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the earth, do not say they have been prevented from continuing their voyage by any opposing continent, for the sea remained perfectly open, but through want of resolution, and the scarcity of provision. This theory too accords better with the ebb and flow of the ocean, for the phenomenon, both in the increase and diminution, is every where identical, or at all events has but little difference, as if produced by the agitation of one sea, and resulting from one cause. 9
We must not credit Hipparchus, who combats this opinion, denying that the ocean is every where similarly affected; or that even if it were, it would not follow that the Atlantic flowed in a circle, and thus continually returned into itself. Seleucus, the Babylonian, is his authority for this assertion. For a further investigation of the ocean and its tides we refer to Posidonius and Athenodorus, who have fully discussed this subject: we will now only remark that this view agrees better with the uniformity of the phenomenon; and that the greater the amount of moisture surrounding the earth, the easier would the heavenly bodies be supplied with vapours from thence. 10
Homer, besides the boundaries of the earth, which he
fully describes, was likewise well acquainted with the Mediterranean. Starting from the Pillars, note this sea is encompassed by Libya, Egypt, and Phoenicia, then by the coasts
opposite Cyprus, the Solymi, note Lycia, and Caria, and then by
the shore which stretches between Mycale note and Troas, and
the adjacent islands, every one of which he mentions, as well
as those of the Propontis note and the Euxine, as far as Colchis,
and the locality of Jason's expedition. Furthermore, he was
acquainted with the Cimmerian Bosphorus, note having known
the Cimmerians, note and that not merely by name, but as being
familiar with themselves. About his time, or a little before, they had ravaged the whole country, from the Bosphorus to Ionia. Their climate he characterizes as dismal, in
the following lines:—
With clouds and darkness veil'd, on whom the sun
Odyssey xi. 15 and 19.
Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye,
But sad night canopies the woeful race. note
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].