(Ann. iii. 71) mentions a temple of Fortuna Eques
tris at Antium.
[L. S.]

ve

draw the Aedui into the Gallic confederacy against | Rome, and enabled him at first to counteract them. But soon afterwards he himself revolted, together with Viridomarus, and this completed the defection of his countrymen. Ambition was clearly his motive, for he was much mortified when the Gauls chose Vercingetorix for their commanderin-chief. (Caes. B. G. vii. 34, 38-40, 54, 55, 63; Plut. Caes. 26, 27; Dion Cass. xl. 37.) He appears to have been the person who was sent in command of an Aeduan force to the relief of Vercingetorix at Alesia, and a different one from the Eporedorix, who was previously taken prisoner by the Romans in a battle of cavalry, and who is mentioned as having commanded the Aedui in a ERASI'NIDES ('Epaowvidns), was one of the war with the Sequani some time before Caesar's ten commanders appointed to supersede Alcibiades arrival in Gaul. (Caes. B. G. vii. 67, 76; Dion after the battle of Notium, B. c. 407. (Xen. Hell Cass. xl. 40.) [E. E.] i. 5. 16; Diod. xiii. 74; Plut. Alc. 36.) Ac M. E'PPIUS M. F., a Roman senator, and a cording to the common reading in Xenophon (Hell member of the tribe Terentina, took an active parti. 6. § 16), he and Leon were with Conon when in favour of Pompey on the breaking out of the he was chased by Callicratidas to Mytilene. But civil war in B. c. 49. He was one of the legates we find Erasinides mentioned afterwards as one of of Q. Metellus Scipio in the African war, and was the eight who commanded at Arginusae (Xen pardoned by Caesar, with many others of his party, | Hell. i. 6. § 29; Aristoph. Ran. 1194); either after the battle of Thapsus in B. c. 46. His name therefore, as Morus and Schneider suggest, Arches occurs as one of Scipio's legates on a coin, which tratus must be substituted for both the above is figured helow. The obverse represents a wo- names in the passage of Xenophon, or we must suppose that Erasinides commanded the trireme which escaped to Athens with the news of Conon's blockade. (Xen. Hell. i. 6. §§ 19-22; Lys 'Аπоλ. dwрod. p. 162; Schneid. ad Xen. Hell. i. 6.

L. EQUITIUS, said to have been a runaway Re slave, gave himself out as a son of Ti. Gracchu ov and was in consequence elected tribune of the pleb his for B. c. 99. While tribune designatus, he took len an active part in the designs of Saturninus, and was killed with him in B. c. 100: Appian say that his death happened on the day on which he entered upon his office. (Appian, B. C. i. 32, 33; th Val. Max. iii. 2. § 18; Cic. pro Sest. 47, who call th him insitivus Gracchus, and pro C. Rabir. 7, wher he is described as ille ex compedibus atque ergastul Gracchus.)

SCIPIOIMP

LEG.F.C

.

EPPIVE

16; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iv. p. 119, note 3.) Erasinides was among the six generals who returned to Athens after the victory at Arginusae and were put to death, B. c. 406. Archedemus, in fact, took man's head, covered with an elephant's skin, and the first step against them by imposing a fine likewise an ear of corn and a plough, all of which | (èπisoλn) on Erasinides, and then calling him to have reference to the province of Africa, with Q. account before a court of justice for retaining some METEL. SCIPIO IMP. On the reverse there is a public money which he had received in the Hel figure of Hercules, with EPPIVS LEG. F. C. The lespont. On this charge Erasinides was thrown last two letters probably represent Faciundum or into prison, and the success of the prosecution in Feriundum Curavit, or Flandum Curavit, and indi- the particular case paved the way to the more cate that the denarius was struck by order of Eppius. serious attack on the whole body of the generals. It appears from another coin, in which his name (Xen. Hell. i. 7. §§ 1-34; Diod. xiii. 101.) [E. E.] occurs as the legate of Pompey, that after he had been pardoned by Caesar he went into Spain and renewed the war under Sex. Pompey in B. c. 46 and 45. (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 8. §§ 5, 6, where the old editions incorrectly read M. Oppius, ad Att. wiii. 11, B.; Hirtius, Bell. Afric. 89; Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 206, 207.)

