TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
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the maps and charts which resulted from them were laid down 
without the aid of astronomy ; and the distances between the places 
described in them were either measured or computed along the roads 
which the armies traversed, or deduced from the track of vessels along 
the coast. Major Eennell has observed, that the difference which 
will generally be found between the measurements of Eratosthenes 
and Strabo, and those which appear in modern geography, will be 
that which exists between the measure of a direct line, drawn 
from one place to another, and that of the road distance between 
them. Nothing can speak more strongly to this point,” (says 
the well-informed and intelligent writer here quoted,) “ than the 
circumstance of Strabo’s giving the number of stades in Nearchus's 
Many tolerably accurate surveys resulted from the conquests of the Romans ; and 
we learn from Vegetius that their generals were always fuimished with the maps 
of the provinces which were to be the scenes of their operations. Julius Caesar 
ordered a general survey to be made of the whole empire, which occupied twenty-five 
years ; and the Itinerary of Antonine, as well as that which was constructed in the 
reign of Theodosius the Great, commonly called the Peutingerian table, are well known 
as valuable authorities. 
“ The expedition of Alexander” (says Major Rennell, in the preliminary remarks 
attached to his Illustrations of Herodotus,) “ besides the eclat of the military history 
belonging to it, furnished in Greece and Egypt an epoch of geographical improvement 
and correction, which may not unaptly be compared with that of the discoveries of the 
Portuguese along the coasts of Africa and India ; or of that of the present time, in 
which geography has been improved in every quarter of the globe.” 
“ To a philosopher,” (observes the same author,) “ the changes in the comparative 
state of nations, in diSerent ages of the world, are very striking, and lead one to reflect 
what may be the future state of some now obscure corner of New Holland or of North 
America ; since our own island was known only for its tin-mines by the most celebrated 
of ancient nations, whose descendants, in turn, rank no higher with us than as dealers 
in figs and currants I” 
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