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orion-list Agrippa in Pliny according to Dilke

Some things may take a while to sink in. Despite differing over an item 
or two or three:   R. Gmirkin and I agree on a *Herodian source.* 
That's not nothing.  Not pre 63 BCE; not post 68 CE-- Herodian.

	Perhaps when I cited volume 1 of History of Cartography, volume 
1 (ed. J.B. Hartley & D. Woodward; Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1987) 
Russell did not remark on it because it was not available to him, as 
was the case with his note of an earlier (1985) book by Dilke on Greek 
and Roman maps, which is missing lately at Duke library.
	So, it the hope that it is constructive, allow me to quote part 
of one paragraph from the 1987 book (p. 208), which discusses Agrippa's 
map commentary (the extent of which, as I noted, has been disputed.) 
This quotation, of course, does not even touch on other writings by 
Agrippa, such as his Autobiography, very likely a book of interest to 
Pliny, as Agrippa was one of the most admired Romans.
	This quotation is by the same O. Dilke who RG, I think (I 
don't have the post here), suggested limited the commentary to 
measurements. Dilke wrote:

....In the Natural History [6.38.207] we are told: "Agrippa calculates 
this same distance [the length of the Mediterranean], from the Straits 
of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderum, as 3,440 miles, but I am 
inclined to think there is a mistake in this, since he also gives the 
distance from the Straits of Messina to Alexandria as 1,350 miles." The 
word "also" in the final clause of this passage suggests a second 
Agrippa source, and the verb existimavit (thought), more suited to a 
text than to a map, is used twice elsewhere in Agrippa. Moreover, much 
of the information on the west coast of Africa concerns animals and is 
hardly suitable for inclusion in an official map. [5.1.9-10] Another 
such informative passage credits him with with writing that the whole 
Caspian coast from the river Casus consists of very high cliffs, which 
prevent landing for 425 miles. [6.15.39]....

----------------------
stephen goranson
goranson@duke.edu

For private reply, e-mail to stephen goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
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