EPPONI'NA. [SABINUS, JULIUS.]

E'PRIUS MARCELLUS. [MARCELLUS.] E'PYTUS, a Trojan, who clung to Aeneias in the night, when Troy was destroyed. He was the father of Periphas, who was a companion of Julus, and who is called by the patronymic Epytides. Virg. Aen. ii. 340, v. 547, 579; Hom. Il. xvii. 323.) [L. S.]

EQUESTER, and in Greek "ITπios, occurs as a surname of several divinities, such as Poseidon (Neptune), who had created the horse, and in whose honour horse-races were held (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 12; Liv. i. 9; Paus. v. 15. § 4), of Aphrodite (Serv. ad Aen. i. 724), Hera (Paus. v. 15. § 4), Athena (Paus. i. 30. § 4, 31. § 3, v. 15. § 4, viii. 47. § 1), and Ares. (Paus. V. 15. 4.) The Roman goddess Fortuna bore the same surname, and the consul Flaccus vowed a temple to her in B. c. 180, during a battle against the Celtiberians. (Liv. xl. 40, xlii. 3.) Tacitus

ERASI'STRATUS ('Epaoloτpatos), one of the most celebrated physicians and anatomists of antiquity, is generally supposed to have been born at Iulis in the island of Ceos (Suidas, s. v. 'Epaoloтp.; Strab. x. 5, p. 389, ed. Tauchn.), though Stepha nus Byzantinus (s. v. Kas) calls him a native of Cos, Galen of Chios (Introd. c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 683), and the emperor Julian of Samos. (Misopog. p. 347.) Pliny says he was the grandson of Aristotle by his daughter Pythias (H. N. xxix. 3), but this is not confirmed by any other ancient writer; and according to Suidas, he was the son of Cretoxena, the sister of the physician Medius, and Cleombrotus; from which expression it is not quite clear whether Cleombrotus was his father or his uncle. He was a pupil of Chrysippus of Cnidos (Diog. Laërt. vii. 7. § 10, p. 186; Plin. H. N. xxix. 3; Galen, de Ven. Sect. adv. Erasistr. c. 7, vol. xi. 171), Metrodorus (Sext. Empir. c. Mathem. 12, p. 271, ed. Fabric.) and apparently Theophras tus. (Galen, de Sang. in Arter. c. 7, vol. iv. p. 729.) He lived for some time at the court of Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria, where he acquired great reputation by discovering the disease of Antiochus, the king's eldest son, probably B. C. 294. Seleucus in his old age had lately married Stratonice, the young and beautiful daughter of Deme

P.

no

W

h

9

0

t

T

p

h

to

numerous pupils and followers, and a medical school bearing his name continued to exist at Smyrna in Ionia nearly till the time of Strabo, about the beginning of the Christian era. (Strab. xii. 8, sub fin.) The following are the names of the most celebrated physicians belonging to the sect founded by him: Apoemantes (Galen, de Venae Sect. adv. Erasistr. c. 2, vol. xi. p. 151), Apollonius Memphites, Apollophanes (Cael. Aurel. de Morb. Acut. ii. 33, p. 150) Artemidorus, Charidemus, Chrysippus, Heraclides, Hermogenes, Hicesius, Martialis, Menodorus, Ptolemaeus, Strato, Xenophon. He wrote several works on anatomy, practical medicine, and pharmacy, of which only the titles remain, together with a great number of short fragments preserved by Galen, Caelius Aurelianus, and other ancient writers: these, however, are sufficient to enable us to form a tolerably correct idea of his opinions both as a physician and an anatomist. It is in the latter character that he is most celebrated, and perhaps there is no one of the ancient physicians that did more to promote that branch of medical science. He appears to have been very near the discovery of the circulation of the blood, for in a passage preserved by Galen (de Usu Part. vi. 12, vol. iii. p. 465) he expresses himself as follows:-" The vein arises from the part where the arteries, that are distributed to the whole body, have their origin, and penetrates to the sanguineous [or right] ventricle [of the heart]; and the artery [or pulmonary vein] arises from the part where the veins have their origin, and penetrates to the pneumatic [or left] ventricle of the heart." The description is not very clear, but seems to shew that he supposed the venous and arterial systems to be more intimately connected than was generally believed; which is confirmed by another passage in which he is said to have differed from the other ancient anatomists, who supposed the veins to arise from the liver, and the arteries from the heart, and to have contended that the heart was the origin both of the veins and the arteries. (Galen, de Hip

