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ibid.

CLASSICAL JOURNAL.

No. XV.

SEPTEMBER, 1813.

ON ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.

I WOULD wish to call the attention of the readers of the Classical Journal to the description several ancient writers have given of countries situated in the west, and to which it does not seem póssible to assign a place within the boundaries of the old world.

1. Homer, whose knowledge of Geography is allowed to have been accurate, makes a division of the Ethiopians, whom he denominates xaтo avopwv, placing one part under the rising, and the other under the setting Sun Odyss. 1mo. Lib. This passage is examined by Strabo (Lib. 1mo.) who states the opinions of several writers, and who thinks himself that this division was occasioned by the Red Sea. Yet as the poet places one division of the Æthiopians as far westward as the other was eastward, such a description does not appear applicable to any of the inhabitants of Africa, when we consider its situation with respect to Greece. 2. Virgil describes a remote people, Æneid. vi. line 795, in these words:

jacet extra sidera Tellus

Extra anni solisque vias: ubi cœlifer Atlas
Axem humero torquet, stellis ardentibus aptum.

On this passage the following note occurs in the Variorum Edi-
tion: "Proferet imperium ultra tellurem si qua habitatur (namque
de hoc ambigebant veteres) extra sidera majora et planetas, qui intra
Tropicos decurrunt, ultra τὴν κεκαυμένην nempe ἀντάξονα nobis.
Sed quid dicemus de Atlante; qui uterque juxta Zodiacum situs,
imo citra æquatorem? Vel igitur poeta in honorem Augusti
sedem Atlanti assignat nota remotiorem usque ad Ethiopas, quos
VOL. VIII. Cl. J.
NO. XV.

A

M. Petronius Romanorum Dux subegit: ubi Herodoto, Pomponio et Plinio sunt Atlantis populi. Vel respexit ad Insulam Atlantis, cujus meminit Plato in Timæo, et alii, novum scilicet orbem, a Columbo repertum Anno salutis 1592. Quem tamen scivisse magis illos quam novisse scribit Lipsius, &c. &c."

3. The following passage in the Timæus of Plato is frequently referred to. I give the Latin Version, as the original is easily accessible: "Insulam autem in ore maris adituque ad eas angustias quas vos Herculis Columnas vocatis, extitisse. Illam vero insulam Lybia et Asia majorem atque ampliorem; ex quâ ad alias insulas facilis esset trajectus, ex insulis vero illis ad eam quoque continentem quæ e regione sita est, et in illo quidem mari quod proprio et peculiari nomine Pontus nuncupatur." Plato relates farther, that this island was covered with the sea in the space of a single night, in consequence of a great earthquake, and that the sea being filled with mud was no longer navigable.-We shall see hereafter how to account for what he says of the submersion of this land, but at present it must be observed, that all this is related as the substance of information communicated to Solon when he was in Egypt.

4. In the Book "De Mirabil. Auscult." attributed to Aristotle, we find the following passage: "Extra Columnas Herculis, aiunt in Mari a Carthaginiensibus insulam fertilem desertamque inventam; ut quæ tam sylvarum copia quam fluminibus navigationi idoneis abundet, cum reliquis fructibus floreat vehementer, distans a continente plurium dierum itinere: in qua cum Carthaginienses quidam ob soli fertilitatem connubia agitare ac habitare coepissent, ferunt, præsides, ne quis deinceps insulam ingrederetur, pœna capitis interdixisse, incolasque ejecisse ne coitione (si habitare istic pergerent) facta, insulæ principatum consequerentur, et Carthaginienses ea felicitatis parte privarent."

5. Diodorus Siculus, Lib. v. "Africam versus permagna quædam insula in vasto oceani pelago jacet complurium navigatione dierum a Lybia in occasum declinans. Solum ibi. frugiferum, cujus magna pars in montes assurgit, nec exigua in campos sese expandit; amnes enim per illam navigabiles decurrunt a quibus humectatur

Olim, propter remotiorem a reliquo terrarum orbe situm incognita fuit; sed hac tandem occasione reperta, Phoenices a vetustissimis inde temporibus frequenter crebras mercaturæ gratia navigationes instituerunt investigata ultra Columnas ora, cum Africæ littora legerent, ventorum procellis ad longinquos in oceanum tractus sunt abrepti. Per multos tandem dies vi tempestatis ad Insulam, de qua jam dictum, appulerunt. Naturamque ejus et felicitatem a se primitus cognitam in aliorum deinde noticiam perduxerunt. Ideo Tyrrheni maris imperium adepti, coloniam eo destinarunt; sed Carthaginienses illis obstite-

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