14 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.
ranean and the Euxine, information flowed in abundantly to
the parent states concerning the countries in their neighbourhood,
and was rapidly disseminated among the Greeks at large. At
„ this early period Miletus, owing to its important
Miletus ana ' . _ .
the Ionian colonies on the Euxine, became the chiet centre of
School. geographical enquiry; and the philosophers of the
Ionian school, of which that city was the headquarters, availed
themselves of the knowledge thus obtained to aid their specula-
tions on the origin and nature of the earth. The theories which
they put forward on these points may have been crude and tenta-
tive, but they mark an important advance in the treatment of the
subject, because the spirit of mere wonder which had hitherto
prevailed, and had associated unfamiliar sights with the working
of supernatural agencies, was now giving way before the investiga-
tion of natural causes. Miletus also gave birth to the first
treatise on geography in the work of Hccatacus. The
westward advance of Persia to the neighbourhood
of the Aegean, and the subsequent conflict between that empire
and Greece, together with the increasing familiarity of the Greeks
with Egypt, further widened the field of view; and the progress
thus obtained is embodied in the History of Herodotus. Then
follow a succession of expeditions in lands hitherto
ditiSS EKpe" unknown—the voyage of Hanno along the western
coast of Africa, the retreat of the Ten Thousand
under Xenophon through Armenia, and above all the eastern
campaigns of Alexander, in the course of which
a vast area of country was f°r the first time re-
vealed. The cities which were founded by that
great conqueror, and the interest in the pursuit of knowledge that
was displayed by his successors in Egypt and in Asia, aided still
further the advance of discovery. But the event which more than
any other served to foster the science of geography was the
foundation of Alexandria. That city, from its
central position in respect of the three continents,
and from the attractions which it offered to traders,
at once became a focus of information; and its famous Museum
was the resort of men of science, like Eratosthenes and Hipparchus,
by whose researches mathematical geography was established on a