*

ius Poliorcetes, and she had already borne him 'ne child. (Plut. Demetr. c. 38; Appian, de Rebus Syr. c. 59.) Antiochus feli violently in ve with his mother-in-law, but did not disclose is passion, and chose rather to pine away in sience. The physicians were quite unable to discoer the cause and nature of his disease, and Eraistratus himself was at a loss at first, till, finding othing amiss about his body, he began to suspect hat it must be his mind which was diseased, and hat he might perhaps be in love. This conjecture vas confirmed when he observed his skin to be hotter, his colour to be heightened, and his pulse quickened, whenever Stratonice came near him, while none of these symptoms occurred on any other occasion; and accordingly he told Seleucus that his son's disease was incurable, for that he was in love, and that it was impossible that his passion could be gratified. The king wondered what the difficulty could be, and asked who the lady was. "My wife," replied Erasistratus; upon which Seleucus began to persuade him to give her (up to his son. The physician asked him if he would do so himself if it were his wife that the prince was in love with. The king protested that he would most gladly; upon which Erasistratus told him that it was indeed his own wife who had inspired his passion, and that he chose rather to die than to disclose his secret. Seleucus was as good as his word, and not only gave up Stratonice, but also resigned to his son several provinces of this empire. This celebrated story is told with more or less variation by many ancient authors, (Appian, de Rebus Syr. c. 59-61; Galen, de Praenot. ad Epig. c. 6. vol. xiv. p. 630; Julian, Misopog. p. 347, ed. Spanheim; Lucian, de Syria Dea, g 17, 18; Plin. H. N. xxix. 3; Plut. Demetr. c. 38; Suidas, s. v. 'Epaolorp.; Jo. Tzetz. Chil. vii. Hist. 118; Valer. Max. v. 7), and a similar anecdote has been told of Hippocrates (SoFranus, Vita Hippocr. in Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. p. 1852), Galen (de Praenot. ad Epig. c. 6. vol. xiv. p. 630), Avicenna (see Biogr. Dict. of the Usef.pocr. et Plat. Decr. vi. 6, vol. v. p. 552.) With Knowl. Soc.), and (if the names be not fictitious) of Panacius (Aristaen. Epist. i. 13) and Acestinus. (Heliod. Aethiop. iv. 7. p. 171.) If this is the anecdote referred to by Pliny (l. c.), as is proir bably the case, Erasistratus is said to have received one hundred talents for being the means of restoring the prince to health, which (supposing the Attic standard to be meant, and to be equal to 2431. 15s.) would amount to 24,3751.-one of the largest medical fees upon record.

