GEOGRAPHY.
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mined the latitude and longitude of places; and fixed thescience upon certain and unerring principles, by his celestialobservations: lie also determined on the first degree of lon-gitude, and fixed it at Ferro, one of the Canaries, where itlias nearly ever since his time been calculated from; but oflate years, geographers of different nations, have usuallyreckoned from the capitals of their respective native king-doms.
Tile knowledge of geography in ancient days, was ex-tremely circumscribed, until as late as the conquests ofAlexander, who was careful to take with him on his orientalexpedition, two men well skilled in all the learning of thisscience, which the times then afforded, Diogenes and Beton,who admeasured and delineated the progress of his army;they were also extremely careful to procure the best infor-mation which the natives of those countries, through which itpassed, could render them. Not less careful was the next greatconqueror, the imperial Ctesar, and succeeding Roman com-manders, in this respect, for they had delineated the variouskingdoms and provinces they subjugated, with an exactnesswhich astonishes modern geographers. They used regularlyto delineate the countries over which the Roman eagle flew,on maps, which they ornamented with the representations ofthe natives of the various countries, in their several costumes.This representation formed a portion of their procession onthe return of the commanders in triumphal entry into thecity of Rome. They also exhibited draughts of these figureson their theatrical scenery 1 or purple curtains, (intexti,)which, on the Roman stage, contrary to our custom, were tobe raised (tolli) from the flooring to the roof, where thefigures appeared to rise gradually with the curtain, as isbeautifully described by Ovid . 1 Whence the Britons, afterthe Roman conquest of the country, were said to raise theircurtains . 1 It has been also conceived possible, that some cap-tives or slaves of this people were employed for that purpose;for in the opinion of Servius, the words of Virgil will admit ofboth interpretations. These circumstances are mentionedpurposely to show the trouble the ancient conquerors took topreserve everything which would serve to illustrate the historyof the people they had subdued; and, at the same lime, topreserve every vestige of the geography of its districts, itsrivers, towns, shores, &c. were ail accurately surveyed andcorrectly delineated, as previously noticed. Before the con-
3 VjrgiJ, ibidem.
T 2