Marinus, As Quoted By Ptolemy, Affirms That He Was In Possession Of The
Journals Of Two Expeditions Under The Command Of Septimus Flaccus And
Julius Maternus:
The former of these officers set off from Cyrene, and the
latter from Leptis; and, according to Marinus, they penetrated through the
interior of Africa to the southward of the Equator, as far as a nation they
styled Agesymba.
The error of Marinus with respect to the valuation of the
stadium, has led him to fix this nation in twenty-four degrees south
latitude; if allowance, however, be made for his error, the Agesymba will
still be placed under the Equator, - a great distance for a land expedition
to have readied in the interior of Africa. Flaccus reported that the
Ethiopians of Agesymba, were three months journeying to the south of the
Garamantes, and the latter were 5400 of the stadia of Marinus, distant from
Cyrene. According to the journal of Maternus, when the king of the
Garamantes set off to attack the people of Agesymba, he marched four months
to the south.
There are also some notices in Marinus of voyages performed along the coast
of Africa, between India and Africa, and along part of the coast of India;
he particularly mentions one Theophilus who frequented the coast of Azania,
and who was carried by a south-west wind from Rhapta to Aromata in twenty
days; and Diogenes, one of the traders to India, who on his return after he
had come in sight of Aromata, was caught by the north-east monsoon, and
carried down the coast during twenty-five days, till he reached the lakes
from which the Nile issues. Marinus also mentions a Diogenes Samius, who
describes the course held by vessels from the Indus to the coast of Cambay,
and from Arabia to the coast of Africa. According to him, in the former
voyage they sailed with the Bull in the middle of the heavens, and the
Pleiades in the middle of the main yard; in the latter voyage, they sailed
to the south, and by the star Canobus.
We now arrive at the name of Ptolemy, certainly the most celebrated
geographer of antiquity. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished in
the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus. In the application of astronomy
to geography, he followed Hipparchus principally, and he seems from his
residence at Alexandria to have derived much information through the
merchants and navigators of that city, as well as from its magnificent and
valuable library. His great work, as it has reached us, consists almost
entirely of an elementary picture of the earth, (if it may be so called,)
in which its figure and size, and the position of places are determined.
There is only a short notice of the division of countries, and it is very
seldom that any historical notice is added. To this outline, it is supposed
that Ptolemy had added a detailed account of the countries then known,
which is lost.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 211 of 524
Words from 109725 to 110226
of 273188
