of this fcience ; under whom Slrabo publifi-.ed 

 his geography. And the tafte for the ftudy and advance- 

 ment of geography was greatly encouraged under Tiberius, 

 Claudius, Yefpafian, Domitian, and Adrian. Ifidore of 

 Chnrax, v/ho lived to the commencement of the firft century 

 of the Chriflian era ; Pomponius Mela, who publi(hed a 

 book entitled « De Situ Orbis ;'' Melius Pomporianus,who, 

 baring depicted the eai-th on a parchment, fell a facrince to 



diilances that were thus mcafured. 



Before the Romans engaged in this bufincfs, Neco, king 

 of Egypt, ordered the Pha:nicians to make a furvey of 

 the whole coafl of Africa ; v.liich they accomplilhed ia 

 three years : Darius procured the Elhiopic fea, and the 

 mouth of the Indus, to be furveyed. Thales of Miletus, 

 Anaximander his difciple, who is faid to have conftrufted 

 the lirlt map ; Djmocritus, Eudoxus, &c. who made 

 the ufe of maps common i;i Greece ; Ariflagoras of Miletus, 

 who prefented to Cleomenes, king of Sparta, a table 

 of brafs, on which he had defcribed the known earth, 

 with its feas and rivers ; and other Greeks, availing them- 

 feives of the afTirtance derived from the Chaldeans and 

 Egyptians, profecuted the ftudy and enlarged the extent 

 of this fcience. It appears that in the time of Socrates 

 geographical maps were ufed at Athens ; for this philofo- 

 pher humbled the pride and boaft of Alcibiades, by dciiring 

 him to point out his territories in Attica in a map : and 

 Pliny relates, (1. vi. c. 17.) that Alexander, in his expedition 

 into Alia, took two geographers, Diognetus and Bceton, 



to meafure and defcribe the roads, and that from their the jealoufy of Domitian, the emperor fufpeSing that he 

 itineraries the writers of the following ages took many aimed at the empire ; Pliny the naturalift, who has de- 

 particulars. Indeed, thii may be obferved, that whereas fcribed the countries known in his time in the liiird, fourth, 

 moft other arts are fufFerers by war, geography and forti- fifth and fixth books of his Natural Hillory ; Marinus 

 fication have been improved thereby. We alfo learn from the Tyrian, who corrected and enlarged the difcoveries of 

 Strabo, that a copy of Alexander's furvey was given by preceding geographers ; and tlie emperor Antoninus, de- 

 Xenocles, his treafurer, to Patrocles the geographer, who, as ferve particular mention. This abftraci of the hiftorj' of 

 Pliny informs us, v.-as admiral of the fleetsoiSeleucus and An- ancient geographers, notwithftaading wliofe fucceflive la- 

 tiochus. His book on geography is often quoted both by hours geography was ftill in a very inxierfecl ftate, brings us 

 Strabo and Pliny: and it appears that this author fur- to a period, about the 150th year of the Chriftian era, in 

 nifhed Eratofthenes with the principal materials and autho- which Ptolemv of Alexandria contributed crreatly to the 

 rities for conftructing the oriental part of his mr.p of the improvement of this fcience, by a more ample and accurate 

 then known world. For the voyages of Patrocles under defcription of the terrellrial globe than any had yet <riven 

 Seleucus, upon the Cafpian fea, and elfcwhere, were a kind of it. He availed himfelf of numerous obfervations and 

 of fupplement to thofe meaturements given by Bocton ancient charts ; he corrected the miftakes r.nd fupphed 

 and Diognetus already mentioned, and by Nearchus and many defects of others ; and by reducing the diftances of 

 Oneficritus, the two admirals who were employed under Alex- places on the eai-th to degrees and minutes, after the man- 

 ander, and therefore Pliny quotes them immediately after, ner of Poftdonius, making ufe of the degrees of longitude 

 It appears hkcwife from the fame palTage, that Megaf- and latitude, and fettling the Ctuation of places bv aftro- 

 thenes and Dionyfius were two furveyors lent into India nomical obfervations, he reduced geography into a regular 

 by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for the purpofes of geography : fyftem, and laid a foundation for thofe farther difcoverie* 

 and their authority was fometimes fet in oppoiition to and im.provements, which naturally refuited from the pro- 

 Patrocles by Hipparchus, in his criticiijn upon Eratof- greiuve, and at prefent advanced itate of geoinetrv, aftro- 



uomy, navigation, and commerce. 



In order to form a proper judgment of the benefits ac- 

 cruing to geograpliy from tiie labours of Ptolemy, we ought 

 to take into account die materials that were e.stajtt in hi.-; 

 O 2 tim^ 



thenes's geography. (Strabo, lib. ii. pafllm.) From the 

 memorable era of Alexander'.s expedition and conquei?, and 

 thofe of his immediate fuccefTors. geography begun to 

 alfume a r.ew face and form. For Eratofthenes, who is de- 