Very little more is known of the personal history of Erasistratus: he lived for some time at Alexandria, which was at that time beginning to be a celebrated medical school, and gave up d practice in his old age, that he might pursue his anatomical studies without interruption. (Galen, de Hippocr. et Plat. Decr. vii. 3, vol. v. p. 602.) I He prosecuted his experiments and researches in this branch of medical science with great success, and with such ardour that he is said to have dissected criminals alive. (Cels. de Medic. i. praef. p. 6.) He appears to have died in Asia e Minor, as Snidas mentions that he was buried by mount Mycale in Ionia. The exact date of his death is not known, but he probably lived to a good old age, as, according to Eusebius, he was alive B. c. 258, about forty years after the marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice. He had

these ideas, it can have been only his belief that the arteries contained air, and not blood, that hindered his anticipating Harvey's celebrated discovery. The tricuspid valves of the heart are generally said to have derived their name from Erasistratus; but this appears to be an oversight, as Galen attributes it not to him, but to one of his followers. (De Hippocr. et Plat. Decr. vi. 6, vol. v. p. 548.) He appears to have paid particular attention to the anatomy of the brain, and in a passage out of one of his works preserved by Galen (ibid. vii. 3, vol. v. p. 603) speaks as if he had himself dissected a human brain. Galen says (ibid. p. 602) that before Erasistratus had more closely examined into the origin of the nerves, he imagined that they arose from the dura mater and not from the substance of the brain; and that it was not till he was advanced in life that he satisfied himself by actual inspection that such was not the case. According to Rufus Ephesius, he divided the nerves into those of sensation and those of motion, of which the former he considered to be hollow and to arise from the membranes of the brain, the latter from the substance of

*He is speaking of the pulmonary artery, which received the name pλé àpτnpions from Herophilus. See Ruf. Ephes. de Appell. Part Corp. Hum. p. 42.

the brain itself and of the cerebellum. (De Appell. Part. &c. p. 65.) It is a remarkable instance at once of blindness and presumption, to find this acute physiologist venturing to assert, that the spleen (Galen, de Atra Bile, c.7. vol. v. p. 131), the bile (id. de Facult. Natur. ii. 2, vol. ii. p. 78), and several other parts of the body (id. Comment. in Hippocr. “De Alim." iii. 14. vol. xv. p. 308), were entirely useless to animals. In the conroversy that was carried on among the ancients as to whether fluids when drunk passed through the trachea into the lungs, or through the oesophagus into the stomach, Erasistratus maintained the latter opinion. (Plut. Sympos. vii. 1; Gell. xvii. 11, Macrob. Saturn. vii. 15.) He is also supposed to have been the first person who added to the word dprnpía, which had hitherto designated the canal leading from the mouth to the lungs, the epithet Tpaxea, to distinguish it from the arteries, and hence to have been the originator of the modern name trachea. He attributed the sensation of hunger to vacuity of the stomach, and said that the Scythians were accustomed to tie a belt tightly round their middle, to enable them to abstain from food for a longer time without suffering inconvenience. (Gell. xvi. 3.) The TVεûμa, or spiritual substance, played a very important part both in his system of physiology and pathology: he supposed it to enter the lungs by the trachea, thence to pass by the pulmonary veins into the heart, and thence to be diffused throughout the whole body by means of the arteries (Galen, de Differ. Puls. iv. 2, vol. viii. p. 703, et alibi); that the use of respiration was to fill the arteries with air (id. de Usu Respir. c. 1. vol. iv. p. 471); and that the pulsation of the arteries was caused by the movements of the pneuma. He accounted for diseases in the same way, and supposed that as long as the pneuma continued to fill the arteries and the blood was confined to the veins, the individual was in good health; but that when the blood from some cause or other got forced into the arteries, inflammation and fever was the consequence. (Galen, de Venae Sect. adv. Erasistr. c. 2. vol. xi. p. 153, &c.; Plut. de Philosoph. Plac. v. 29.) Of his mode of cure the most remarkable peculiarity was his aversion to bloodletting and purgative medicines: he seems to have relied chiefly on diet and regimen, bathing, exercise, friction, and the most simple articles of the vegetable kingdom. In surgery he was celebrated for the invention of a catheter that bore his name, and was of the shape of a Roman S. (Galen, Introd. c. 13. vol. xiv. p. 751.) Further information repecting his medical and anatomical opinions may be found in Le Clerc, Hist. de la Méd.; Haller, Biblioth. Anat. and Biblioth. Medic. Pract.; Sprengel, Hist. de la Méd.; and also in the following works, which the writer has never seen: Jo. Frid. Henr. Hieronymi Dissert. Inaug. exhibens Erasistrati Erasistrateorumque Historiam, Jen. 1790, 8vo.; F. H. Schwartz, Herophilus und Erasistratus, eine historische Parallele, Inaug. Abhandl., Würzburg, 1826, 8vo..; Jerem. Rud. Lichtenstadt, Erasistratus als Vorgänger von Broussais, in Hecker's Annal. der Heilkunde, 1830, xvii. 153.

