and faulty application of the
correct principle should have been made is not surprising. Neither need
we concern ourselves with the details as to the geographical distances,
which Strabo found so worthy of criticism and controversy. But in
leaving the great geographer we may emphasize his point of view and that
of his contemporaries by quoting three fundamental principles which
he reiterates as being among the "facts established by natural
philosophers." He tells us that "(1) The earth and heavens are
spheroidal. (2) The tendency of all bodies having weight is towards
a centre. (3) Further, the earth being spheroidal and having the same
centre as the heavens, is motionless, as well as the axis that passes
through both it and the heavens. The heavens turn round both the earth
and its axis, from east to west. The fixed stars turn round with it at
the same rate as the whole. These fixed stars follow in their course
parallel circles, the principal of which are the equator, two tropics,
and the arctic circles; while the planets, the sun, and the moon
describe certain circles comprehended within the zodiac."(4)

Here, then, is a curious mingling of truth and error. The Pythagorean
doctrine that the earth is round had become a commonplace, but it would
appear that the theory of Aristarchus, according to which the earth is
in motion, has been almost absolutely forgotten. Strabo does not so much
as refer to it; neither, as we shall see, is it treated with greater
respect by the other writers of the period.

TWO FAMOUS EXPOSITORS--PLINY AND PTOLEMY

While Strabo was pursuing his geographical studies at Alexandria, a
young man came to Rome who was destined to make his name more widely
known in scientific annals than that of any other Latin writer of
antiquity. This man was Plinius Secundus, who, to distinguish him from
his nephew, a famous writer in another field, is usually spoken of as
Pliny the Elder. There is a famous story to the effect that the great
Roman historian Livy on one occasion addressed a casual associate in the
amphitheatre at Rome, and on learning that the stranger hailed from the
outlying Spanish province of the empire, remarked to him, "Yet you
have doubtless heard of my writings even there." "Then," replied the
stranger, "you must be either Livy or Pliny."

The anecdote illustrates the wide fame which the Roman naturalist
achieved in his own day. And the records of the Middle Ages show that
this populari