256 STRABO. [CHAP.
in this part, which causes it to be the least satisfactory section
of the Geography. The chief reason for this is to be found in
Strabo's extravagant veneration for Homer as a
geographical authority. In this he was only follow-
jng the example of most of his predecessors, espe-
° ^ cially Hipparchus, Polybius, and Posidonius, to
whom the Homeric poems had become a sort of Sacred Book,
the statements contained in which might not be questioned \ and
Eratosthenes, who opposed the view that points in general
geography were to be determined in accordance with the poet's
expressions, became the object of attacks in consequence. In
Strabo's case two other influences tended to increase his bias in
that direction—one his Stoic opinions, for an excessive devotion
to Homer had become one of the tenets of that sect: the other
his connexion with the literary school of Pergamus, which was
now at feud with that of Alexandria on this very question, and
maintained the more advanced estimate of the Homeric claims.
In consequence of this Strabo's judgment was hampered in a
prejudicial manner, and in describing Greece he makes Homer
his text-book, and employs himself chiefly with the examination
of his geographical statements. Even his general information
seems to have been to a great extent derived from commentators,
such as Apollodorus and Demetrius of Scepsis, rather than from
writers on topography. He made use, however, of the geographical
treatise of Ephorus, to which he refers in several passages. For-
tunately, the remarkable physical geography of Greece attracted
his attention, and he has left us interesting notices, not only of
the striking conformation of land and sea which distinguishes its
coasts, but also of the subterranean drainage of particular districts,
especially the Arcadian valleys and the basin of the Copaic lake.
His principal error in this part relates to the position of the pro-
montory of Sunium, which he supposed to extend nearly as far
south as that of Malea1.
In his eleventh bopfc Sfr-ahn conducts us into Asia, the
Northern boundary between which and Europe according
and central to him is the Tanais. He first notices the main
Aaia* ,. . .
divisions of that continent, and the chain of the
1 *. z. 40.