[12] He founded the science of geography. Before his time Greek students had concluded that the world was round, instead of flat, as stated in the Homeric poems. By careful measurements he determined its size, within a few thousand miles of its actual circumference, and predicted that one might sail from Spain to the Indies along the same parallel of latitude.
[13] From the tradition that seventy scholars labored on it.
[14] Henry Sumner Maine.
CHAPTER III
[1] This struggle of the common people (plebeians) for an equal place with the ruling class (patricians) before the law, in religious matters, and in politics, covered two and a half centuries, the old restrictions being broken down but gradually. The most important steps in the process were:
509 B.C. Magistrates forbidden to scourge or execute a Roman citizen without giving him a chance to appeal to the people in their popular assembly. This "right of appeal" was regarded as the Magna Charta of Roman liberty.
494 B.C. Plebeian soldiers granted officers of their own
(Tribunes) to protect them against patrician cruelty and
injustice.
451-449 B.C. Laws must be written—Code commission appointed. Result,
the Laws of the Twelve Tables (R. 12); these mark the
beginning of the great Roman legal system.
445 B.C. Intermarriage between the two orders legalized.
367 B.C. Right to hold office granted, and one of the Consuls elected each year to be a plebeian.