STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY
Strabo wrote his famous geography near the beginning of the Christian
era, but he knew nothing of the north of England, Scotland, or Wales.
He insisted on placing Ireland to the north, and scoffed at Pytheas'
account of Thule.
And yet he boasted a wider range than any other writer on geography,
"for that those who had penetrated farther towards the West had not
gone so far to the East, and those on the contrary who had seen more
of the East had seen less of the West."
Like Herodotus, Strabo had travelled himself from Armenia and western
Italy, from the Black Sea to Egypt and up the Nile to Philae. But his
seventeen volumes--vastly important to his contemporaries--read like
a romance to us to-day, and a glance at the map laid down according
to his descriptions is like a vague and distorted caricature of the
real thing. And yet, according to the men of his times, he "surpasses
all the geographical writings of antiquity, both in grandeur of plan
and in abundance and variety of its materials."
Strabo has summed up for us the knowledge of the ancient world as it
was in the days of the Emperor Caesar Augustus of the great Roman Empire,
as it was when in far-off Syria the Christ was born and the greater
part of the known earth was under the sway of Rome.
A wall-map had already been designed by order of Augustus to hang in
a public place in Rome--the heart of the Empire--so that the young
Romans might realise the size of their inheritance, while a list of
the chief places on the roads, which, radiating from Rome, formed a
network over the Empire, was inscribed on the Golden Milestone in the
Forum.
[Illustration: A PORTION OF AN OLD ROMAN MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING
THE ROADS THROUGH THE EMPIRE, RIVERS, MOUNTAINS, AND THE SURROUNDING
SEAS. This is a portion--a few inches--taken from the famous Peutinger
Table, a long strip map on parchment, of the fourth century, derived
from Augustan maps according to the measurements of Caesar Augustus
Agrippa. It will be noticed how the roads, beginning with the Twelve
Ways, which start from Rome in the centre, go in straight lines over
all obstacles to the towns of the Empire. Distances are marked in stadia
(about 1/9 mile).]
We may well imagine with what keen interest the schoolmen of Alexandria
would watch the extension of the Roman Empire. Here Strabo had studied,
here or at Rome he probably wrote his great work toward the close of
a long life. He has read his Homer and inclines to take every word
he says as true. Herodotus he will have none of.
"Herodotus and other writers trifle very much," he asserts, "when they
introduce into their histories the marvellous like an interlude of
some melody."
In like manner he disbelieves poor Pytheas and his accounts of the
land of Ultima Thule and his marvellous walks through Britain, while
he clings to the writings of Eratosthenes.
But in common with them all Strabo believes the world to be one vast
island, surrounded on all sides by ocean into which the rivers flow,
and the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf are but inlets. So is also the
Mediterranean or "Our Sea," as he prefers to call it. This earth-island
reaches north to south, from Ireland, "barely habitable on account
of the cold," to the cinnamon country (Somaliland), "the most
southerly point of the habitable earth." From west to east it stretches
from the Pillars of Hercules right "through the middle of Our Sea"
to the shores of Asia Minor, then across Asia by an imaginary chain
of mountains to an imaginary spot where the Ganges, lately discovered,
emptied its waters into the world-surrounding ocean stream.
[Illustration: THE WORLD-ISLAND ACCORDING TO STRABO, 18 A.D. The blank
space within the circle is one vast sea surrounding the world.]
The breadth of the habitable earth is three thousand miles, the length
about seven thousand--a little world, indeed, with the greater world
lying all around it, still undreamt of by the old student of geography
and the traveller after truth.
He begins his book with a detailed account of southern Spain. He tells
of her two hundred towns. "Those best known are situated on the rivers,
estuaries, and seas; but the two which have acquired the greatest name
and importance are Cordova and Cadiz. After these Seville is the most
noted.... A vast number of people dwell along the Guadalquivir, and
you may sail up it almost a hundred and twenty miles from the sea to
Cordova and the places a little higher up. The banks and little inlets
of this river are cultivated with the greatest diligence. The eye is
also delighted with groves and gardens, which in this district are
met with in the highest perfection. For fifty miles the river is
navigable for ships of considerable size, but for the cities higher
up smaller vessels are employed, and thence to Cordova river-boats.
These are now constructed of planks joined together, but they were
formerly made out of a single trunk. A chain of mountains, rich in
metal, runs parallel to the Guadalquivir, approaching the river,
sometimes more, sometimes less, toward the north."
He grows enthusiastic over the richness of this part of southern Spain,
famous from ancient days under the name of Tartessus for its wealth.
"Large quantities of corn and wine are exported, besides much oil,
which is of the first quality, also wax, honey, and pitch ... the
country furnishes the timber for their shipbuilding. They have
likewise mineral salt and not a few salt streams. A considerable
quantity of salted fish is exported, not only from hence, but also
from the remainder of the coast beyond the Pillars. Formerly they
exported large quantities of garments, but they now send the
unmanufactured wool remarkable for its beauty. The stuffs
manufactured are of incomparable texture. There is a superabundance
of cattle and a great variety of game, while on the other hand there
are certain little hares which burrow in the ground (rabbits). These
creatures destroy both seeds and trees by gnawing their roots. They
are met with throughout almost the whole of Spain. It is said that
formerly the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca sent a deputation to
the Romans requesting that a new land might be given them, as they
were quite driven out of their country by these animals, being no longer
able to stand against their vast multitudes." The seacoast on the
Atlantic side abounds in fish, says Strabo. "The congers are quite
monstrous, far surpassing in size those of Our Sea. Shoals of rich
fat tunny fish are driven hither from the seacoast beyond. They feed
on the fruit of stunted oak, which grows at the bottom of the sea and
produces very large acorns. So great is the quantity of fruit, that
at the season when they are ripe the whole coast on either side of
the Pillars is covered with acorns thrown up by the tides. The tunny
fish become gradually thinner, owing to the failure of their food as
they approach the Pillars from the outer sea."
He describes, too, the metals of this wondrous land--gold, silver,
copper, and iron. It is astonishing to think that in the days of Strabo
the silver mines employed forty thousand workmen, and produced
something like 900 pounds a day in our modern money!
But we cannot follow Strabo over the world in all his detail. He tells
us of a people living north of the Tagus, who slept on the ground,
fed on acorn-bread, and wore black cloaks by day and night. He does
not think Britain is worth conquering--Ireland lies to the north, not
west, of Britain; it is a barren land full of cannibals and wrapped
in eternal snows--the Pyrenees run parallel to the Rhine--the Danube
rises near the Alps--even Italy herself runs east and west instead
of north and south. His remarks on India are interesting.
"The reader," he says, "must receive the accounts of this country with
indulgence. Few persons of our nation have seen it; the greater part
of what they relate is from report. Very few of the merchants who now
sail from Egypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have proceeded
as far as the Ganges."
He is determined not to be led astray by the fables of the great size
of India. Some had told him it was a third of the whole habitable world,
some that it took four months to walk through the plain only. "Ceylon
is said to be an island lying out at sea seven days' sail from the
most southerly parts of India. Its length is about eight hundred miles.
It produces elephants."
Strabo died about the year 21 A.D., and half a century passed before
Pliny wrote _An Account of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens,
Mountains, Rivers, Distances, and Peoples who now Exist or Formerly
Existed_. Strange to say, he never refers in the most distant way to
his famous predecessor Strabo. He has but little to add to the
earth-knowledge of Strabo. But he gives us a fuller account of Great
Britain, based on the fresh discoveries of Roman generals.