264 GEOGRAPHY FROM AUGUSTUS TO TRAJAN. [CHAP.
making notes and extracts*. In this way he accumulated a vast
amount of information on various subjects, out of
which in the latter Part of his life he comPile<i his
great work. The contents of this are valuable on
account of the numerous facts which are thus communicated to
us, and had Pliny been gifted with judgment and discrimination, as
he was with diligence, he would have produced an encyclopaedic
work of the highest order. Unfortunately, it was exactly in those
qualities that he was deficient, so that his materials
Deficiencies. are brought together with little method, and his
treatise abounds in mistakes and contradictions,
arising partly from want of scientific knowledge and of power of
criticising the statements of his authorities, and partly from sheer
carelessness. These features are nowhere more conspicuous than
in the portion of his Natural History which is devoted to
geography—the latter part of Book II, and Books III.—VI.
Here Pliny shews complete ignorance of scientific geography; and
in describing the leading features of countries, such as mountains
and rivers, instead of noting their distinguishing features, and
their effect in determining the character of a land, he contents
himself with lists of names, and in like manner the cities of any
particular region he simply catalogues without remarking on their
relative position. This is not less noticeable in the case of Spain
—a country with the nature and appearance of which he must
have been well acquainted from having resided there as procu-
rator—than in other parts of the world. His carelessness is shewn
by the way in which he occasionally introduces the same place
twice over under different names. Thus the island of Ustica,
which is situated to the north of Sicily, and was also called
Osteodes, is noticed twice under those two names, as if two
separate islands*. A similar confusion arises in his account of a
historic land like Greece, because he draws his details indifferently
from authorities of widely different dates. The natural result of
this is that flagrant anachronisms are produced, and in some
instances cities that no longer existed at the time when he wrote
are mentioned side by side with others that were still flourishing.
1 Ef. 3- 5-
8 Pliny, H. N. 3. 9*: see ttunbury, Hist, of Ancient Geogr.> «. p. 307.