Geographiae informatio

Anaximander of Miletus, disciple of Thales, first attempted to draw the earth on a map. After him Hecataeus of Miletus, a widely- traveled man, improved the work marvelously. Hellanicus of Lesbos, a man of much learning, gave his account without a map. Then Damastes of Citium wrote a circumnavigation, drawing mostly on Hecataeus. Next Democritus and Eudoxus and others wrote tours of the earth by land and sea.

The ancients drew the earth round, and regarded Hellas as the center and Delphi as the center of Hellas, since it had the navel of the earth. Democritus, a man of much experience, first perceived that the earth was oblong, with the length half again the breadth. Dicaearchus the Peripatetic agreed with him. Eudoxus made the length double the breadth, Eratosthenes more than double, Crates semicircular, Hipparchus trapezoid, others . . . , Posidonius the Stoic sling-shaped and wide in the middle from south to north, narrow to the east and west, wider, however, to the southeast, toward India.

Boundaries of the continents: of Europe and Libya the Pillars of Hercules; of Libya and Asia the Nile, but some say the isthmus between Lake Serbonis and the Arabian gulf; of Asia and Europe the ancients said the Phasis River and the isthmus to the Caspian, the later and more recent ones say Lake Maeotis and the Tanais River.

The continents were called ἤπειροι as being boundless (ἄπειροι) , out of ignorance. Asia was named for coming close (ἆσσον) for those going over from Europe both by land and by the islands lying in a row: Euboea Andros Tenos Myconos Icaria Samos Mycale. Europe was named for its breadth (εὖρος). Libya was quite unknown to the Greeks, but from a signal nation †Phoenicians were named seafaring†. The ocean was named for quickly encircling (ὠκέως ἀνύειν) the earth.

Dicaearchus bounds the earth not by waters but by a straight line from the Pillars through Sardinia Sicily Peloponnesus Ionia Caria Lycia Pamphylia Cilicia and Taurus on to Mt Imaus, and he calls the several regions either northern or southern.