The Ancients Also, While They Curtailed Those Parts Of The World
With Which They Were Unacquainted, Extended The Known Parts.
The limit of the Roman geography of Europe to the north was the Baltic,
beyond which they had some very imperfect and obscure notion of the south
of Sweden, and perhaps of Norway.
They were acquainted with the countries
on the eastern boundary of Europe lying on the Danube and the Vistula, and
the rivers Wolga and Tanais seem also to have been tolerably well known to
them. Of the whole of the west of Europe they were well informed, with the
exception of the general figure, and some part of the British isles.
With respect to Africa, the Romans seem to have been acquainted with
one-third of it. The promontory of Prasum was the limit of their knowledge
on the east coast: its limits on the western coast it is not so easy to
fix. The western horn was the limit of the voyage of Hanno, which,
according to some, is Cape Nun; and, according to others, Cape Three
Points, in Guinea; and we have observed already, that the Gulf of St.
Cyprian was probably the limit of Ptolemy's knowledge. The coasts of Africa
on the Mediterranean, and on the Red Sea, were of course well known to the
Romans; and some points of their information respecting the interior were
clear and accurate, but, as for these, they trusted almost entirely to the
reports of merchants, they were as frequently erroneous.
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