!2 GEOGRAPHY FROM AUGUSTUS TO TRAJAN. [CHAP.
difficult to think that it is later than the age of Domitian, because
the writer goes out of his way to glorify the victory of the
praetor Flaccus over the Nasamones in Africa in 86 A.D.1, of
which event Doraitian wrote boastfully to the Senate, announcing
in the haughty language of divinity that he had 'forbidden the
Nasamones to exist2'; but the occurrence was one of so slight
importance, that it would hardly have been commemorated at
a later period—certainly not to the exclusion of more con-
siderable successes of later emperors, of which no mention is
made. The work of Dionysius was composed in
Geographical Greek hexameters, and extended to 1189 lines.
Poem' Its brevity as a survey of geography, and the
metrical form in which it was written, seem to have commended
it to schoolmasters as a text-book for communicating a know-
ledge of the subject to their pupils, and in consequence of this
numerous copies of the work were made; afterwards, in pro-
portion as learning declined, and the more important authors
ceased to be read, its authority came to be greatly overrated.
The Periegesis begins with general remarks on the shape of
the habitable world, which the writer compares to
thtat of a slmS» an(i on *ts division into continents, a
choice being given for the boundary of Europe and
Asia between the Tanais and the Caucasian isthmus, and for
the boundary of Asia and Africa between the Nile and the
Pelusiac isthmus. It next describes the four sections of the
ocean by which this area is surrounded—the Atlantic to the
west, the Frozen sea to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east,
and the Erythraean or Aethiopian to the south; and also the
four principal gulfs ^hich issue from it, and penetrate into the
land—the Mediterranean, the Caspian, the Persian, and Arabian
gulfs. Then follows a detailed account of the Mediterranean,
with all its subordinate bays and inlets, among which the Euxine
and the Palus Maeotis are included. The delineation of the
1 Dionys,, Perieg^ w. 209 foil.
2 Zonaras Annah, n. 19; vol. 2, p. 500 ed. Bonn.; yobs 6 $\teos TOVTO
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