XVI.] EARLIER ERRORS REVIVED. 367
The impression which a study of these later writers on
geography leaves most strongly imprinted on our
minds, is that of the transitoriness of the influence
of Ptolemy's geographical work in antiquity—or
rather, perhaps, of the slight extent to which it at
any time affected the ordinary Roman mind. The same thing
may be said of the greater part of the knowledge of distant
countries that was acquired after the Augustan age. Most of
the old errors now reappear, and the concep-
tion of the map of the world is much rather that
of Strabo than that of Ptolemy. The habitable
globe is once more confined to the northern hemisphere. The
southward extension of Africa is ignored, and the Nile is supposed
to cross that continent from west to east in a line parallel to the
Southern Ocean. Egypt is regarded as forming part of Asia, and
Africa commences on the western side of that country. The
Ganges flows into the Eastern Ocean, and the Caspian, the true
character of which as an inland piece of water Ptolemy had re-
asserted after centuries of misconception, is once more treated as
an inlet from the sea. These and numerous other errors were
perpetuated by subsequent writeis, and, with the addition of other
fictitious features derived from ecclesiastical sources, became
embedded in mediaeval cartography. It should be remembered,
as a partial explanation of this, that Ptolemy's Geography was not
translated into Latin until the year 1405 A.D., and consequently,
in proportion as the knowledge of the Greek language died out in
the West, the chances of its contents being known in that part of
the world steadily diminished. The Arabian geographers, in-
deed, became acquainted with it, and through them certain of its
principles were imparted to European scholars; but the effect
thus produced was very limited in its range. With the revival of
letters, however, a new era dawned for Ptolemy's reputation, and
a nearer acquaintance with his work, which was then rendered
accessible to readers, not only established his authority, but
caused even an exaggerated importance to be attributed to his
statements.
In the course of the survey of Ancient Geography which we