364 PTOLEMY AND LATER GEOGRAPHERS. [CHAP.
Strabo is of frequent occurrence. The primary object of the
writer was, no doubt, grammatical, for he makes a
itsCCoS:ents.0f P°int "* every case °^ S^S ^e gentile names de-
rived from those of the towns and countries, and
often descants on these at disproportionate length; but he also
records mythological traditions and historical events with which
we should otherwise be unacquainted. Occasionally, too, his
etymological remarks are not without value for the study of
geography, owing to the light which they throw on the significance
of place names. Thus under'the heads of Agnds, the Attic deme,
and Schoenus, a place in Arcadia, we find him noticing how
frequently this termination was used in the nomenclature of
places in Greece, to signify the abundance of certain trees and
plants in their neighbourhood. Besides Agnus, which is derived
from the agnus castus, he mentions five other denies of Attica
which have this peculiarity—Acherdfts from the wild pear-tree,
Phegds from the esculent oak, Myrrhinfls from the myrtle, Rham-
nfts from the thorn-, and MarathCls from the fennel. In like
manner, in .addition to Schoentis, which is called from the rush,
he names Pitytis, which is derived from the pine, Daphnfts from
the bay, Ericfts from the heather, Scillus from the squill, and
Selinfis from parsley. The method of comparison which these
observations imply seems like an anticipation of modern forms of
enquiry.
Two writers of this later period remain to be noticed, Solinus
and Orosius, though their importance is due, not
to any additions which they made to geographical
knowledge, but to the influence which they exercised during the
middle ages. Their works, rather than those of the famous
authors of antiquity, were the source of the classical geography of
the men of letters and the map-makers of that period. The
earlier of these, C. Julius Solinus, who probably lived in the third
century of our era, composed a book entitled Col-
Memorabilia. ^tanea Rerum Memorabiliwn, which was intended
to be a survey of the different countries of the world,
with notices of the most interesting objects in them and of the
peculiarities of their inhabitants. How great its influence was, is
shewn by the use which was made of it by writers like Augustine