CHAP. XL] THE MITHRIDATIC WAR. 21J
smaller scale, in Africa owing to the increasing intercourse of the
Greeks with Egypt. Regions still more remote were also gradually
revealed by the agency of adventurous explorers, such as Hanno
the Carthaginian, who visited the west coast of Africa, and Pytheas,
who penetrated into the northern seas. Then followed the ex-
pedition of Alexander, which marked an era in the extension of
the subject, both on account of the immense area which was then
for the first time brought within the field of knowledge, and
because the cities which were founded by that conqueror in various
parts of his newly acquired dominions served as centres for ob-
taining additional information. In this way the knowledge which
prevailed in antiquity of the Ganges valley, and of the customs
and institutions of its inhabitants, was once for all obtained by
Megasthenes, and more accurate intelligence concerning the
neighbourhood of the Red Sea and the shores of the Indian
Ocean was brought to Alexandria under the Ptolemies. But
when, after the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C., and the
capture of Corinth by Mummius in the same year,
the preponderance of power passed from the east
to the west, and the Romans found that they were able to attempt
the conquest of distant countries, the campaigns in which their
.armies were engaged led them from time to time into regions as
yet but little known, and thus contributed fresh materials for con-
structing the map of the world. The most considerable expansion
of geographical knowledge at this time was in the direction of
western Europe, as might be expected from the limited acquaint-
ance which the Greeks had previously possessed with that part of
the globe; but in the other continents also a considerable area of
country was now for the first time explored.
On the side of Asia the third Mithridatic war furnished the
.chief opportunity of acquiring information about
lands as yet imperfectly knowihj Mithridates, king Jj£S5^&
*bf Pontus, who had amassed enormous treasures, Mithridatic
and possessed a krge and well-disciplined army,
had extended his dominions in Asia Minor over part of Cappa-
docia, and over Armenia Minor, the district which lay to the
westward of the Euphrates; and advancing toward the north had
subjugated not only Colchis, but the Tauric Chersonese, and to