336 ESTIMATES OF MOUNTAINS IN ANTIQUITY. [CHAP.
mountains, is Aristotle's* pupil, Dicaearchus, to whom, as we
have seen, other discoveries also have been attri-
Measwemcnt buted1. From a passage in Geminus the astronomer
by We learn that Dicaearchus accomplished this by
icaearc us, geometry»? an(j the same thing is affirmed by Pliny,
who speaks of Dicaearchus as a man of distinguished learning, and
implies that he undertook the investigation of this question in the
service of the Macedonian monarchs8. The results of his calcu-
lations, however, were anything but satisfactory. Geminus tells us
in the passage just referred to, that he estimated the vertical height
of Cyllene in Arcadia as less than 15 stadia (9,000 feet), and that
of Atabyrium (or, as he calls it, Satabyrium) in Rhodes as less
than 14 stadia (8,400 feet); whereas in reality their heights are
7,789 feet and 4,070 feet respectively4. Again, Pliny says that
the highest mountain measured by Dicaearchus was Pelion, which
reached i2$Qpassus, or 6,250 feet6. The error in this case was
all the more remarkable on account of the neighbourhood of
Olympus, the summit of which mountain is 9,754 feet high, while
that of Pelion is only 5,310 feet. It seems strange that the obser-
vation of the snow-line did not of itself suggest a more accurate
estimate. From Plutarch we learn in his Life of Aetnilius Paullus
that Olympus was measured on scientific principles
Xenagoras. ty one Xenagoras. Speaking of the town of Py-
thium at the foot of that mountain he says, 'at that
point Olympus rises to the height of more than 10 stadia; and
this is intimated by the inscription of the person who measured it,
which runs thus—"On the summit of Olympus the shrine of
Pythian Apollo stands at the height of 10 stadia and a plethrum
less four feet (and it was measured vertically). This inscription
was set up by Xenagoras son of Eumelus as the measurement of
1 v. supra, pp. 170, 180.
8 Geminus, Element. Astronom. § 14, in Petav. Uranologi<i> p. 55 E; Kal
fan ft&v rfy KvXXi^ijs rb ftyos Ł\a<r<rov <rra,8l<av ce', djs Ai/caŁap%os dva/uerpe/cws
dTro^abercM. roD ft Sara/3vpfov t\dff<ruv t<rrb 4 Men* ffradlwv 18'.
8 Pliny, H. N. v. 162; Cui sententiae adest Dicaearchus, vir in primis
eruditus, regum cura permensus montis, ex quibus altissimum prodit Pelion
MCCL passuum ratione perpendiculi,
4 ». sttfra, note a, « z/. supra> note 3.