Geographiae informatio, Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies (1.1-1.2)

Anaximander of Miletus, disciple of Thales, first attempted to draw the earth on a map. After him Hecataeus of Miletus, a widely- traveled man, improved the work marvelously. Hellanicus of Lesbos, a man of much learning, gave his account without a map. Then Damastes of Citium wrote a circumnavigation, drawing mostly on Hecataeus. Next Democritus and Eudoxus and others wrote tours of the earth by land and sea.

The ancients drew the earth round, and regarded Hellas as the center and Delphi as the center of Hellas, since it had the navel of the earth. Democritus, a man of much experience, first perceived that the earth was oblong, with the length half again the breadth. Dicaearchus the Peripatetic agreed with him. Eudoxus made the length double the breadth, Eratosthenes more than double, Crates semicircular, Hipparchus trapezoid, others . . . , Posidonius the Stoic sling-shaped and wide in the middle from south to north, narrow to the east and west, wider, however, to the southeast, toward India.