2. Erasistratus of Sicyon, must have lived in or before the first century after Christ, as he is mentioned by Asclepiades Pharmacion (apud Galen. de Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, x. 3, vol. xiii. p. 356). [W.A.G.]

11

ERASTUS (Epaσros), of Scepsis in Troas, is th mentioned along with Coriscus, a native of the same place, among the disciples of Plato (Diog. Laërt. iii. 46); and the sixth among the letter attributed to Plato is addressed to those two Scep- an sians. Strabo (xiii. p. 608) classes both men lec among the Socratic philosophers. (Ast, Platon's Er Leben u. Schrift. p. 519; C. F. Hermann, Gesch. in System d. Plat. Philos. i. pp. 425, 592, &c.) [L. S.] 8v ERA'TIDAE ('Eparídai), an ancient illustrious G family in the island of Rhodes. The Eratidae of of Ialysus in Rhodes are described by Pindar (OL F vii. 20, &c.; comp. Böckh, Explicat. p. 165) as descended from Tlepolemus and the Heracleidae, of whom a colony seems to have gone from Argos to Rhodes. Damagetus and his son Diagoras be longed to the family of the Eratidae. [DAMAGE TUS, DIAGORAS.] [L. S.]

E'RATO ('Epar), a nymph and the wife of Arcas, by whom she became the mother of Elatus, Apheidas, and Azan. She was said to have been a prophetic priestess of the Arcadian Pan. (Paus. viii. 27. § 9; ARCAS.) There are two other mythical personages of this name, the one a Muse and the other a Nereid. (Apollod. i. 3. § 1, 2 § 6; Hes. Theog. 247.) [L. S.]

ERATOSTHENES ('Epaтoσlévns). 1. One of the Thirty Tyrants. (Xen. Hell. ii. 3. § 2.) There is an oration of Lysias against him (Or. 12), which was delivered soon after the expulsion of the Thirty and the return of Lysias from exile. (Clinton, F. H. sub ann. B. c. 403.) 2. The person for whose slaughter by Euphiletus, the first oration of Lysias is a defence. (Lys. p. 2, &c.) [P. S.]

ERATO'STHENES ('Epaтoσ0évns), of Cyrene, was, according to Suidas, the son of Aglaus, according to others, the son of Ambrosius, and was born B. c. 276. He was taught by Ariston of Chius, the philosopher, Lysanias of Cyrene, the grammarian, and Callimachus, the poet. He left Athens at the invitation of Ptolemy Evergetes, who placed him over the library at Alexandria. Here he continued till the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes. He died at the age of eighty, about B. c. 196, of voluntary starvation, having lost his sight, and being tired of life. He was a man of very extensive learning: we shall first speak of him as a geometer and astronomer.

It is supposed that Eratosthenes suggested to Ptolemy Evergetes the construction of the large armillae or fixed circular instruments which were long in use at Alexandria: but only because it is difficult to imagine to whom else they are to be assigned; for Ptolemy (the astronomer), though he mentions them, and incidentally their antiquity, does not state to whom they were due. In these circles each degree was divided into six parts. We know of no observations of Eratosthenes in which they were probably employed, except those which led him to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which he must have made to be 23° 51′ 20′′; for he states the distance of the tropics to be eleven times the eighty-third part of the circumference. This was a good observation for the time: Ptolemy (the astronomer) was content with it, and, according to him, Hipparchus used no other. Of his measure of the earth we shall presently speak. According to Nicomachus, he was the inventor of the xóaKivov or Cribrum Arithmeticum, as it has since been called, being the well known method of detecting the prime numbers by writing down all odd numbers which do not end with 5, and striking out

ag

F

S

F

successively the multiples of each, one after the other, so that only prime numbers remain.

