GEOGRAPHY. 
ffiat when Jofhna fent ont people from the different 
tribes to meafiire the land, he gave them as companions 
perfons well inftructed in geometry, who could not be 
miftaken in the Truth from their /kill. He afterwards 
inetitions, that the men who were fent, being ten in 
number, Trsfiocsytra te; te Jiat 'rt/jiYiaoc/xivoi r/jv yriu, “going 
round and eflimating the land,” returned in the fevemh 
month to Jofhua at Shiloh. From this therefore we may 
reafonably conclude, that a geometrical furvey was 
then made of the Holy Land; though it does not fully 
determine whether their menfuration W'as only taken 
down in numbers, or regularly projedted and digcfled 
into a map. 
T lie llrll Grecian map on record was that of Anaxi¬ 
mander, mentioned by Strabo, lib. i. p. 7. It has been 
conjedlured, that this was a general map of the then 
known world, and is imagined to be the one referred to 
by Hipparchus under the defignation of “ the ancient 
map,” which he in a few particulars preferred to that 
of Eratollhcnes ; and fome have conjeftured, that Anax¬ 
imander, “ by inventing a fphere and introducing a 
map, and a meafure of the circumference of the fea ;uid 
land,” according to Diogenes Laertius, may be fup- 
pofed to be one of the mathematiciarrS alluded to by 
Ariftotlc at the end of his fecond book de Ccclo, who 
made the circumference of the earth to be four hundred 
thoufand fladia, being the firit grofs calculation at¬ 
tempted to he given of that great problem in geography. 
'I'he map of Ariftagoras, tyrant of Miletus, is like- 
wife particularly worthy of our attention, becaul'e it is 
minutely deferibed by Herodotus, and furnilhes a curi¬ 
ous idea of the nature of maps in thofe early ages. He 
tells us, that Ariftagoras ftiewed it to Cleomenes king of 
Sparta, with a view of inducing him to attack the king 
of Perfia even in'his palace at Sula, in order to reftore 
the lonians to their ancient freedom. It was traced 
upon tables of brafs or copper, and contained the in¬ 
termediate countries which were to be traverfed in that 
march. The words of Herodotus muft not how'ever be 
interpreted too literally, as if it contained “ the whole 
circumference of the earth, the whole fea or ocean, and 
all the rivers.” For notwithftanding the pompoul'nefs 
of the expredion, it may fairly be concluded from the 
ftate of geography at that time, that the lea meant only 
the Mediterranean, and therefore the earth or land the 
coafts of that fea, and more particularly the Leftlr Alia 
extended towards the middle of Perfta, and the rivers 
were the Halys, the Euphr.ites, and the Tigris, which 
Herodotus mentions as necelfary to be crofted in that 
expedition. It contained one ftraight line called the 
“Royal Highway,” oJo? 57 BaviA'/jiij, taking in all the 
ftations or places of encampment, which were called 
ru 6 fj.ot, from Sardis to Sufa ; fo that it was an itinerary, 
or what the Greeks diftinguilhed by the title of 
a.’Tro'yfo.pr) There were one hundred and eleven 
of ihefe ilations in the whole extent of this line or road, 
containing 13500 ftadia, or 450 parafangac, which being 
reduced to the Roman mile, allowing eight ftadia to 
each mile, amounts to 1687^. Roman miles; and as it was a 
march of ninety days, Herodotus tells us, that 150 ftadia 
were allowed for a day’s march, wliich brings it to 
eighteen and three-quarters Roman miles for each day. 
If we would accommodate this, to the Englilh ftatute 
mile, which contains 5280 feet, whereas the Roman 
mile confifted only of 5000 feet, it will reduce a day’s 
march to eighteen Englifh ftatute miles andone-ftxth of 
a mile nearly, as the Roman itinerary foot differed very 
little from the prefent Englifh foot,.as appears from two 
itinerary diftances which have been meafured ; one is tiie 
tw'enty-five miles from Bologna to Modena, taken by 
Ricciolus, and the other tlte twenty-one miles betwixt 
London and Verulam, found by fome furveyors quoted 
by Bernard to contain 20*37 miles, of 5000 Englilh feet 
to a mile. 
Thefe itinerary maps of the roads and places of en- 
I. 
