POMPONIUS MELA.
The geographer Pomponius Mela was a native of Tingentera in Spain (ii. 96). His date can be inferred from iii. 49; the ‘principum maximus’ mentioned there as triumphing over Britain might be either Caligula (in A.D. 40) or Claudius (in 44); but the earlier date is favoured by Mela’s division of Africa according to the system abolished by Claudius in 42 (i. 25-30). The title of his work is De Chorographia, in three Books: the dryness of its details (i. 1, ‘opus impeditum et facundiae minime capax’) is relieved by word-painting, e.g. the description of Britain, iii. 49. The only authors to whom he acknowledges obligations are Nepos (iii. 45) and Hanno (iii. 90).