We still possess under the name of Eratosthenes a work, entitled Karaσтeploμol, giving a slight account of the constellations, their fabulous history, and the stars in them. It is, however, acknowledged on all hands that this is not a work of Eratosthenes. It has been shewn by Bernhardy in his Eratosthenica (p. 110, &c., Berlin, 1822, 8vo.) to be a miserable compilation made by some Greek grammarian from the Poëticon Astronomicon of Hyginus. This book was printed (Gr.) in Dr. Fell's, or the Oxford, edition of Aratus, 1762, 8vo.; again (Gr. Lat.) by Thomas Gale, in the Opuscula Physica et Ethica, Amsterdam, 1688, 8vo.; also by Schaubach, with notes by Heyne, Göttingen, 1795, 8vo.; also by F. K. Matthiae, in his Aratus, Frankfort, 1817, 8vo., and more recently by A. Westermann, in his Scriptores Historiae poeticae Graeci, pp. 239-267. The short comment on Aratus, attributed to Eratosthenes, and first printed by Peter Victorius, and afterwards by Petavius in his Uranologion (1630, fol.), is also named in the title of both as being attributed to Hipparchus as well as to Eratosthenes. Petavius remarks (says Fabricius) that it can be attributed to neither; for Hipparchus is mentioned by name, also the month of July, also the barbarous word dλeтρоróStov for Orion, which the more recent Greeks never used: these reasons do not help each other, for the second shews the work to be posterior to Eratosthenes, if anything, and the third shews it to be prior. But on looking into this comment we find that deтpоódiov and July (and also August) are all mentioned in one sentence, which is evidently an interpolation; and the constellation Orion is frequently mentioned under that name. But Hipparchus certainly is mentioned.

cess by which we now know, very nearly indeed, the magnitude of our own planet. Delambre says that if it were he who advised the erection of the circular instruments above alluded to, he must be considered as the founder of astronomy: to which it may be added that he was the founder of geodesy, without any if in the case. The number of ancient writers who have alluded to this remarkable operation (which seems to have obtained its full measure of fame) is very great, and we shall not attempt to combine their remarks or surmises: it is enough to say that the most distinct account, and one of the earliest, is found in the remaining work of CLEOMEDES.

At Syene, in Upper Egypt, which is supposed to be the same as, or near to, the town of Assouan (Lat. 24° 10' N., Long. 32° 59′ E. of Greenwich), Eratosthenes was told (that he observed is very doubtful), that deep wells were enlightened to the bottom on the day of the summer solstice, and that vertical objects cast no shadows. He concluded, therefore, that Syene was on the tropic, and its latitude equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which, as we have seen, he had determined: he presumed that it was in the same longitude as Alexandria, in which he was out about 3o, which is not enough to produce what would at that time have been a sensible error. By observations made at Alexandria, he determined the zenith of that place to be distant by the fiftieth part of the circumference from the solstice, which was equivalent to saying that the arc of the meridian between the two places is 7° 12'. Cleomedes says that he used the oxάon, or hemispherical dial of Berosus, in the determination of this latitude. Delambre rejects the idea with infinite scorn, and pronounces Cleomedes unworthy of credit; and, indeed, it is not easy to see why Eratosthenes should have rejected the gnomon and the large circular instruments, unless, perhaps, for the following reason: There is a sentence of Cleomedes which seems to imply that the disappearance of the shadows at Syene on the day of the summer solstice was noticed to take place for 300 stadia every way round Syene. İf Eratosthenes took his report about the phenomenon (and we have no evidence that he went to Syene himself) from those who could give no better account than this, we may easily understand why he would think the okápn quite accurate enough to observe with at his own end of the arc, since the other end of it was uncertain by as much as 300 stadia. He gives 5000 stadia for the distance from Alexandria to Syene, and this round number seems further to justify us in concluding that he thought the process to be as rough as in truth it was. Martianus Capella (p. 194) states that he obtained this distance from the measures made by order of the Ptolemies (which had been These are the only months mentioned in the commenced by Alexander); this writer then imcomment: Orion, which the vulgar call aλeтpоnó-plies that Eratosthenes did not go to Syene himself. Stov, first rises in July, and Procyon in August. It is not stated anywhere else in what month a star first rises, nor is any other month mentioned at all. Probably some interpolator, subsequent to Augustus, introduced this sentence rather to fix the astronomical character of the new named months in his own or his reader's mind, than to give information on the constellations. It also appears that dλeтpoπbdiov was the word which was used by the vulgar (idiarais) for Orion, after July and August had received their imperial names.

