*42 G E O G R 
manner! and that the Interval of time (though of one 
hundred and fifty years and upwards) was not fufficient 
for a clear and certain comprehenfion of that matter.” 
There was likewifc an additional reafon for this fuf- 
penlion of judgment in Hipparchus, which Ptolemy has 
preferved in another paffage of his Almageft. For he 
tells us, that Hipparchus had found the greateft diftance 
of the Spica of Virgo from the autumnal equinox to be 
fi® 50' in the thirty-fecond year of the third Calippic 
eriod (viz. 146 before Chrifl:,) and that he found it to 
e only 5° 15' in the forty-third year of the faid period 
(viz. 135 before Chrifl:) ; and as he could not apprehend 
that this ftar fliould make a motion of 1° 15' in eleven 
years, he concluded that this difference arolefrom fome 
inequality in the apparent motion of the fun : for though 
this variation puzzled him, yet, fays Ptolemy, “ he was 
prompted from his love of truth to conceal nothing 
which could tend in the leafl degree to carry any perfons 
to a fufpicion upon his obfervations.” But by way of 
accounting for this, he was induced at one time to fup- 
pofe, tliat this motion of the fixed ftars, in varying their 
diflance from the equinoctial point, was confined to fuch 
of them as were near the zodiac, as if this irregularity 
was occafioned by the fun, moon, and planets which 
moved in this path ; and this Ptolemy calls i/ie firjl hy- 
pothijis of Hipparchus. But this he afterwards relinquithed, 
wlitii he found that the ftars in the Great Bear, and 
others which were at a confiderable diflance from the 
zodiac, fhified their places equally with thofe in the 
.zodiac, both with regard to the equator and the cqui- 
noifial colures. 
Fiom tlicfc particulars, however, it fufficiently ap¬ 
pears, tliat Timocharis and Ariftillus are intitled to a 
lhare of the merit of Hipparchus, who is fo much cele¬ 
brated for the boldnefs of his attempt in numbering th.e 
ftars, and ranging them all according to their fituations 
in tlie heavens. And it is likewife evident, that the 
longitudes and latitudes of the Itars were reckoned 
from the equator botli by Timocharis and Hipparchus; 
for it was only after the precellion of the equinoxes was 
fully eflabliflied by Ptolemy, that the longitudes and 
latitudes of tiie ftars were uniformly referred to the 
ecliptic. It w'as titen but an eafy iranfition of thought 
in Hipparchus to alfort and dil'pofe the dift'erent parts of 
the earth according to latitude and longitude, being 
only'a new' application or tranfpofition of that artifice 
wiiich v^as already fo happily introduced in the arrange¬ 
ment of the conftellations, and therefore equally proper 
to be adopted in tracing the meridians and parallels of 
the earth, 
Strabo has preferved the very words of Hipparchus, 
in which he explains his ideas upon this fubjeit, being a 
Fragment extradled from a Treatife of his, written 
againft Eratoflhenes. “It is impoflible, fays he, either 
for an illiterate perfon, or a man of learning, to acquire 
the neceli'ary knowledge of geography wiiiiout an at¬ 
tention to the heavens, and to the obfervations of 
ccliples. For whether Alexandria in Egypt is more 
northerly than Babylon, or more foutherly, or to w'hat 
diftance this amounts, cannot be determined without 
confidering them by their climates. In like manner, 
what places lie towards the call, or towards the weft, 
and whether more or lefs, no perfon can know accurate¬ 
ly, without comparing the eclipfes of the fun and 
moon.” As the two diftindlions here pointed out give 
us the clear ideas of latitude and longitude, it is with 
great juftice that Hipparchus is univerfally allowed to 
hav^e fixed the firft folid foundation of geography, by 
uniting it to aftronomy, and fo rendering its principles 
felf-evident and invariable. 
