With Respect
To The Caspian, His Information Affords A Striking Proof Of His Accuracy,
Even When Gained, As It Was
In this instance, from the accounts of others.
He describes it expressly as a sea by itself, unconnected with any
Other:
its length, he adds, is as much as a vessel with oars can navigate in
fifteen days: its greatest breadth as much as such a vessel can navigate in
eight days. It may be added, as a curious proof and illustration of the
decline of geographical knowledge, or, at least, of the want of confidence
placed in the authority of Herodotus by subsequent ancient geographers,
that Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny, represent the Caspian Sea as a bay,
communicating with the great Northern Ocean; and that even Arrian, who, in
respect to care and accuracy, bears no slight resemblance to Herodotus, and
for some time resided as governor of Cappadocia, asserts that there was a
communication between the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Ocean.
But to return from this digression to the geographical knowledge of
Herodotus, as derived from his own travels, he visited Babylon and Susa,
and while there, or perhaps in excursions from those places, made himself
well acquainted with the Persian empire. The whole of Egypt was most
diligently and thoroughly explored by him, as well as the Grecian colonies
planted at Cyrene, in Lybia. He traced the course of the river Ister, from
its mouth nearly as far as its source. The extent of his travels in Greece
is not accurately known; but his description of the Straits of Thermopylae
is evidently the result of his own observation.
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