The only other writing of Eratosthenes which remains is a letter to Ptolemy on the duplication of the cube, for the mechanical performance of which he had contrived an instrument, of which he seems to contemplate actual use in measuring the contents of vessels, &c. He seems to say that he has had his method engraved in some temple or ¡ public building, with some verses which he adds. Eutocius has preserved this letter in his comment on book ii. prop. 2 of the sphere and cylinder of Archimedes.

The greatest work of Eratosthenes, and that which must always make his name conspicuous in scientific history, is the attempt which he made to measure the magnitude of the earth,-in which he brought forward and used the method which is employed to this day. Whether or no he was successful cannot be told, as we shall see; but it is not y the less true that he was the originator of the pro

The result is 250,000 stadia for the circumference of the earth, which Eratosthenes altered into 252,000, that his result might give an exact number of stadia for the degree, namely, 700; this, of course, should have been 6944. Pliny (H. N. ii. 108) calls this 31,500 Roman miles, and therefore supposes the stadium to be the eighth part of a Roman mile, or takes for granted that Eratosthenes used the Olympic stadium. It is likely enough that the Ptolemies naturalized this stadium in Egypt; but, nevertheless, it is not unlikely that an Egyptian

stadium was employed. If we assume the Olym-ments quoted by later geographers and historian 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 prove stadium. Pliny (l. c.) asserts that Hipparchus, but that, in a great many passages, they adopt his opi for what reason he does not say, wanted to add nions without mentioning his name. Marcian 25,000 stadia to the circumference as found by charges Eratosthenes with having copied the sub Eratosthenes. stance of the work of Timosthenes on Ports (TE Aquévwv), to which he added but very little of h

own.

This charge may be well-founded, but car not have diminished the value of the work of En tosthenes, in which that of Timosthenes can han formed only a very small portion. It seems t have been the very overwhelming importance of the geography of Eratosthenes that called forth number of opponents, among whom we meet with the names of Polemon, Hipparchus, Polybiu Serapion, and Marcianus of Heracleia. The frag ments of this work were first collected by L. Ancher Diatribe in Fragm. Geograph. Eratosth., Göttingen 1770, 4to., and afterwards by G. C. F. Seide Eratosth. Geograph. Fragm. Göttingen, 1789, 8 The best collection is that of Bernhardy in his Eratosthenica.

Another work of a somewhat similar nature, etitled 'Epuns (perhaps the same as the KaraσTepio mentioned above), was written in verse and treated of the form of the earth, its temperature, the diffe rent zones, the constellations, and the like. (Ben hardy, Eratosth. p. 110, &c.) Another poem, Ηριγόνη, is mentioned with great commendatim by Longinus. (De Sublim. 33. 5; comp. Schol. Hom. Il. x. 29; Bernhardy, l. c. p. 150, &c.)