S4S 
campment, were indifpenfably neceftary In all armies. 
We iind Athemeus, in his Deipnofeph. lib. x. p. 442, 
quotes Boeton as author of a work intitled 2ra6|i2oi ttij 
7rof£Hj;r,theEncaiTipiTients ofAleXander’sMarch; 
and he likewife cites Amyntas, cv toi,- And 
Pliny, lib. vi. cap. 17. tells us, that Diognetus and 
Bceton were the furveyors of his- marches; he then 
quotes the exaft number of miles according to their 
menfuration, and afterwards confirms it by referring to 
the letters of Alexander himfelf. It likewife appears 
from Strabo, that Alexander was very careful in per- 
fonally examining the meafnres of his furveyors, having 
his deferiptions always from the moft ftdlful in every 
country. And tlte fame author acquaints us, that a 
copy of this great monarcli’s furvey was given by 
Xenocles liis treafurer to Patrocles the geographer, 
who, as Pliny informs us, was admiral of the fleets of 
Seleucus and Antiochus. His book on geography is 
often quoted both by Strabo and Pliny ; and it appears 
that this author furniihed Eratofthenes with the princi-- 
pal materials and aiithoritie-s for conftrubfing the orien¬ 
tal part of his map of the iheri known world. For the 
voyages of Patrocles under Seleucus upon th.e Cafpian 
fea, and elfewliere, were a kind of fupplement to thofe 
meafureiiiients given by Bceton and Diognetus already 
mentioned, and by Nearchus and Onelicntus, the two 
admirals who were employed under Alexander, and 
therefore Pliny quotes them immediately after. It ap¬ 
pears likewife from the fanie palfage, that Megafthenes 
and Dionyfius were two furveyors lent into India by 
Ptolemy Philadelphus for the piirpofes of geography, 
and their authority was fometimes let in oppofttion to 
Patrocles by Hipparchus in his Criticifm upon Eratoft- 
henes’s Geography. 
We have dwelt the longer upon thefe difi'erent fur- 
veys which took their rife from Alexander’s expedition 
and conquefts, and thofe of his immediate fucceftors, be- 
caufe geograpliy began to affume a new face and form 
from this memorable era. For Eratofthenes, who is 
defervedly conlidered as the great father of chronology, 
employed his eminent abilities and learning with equal 
fuccefs to reduce geography into a regular fyftem, and 
laid its foundation upon clear and folid principles. We 
muft do him the juftice to allow, tliat it was lie who 
firft introduce-d into his map a regular parallel of lati¬ 
tude. It was a geographical outline traced over certain 
places whofc longeft day was obferved to be exaClly of 
the fame length. He began it from the Straits of Gib¬ 
raltar, and it thence pafl'ed through, the Sicilian fea, and 
near the foutliern extremities of Peloponnefus, and was 
continued tlirough the illand of Rhocles and the bay of 
Iftiis, and tiiere entering Cilicia, and fo crofting the 
Euphrates and Tigris, was extended to the mountains 
of India. By means of this parallel line he endeavoured 
to rectify the errors in the ancient geographical map, 
fuppofed to be that of Anaximander, la drav/ing this 
parallel, lie was regulated by obferving wherethe longeit 
day conftfted of fourteen liours and a lialf, which Hip¬ 
parchus afterwards determined to be the latitude of 36°, 
making by this a fort of tranilation of it into his own- 
aftrononiical language. 
This firit parallel through Rhodes,was ever afterwards 
conlidered w.itli a degree of preference, like the founda¬ 
tion (tone of all the ancient maps; for it was traced 
through tlie middle of the Mediterranean, whofe coafts 
v/ere in the centre of the principal natioT.s of antiquity, 
and the longitude of the then known world was often 
attempted to be'nieafured in ftadia and miles,accord¬ 
ing to the extent of that line, by many fucceeding, geo¬ 
graphers... 'Fhe running of this parallel was fo happy 
a thought in Eratofthenes, that it not only encouraged 
him to trace upon his map other.parallels at certain in¬ 
tervals from his firft. Inch as one tlirough Alexandria, 
another through Syene, and another through Meroe, 
but he undertook to t^ace at right angles to tliefe a me. 
ridia.a 
