Antient World. CHAPTER I. THE antient Greeks and Romans knew only the three divisions of the world- Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Europe they had little or rather no acquaintance with the countries North of Germany, now Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which they called Scandinavia, and thought to consist of a number of islands. East of Germany and North of the Black Sea, was Sarmatia, now Russia, equally unknown to them. In Asia they knew nothing North of the Caspian, but comprehended all the country under the general name of Scythia, divided into Scythia intra Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum, that is, on either side Mount Imaus, part of a chain, the highest point in which is perhaps Himmel in Thibet. Still Eastward, we may doubt whether they had a confused notion of Serica, or the North Western part of China, as an undefined continuation of Scythia. India they knew as far as the Ganges, and even mention a nation called Sinæ, now part of Cochin China. In Africa they knew little beyond Lat. 10° N. and little of that perfectly, beyond the immediate coast of the Mediterranean and banks of the Nile. |