According to Plutarch (de Plac. Phil. ii. 31), Eratosthenes made the sun to be 804 millions of stadia from the earth, and the moon 780,000; according to Macrobius (in Somn. Scip. i. 20), he made the diameter of the sun to be 27 times that of the earth. (Weidler, Hist. Astron.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 117, &c.; Delambre, Hist. de l'Astron. Anc.; Petavius, Uranologion.) [A. DE M.] With regard to the other merits of Eratosthenes, we must first of all mention what he did for geography, which was closely connected with his mathematical pursuits. It was Eratosthenes who raised geography to the rank of a science; for, previous to his time, it seems to have consisted, more or less, of a mass of information scattered in books of travel, descriptions of particular countries, and the like. All these treasures were accessible to Eratosthenes in the libraries of Alexandria; and he made the most profitable use of them, by collecting the scattered materials, and uniting them into an organic system of geography in his comprehensive work entitled Tewypapira, or as it is sometimes, but erroneously, called, γεωγραφούμενα οι γεωγραpía. (Strab. i. p. 29, ii. p. 67, xv. p. 688; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 259, 284, 310.) It consisted of three books, the first of which, forming a sort of introduction, contained a critical review of the labours of his predecessors from the earliest to his own times, and investigations concerning the form and nature of the earth, which, according to him, was an immovable globe, on the surface of which traces of a series of great revolutions were still visible. He conceived that in one of these revolutions the Mediterranean had acquired its present form; for, according to him, it was at one time a large lake covering portions of the adjacent countries of Asia and Libya, until a passage was forced open by which it entered into communication with the ocean in the west. The second book contained what is now called mathematical geography. His | attempt to measure the magnitude of the earth has been spoken of above. The third book contained the political geography, and gave descriptions of the various countries, derived from the works of earlier travellers and geographers. In order to be able to determine the accurate site of each place, he drew a line parallel with the equator, running from the pillars of Heracles to the extreme east of His historical productions are closely connected Asia, and dividing the whole of the inhabited earth with his mathematical pursuits. He is said t 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. v. 5. rivers, lakes, and climates were marked according§ 3); but the statements quoted from it belonge to his own improved measurements. This important work of Eratosthenes forms an epoch in the history of ancient geography; but unfortunately it is lost, and all that has survived consists in frag

Eratosthenes distinguished himself also as a phi losopher, historian, and grammarian. His acquir ments as a philosopher are attested by the works which are attributed to him, though we may no believe that all the philosophical works which bor his name were really his productions. It is, ho ever, certain that he wrote on subjects of mora philosophy, e. g. a work Пepì 'Ayalŵv kal Kam (Harpocrat. s. v. ápμoσтaí; Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. p. 496), another Пepl Пoúrou kal Пevías (Diog Laërt. ix. 66; Plut. Themist. 27), which some be lieve to have been only a portion of the preceding work, just as a third Пepl 'Aλuñías, which is mentioned by Suidas. Some other works, on the other hand, such as Περὶ τῶν κατὰ Φιλοσοφίαν Αἱρέσεων, Meλéral, and Aiάλoyoi, are believed to have bee erroneously attributed to him. Athenaeus mertions a work of Eratosthenes entitled 'Apowó (vii. p. 276), Epistles (x. p. 418), one Epistle ad dressed to the Lacedaemonian Agetor (xi. p. 482) and lastly, a work called 'Aploτwy, after his teacher in philosophy. (vii. p. 281.)

in all probability to his geographical or chronolo gical work. Another on the history of the Gala tians (TaλaTiká), of which the 33rd book is quoted by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. "Ydpnλa), was undoubtedly the work of another Eratosthenes (Schmidt, de Gall. Exped. p. 15, &c.; Bernhardy. c. p. 243, &c.) There was, however, a very in portant chronological work, entitled Xpovoypapia οι Χρονογραφιών, which was unquestionably the production of our Eratosthenes. In it the author endeavoured to fix the dates of all the important

*This is not so much as the error of Fernel's measure, which so many historians, by assumingl. him, contrary to his own statement, to have used the Parisian foot, have supposed to have been, accidentally, very correct. See the Penny Cyclopaedia, Art. "Weights and Measures."

e

C

2

0