314 ESTIMATES OF MOUNTAINS IN ANTIQUITY. [CHAP.

Spartianus informs us that he ascended Etna to see the sunrise
from thence1, and it has been conjectured that the Torre del
Filosofo — as the building of Roman construction, the ruins of
which still remain high up on the shoulder of that mountain, is
called from its supposed connexion with Empedocles — was erected
on that occasion to afford a night's lodging to the emperor3.
From this writer also we learn that Hadrian with the same object
in view reached the summit of the Mons Casius in Syria near
Antioch and the mouth of the Orontes8. And Arrian tells us,
that he made his way to the point which was affirmed by tradition
to be that from which Xenophon and his companions first beheld
the Euxine after quitting the highlands of Armenia4.

In speaking of the ideas entertained by the ancients with

reference to mountain ascents, it is well to

conceptSoifof remember that an accurate appreciation of what

constitutes a summit is a thing of comparatively
recent growth. At a time when peaks were not
regarded as objects to be studied for their own sake, it was not
unnatural that the highest point that was usually accessible in a
chain should not be distinguished in name, or ordinarily even in
thought, from the true summits ; and thus it happened that the
top of a pass was commonly spoken of as if it were the top of the
mountain which that pass traversed. This mode of thought pre-
vailed, not only in antiquity, but to a great extent also in modern
times, until the establishment of Alpine clubs and the develop-
ment of the art of mountaineering caused more accurate notions
to prevail. When regarded from this point of view, the passage
of the Pylae Persicae by Alexander after the battle of Arbela, and
his crossing the Paropamisus on his way to Bactria, were mountain
1 Spart., Jffadriani4Sy 13. 3: Post in Siciliam navigavit, in qua Aetnara
montem conscendit, ut soils ortunx videret arcus specie, ut dicitur, varium.
a See Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, vol. 2, p. 203. The references
on the subject of mountain ascents in antiquity which are given in the follow-
ing pages are largely taken from that volume.
* Spart. op. fit., 14. 3; In monte Casio, cum videndi soils ortus gratia
nocte ascendisset, imbre orto fulmen decidens hostiam et victimarium sacrifi-
canri adflavit. f
4 Arrian, Periplus, i. Addressing the emperor, Arrian says, iaA rty fjth
rov E6Łei?oi/ fofuvoi, ffaretfojue?, Wwirep Ktd&a>Q$Qv Aeewoj /coi <n5,