Pliny likewife confirms this, when after mentioning 
Thales and Sulpicius Gallus, who had both predicted 
ecliples, he adds “that Hipparchus had foretold the 
revolution (of the eclipfes) of the fun and.moon for fix 
A P H Y. 
hundred years, comprehending the months, days, and 
hours, of different nations, and the fitaation of places,” 
By which it would feem, that the latitudes and longi-’ 
tildes of thefe places were particularly given. But the 
ftrongeft authority for appropriating this invention to 
Hipparchus, is that of Ptolemy in his geography, lib. i- 
cap. 4, who fays, “ that Hipparchus was the only author 
who had given the elevations of the north pole of 
a few cities, in proportion to the great numberthat were 
to be delineated, and fuch too as lay under the fame 
parallels. Some that came after Hipparchus had given' 
thofe of other places that lay upon the fame luendian, 
becaufe their molt favourable voyages were commonly 
from north to fouth ; but that moft of the diftances, and 
principally thofe towards the eaft: and weft, were laid 
down in a Itill more unfatisfadtory manner; not from 
any negligence of thofe who recorded t!iem,'but becaufe 
they had no ready method of bringing them to a mathe. 
matical exactnefs ; and likewife, becaufe thei'e were not 
many eclipfes of the moon which had been obferved at 
dift'erent places at the fame inftant of time : for it i? 
upon record, that an eclipfe, which was obferved at 
Arbela at five o’clock, was feen at Carthage only at tw» 
o’clock ; from which it clearly appeared vvliat was the 
diftance of iliefe two places towards the eaft and weft 
given in equinoClial time.”—It is liowever a little re¬ 
markable, that though latitudes and longitudes were ia 
this maimer introduced and pointed out by Hipparchus,, 
yet fo little were they attended to till the days of 
Ptolemy, that none of tlie intermediate authors, fuch as 
Strabo, Vitruvius, and Pliny, who all of them entered 
into a minute defeription of the geographical fituation 
of places according to the length and (luidows of tlie 
gnomon, have ever given us the leaft hint of the lati¬ 
tude or longitude of any one place whatever in the lan¬ 
guage of degrees and minutes. 
Wiien the true principles of geography came to be 
thus pointed out by the invention of latitude and longi¬ 
tude, it was no wonder that maps were from thence 
made to alfume a new form of proje6Iion, elfentially dif¬ 
ferent from thofe in ufe prior to this penod. It was for 
this purpofe that the planifphere, or the delineation of 
the fpliere in piano, is faid by Synefuis to have been 
introduced by Hipparchus, in order to preferve tliij 
famenefs of tlie proportions in the diverfity of the figure, 
lit muft be ovvned, however, that the previous flops tQ 
this new projection of llje fphere had been in a great 
meafure made eafy by Archimedes, when be invented,, 
at leaft fifty years before Hipparchus lived, thofe'noble 
theorems of his for meafuring the furface of a fphere 
and its dift'erent fegments ; which were none of the leaft 
important difeoveries of that great geometrician.—Sea 
the article Geometry. 
'VVe find in Strabo anallufion to a fpherical projeflioii, 
in piano, where the meridians bended towards each 
other, fb as to make the figure of a cone. Hence we. 
afeertain that the maps which were projebted before the 
time of Hipparchus, were little more than rude outlines 
and topographical iketches of dift'erent countries ; ex-, 
cepting the fmgle map invented by Eratofthenes. The., 
earlieft v/ere thofe of Sefoftris, mentioned by Euftathius 
in his epiftle prefixed to his Commentary on Dionyfiiis’s 
who lays “that this Egyptian king, having, 
traverled great part of tlie earth, recorded his marcli iix- 
maps, and gave copies of his maps not only to.the Egyp-. 
tian-s, but to the Scythians, to their great aftoniftiment.”" 
The ancient Jews appear alfo. to have had furveyors 
among them; and fome have imagined from this that tJvey- 
actually made a map of the Holy Land, when they gave 
the dift'erent portions to the nine tribes at Shiloh, as 
mentioned In Joihua, chap, xviii. ver. 4, 8, and 9. For 
they are there lent to walk through the land, and to de- 
feribe it ; and they are afterwards faid to have deferibed 
it in Jcvm parts^ in a boak. And Jofephus tells us, 
ihas 
