The Ancients not so Slow.
I saw in the Table that query from a New York Knight about what the ancients believed concerning the roundness of the world. The error of thinking that the roundness is a modern discovery is common. The word polus is derived from the Greek πὁλος, which means an axis. From this we see that the old Roman philosophers did believe that the world was round. Again, if this Knight had read carefully the First Book of the Aeneid, he would have noticed line 233, which reads,
"Cunctus of Italiam terrarum clauditur orbis."
If the Greeks and Romans did not know that the world was round, how can we account for the expression orbis terrarum which means "the circle of the earth," or simply "the world." Once more, in 46 b.c., Julius Cæsar, who was not only a warrior, but also a profound scholar, divided the year into twelve lunar months. To do this he must have been cognizant of the fact that the world is round. Virgil uses the word polus only as a metonymy for cœlum, which means heaven, or the sky in general. The primitive use of the word may be found in the writings of Ovid and Pliny.
Herbert A. Gibbons.
Philadelphia.