A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

46 EtRATOSTHENES. ERATOSTHENES.
stadium was employed, If we assume'the Olym- mbnts quoted by later geographers and historians,
pic stadium (2024 yards), the degree of Eratos- such as Polybius, Strabo, Marcianus, Pliny, and
thenes is more than 79 miles, upwards of 10 miles' others, who often judge of him unfavourably, and
too great. Nothing is known of any Egyptian controvert his statements; while it can be proved
stadium. Pliny (I. c.) asserts that Hipparchus, but that, in a great many passages, they adopt his opifor what reason he does not say, wanted to add nions without mentioning his name. Marcianus
25,000 stadia to the circumference as found by charges Eratosthenes With having copied the subEratosthenes. stance of the work of Timosthenes on Ports (Vrepl
According to Plutarch (de Plac. Phil. ii. 31),Era- ALcecoPwv), to which he added but very little of his
tosthenes made the sun to be 804 millions of stadia own. This charge may be well-founded, but canfrom the earth, and the moon 780,000; according not have diminished the value of the work of Erato Macrobius (in Somn. Scip. i. 20), he made the tosthenes, in which that of Timosthenes can have
diameter of the sun to be:27 times that of the formed only a very small portion. It seems to
earth. (Weidler, Hist. Astron.; Fabric. Bibl. have been the very overwhelming importance of
Graec. vol. iv.'p. 117, &c.; Delambre, Hist. de the geography of Eratosthenes that called forth a
l'Astron. Anc.; Petavius, Uranologion.) [A. Da M.] number of opponents, among whom we meet with
With regard to the other merits of Eratosthenes, the names of Polemon, Hipparchus, Polybius,
we must first of all mention what he did for geo- Serapion, and Marcjanus of Heracleia. The fraggraphy, which was closely connected with his ma- ments of this work were first collected by L. Ancher,
thematical pursuits. It was Eratosthenes who Diatribe in Fragm. Geograph. Eratosth., Giittingen,
raised geography to the rank of a science; for, pre- 1770, 4to., and afterwards by G. C. F. Seidel,
vious to his time, it seems to have consisted, more Eratostiz. Geograph. Fragm. Gittingen, 1789, 8vo.
or less, of a mass of information scattered in books The best collection is that of Bernhardy in his
of travel, descriptions of particular countries, and Eratosthenica.
the like. All these treasures were accessible to Another work of a somewhat similar nature, enEratosthenes in the libraries of Alexandria; and he titled'EpAi4js(perhaps the same as the KaaorTEprluo
made the most profitable use of them, by -collecting mentioned above), was written in verse and treated
the scattered materials, and uniting them into an of the form of the earth, its temperature, the diffeorganic system of geography in his comprehensive rent zones, the constellations, and the like. (Bernwork entitled recosypapica, or as it is sometimes, hardy, Eratosth. p. 110, &c.) Another poem,
but erroneously, called,?yecypaqpoelsEa or yswcoypa-'HpLy?'v7l, is mentioned with great commendation
pCa. (Strab. i.-p. 29, ii. p. 67, xv. p. 688; Schol. by Longinus. (De Sublim. 33. 5; comp. Schol. ad
adApollon. Rhod. iv. 259, 284, 310.) It consisted Hom. 11. x. 29; Bernhardy, l. c. p. 150; &c.).
of three books, the first of which, forming a sort of Eratosthenes distinguished himself also as a phiintroduction, contained a critical review of the la- losopher, historian, and grammarian. His acquirebours of his predecessors from the earliest to his ments as a philosopher are attested by the works
own times, and investigations concerning the form which are attributed to him, though we inay not
and nature of the earth, which, according to him, believe that'all the philosophical works which bore
was an immovable globe, on the surface of which his name were really his productions. It is, howtraces of a series of great revolutions were still ever, certain that he wrote on subjects of moral
visible. He conceived that in one of these revolu- philosophy, e. g. a work rIepl'A-yaOZv sal KaKlov
tions the Mediterranean had acquired its present (Harpocrat. s. v. dploo'rat; Clem. Alex..Strom. iv.
form; for, according to him, it was at one time.a p. 496), another flep IAiovTrov Ka rIevf'as (Diog.
large lake covering portions of the adjacent coun- Lairt.- ix. 66; Plut.' Themist. 27), which some betries of Asia and Libya, until a passage was forced lieve to have been only a portion of the preceding
open by which it entered into communication with work, just as a third II~pl'AAvdrtas, which is menthe ocean in the west. The second book contained tioned by Suidas. Some other works, on the other
what is now called mathematical geography. His hand, such as rIepl'co.v aaTr,,oipoifav Aip'Oewv,,
attempt to measure the magnitude of the earth has MeAXral, and aAoVhyol, are believed to have been
been spoken of above. The third book contained erroneously attributed to him. Athenaeus menthe political geography, and gave descriptions of tions a work of Eratosthenes entitled'Apororw
the various countries, derived from the storks of (vii. p. 276), Epistles (x. p. 418),. one -Epistle adearlier travellers and geographers. In order to be dressed to the Lacedaemonian Agetor (xi. p. 482),
able to determine the accurate site of each place, and lastly, a work called'Apler-cv, after his teacher
he drew a line parallel with the equator, running in philosophy. (vii. p. 281.)
from the pillars of Heracles to the extreme east of His historical productions are closely connected
Asia, and dividing the whole of theinhabited earth with his mathematical pursuits. He is said- to
into two halves. Connected with this work was a have written on the expedition of Alexander the
new map of the earth, in which towns, mountains, Great (Plut. Alex. 3, 31, &c.; Arrian, Anab. r. 5.
rivers, lakes, and climates were marked according ~ 3); but the statements quoted from it belonged
to his own improved measurements. This impor- in all probability to his geographical or chronolotant work of Eratosthenes forms an epoch- in the gical work. Another on the history of the Galahistory of ancient geography; but unfortunately it tians (raxaTrcd), of which the 33rd book is quoted
is lost, and all that. has survived consists in frag- by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.'"Tapl Aa), was
undoubtedly the work of another Eratosthenes.
* This is not so much as the error of Fernel's (Schmidt, de Gall. Exped. p. 15, &c.; Bernhardy,
measure, which so many historians, by'assuming 1. c. p. 243, &c.) There was, however, a very imhim, contrary to his own statement, to have used portant chronological work, entitled Xpovo~ypapia
the Parisian foot, have supposed to have been, ac- or XpovoypaiicZv, which was unquestionably the
cidentally, very correct. See the Penny Cyclo- production of our Eratosthenes. - In it the author
paedia, Art. "WWeights and.Measures."' endeavoured to fix the dates of all the important