[745] It appears to be difficult to ascertain the identity of the place here mentioned; I may refer to the remarks of Hardouin and Brotier in Lemaire, i. 464.
[746] The same remarks may be made upon this and the following numbers as upon those in the former paragraph; for further information I shall refer my readers to the notes of Hardouin, Brotier, and Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 465-468.
[747] There is great uncertainty respecting the locality of the Thule of the ancients; there was, in fact, nothing known respecting the locality or identity of any of the places approaching to the Arctic circle; the name appears to have been vaguely applied to some country lying to the north of the habitable parts of Europe. In note [522], p. 109, I have already had occasion to offer some remarks on the locality of Thule. Our author speaks of Thule in two subsequent parts of his work, iv. 30 and vi. 39.
[748] It is probable, that these supposed “immense islands,” if they were not entirely imaginary, were the countries of Sweden and Norway, the southern extremities alone of which had been visited by the ancients.
[749] Strabo, ii.; Vitruvius, i. 6; Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. ii. 20.
[750] Our author has previously referred to Eratosthenes, in the 76th chapter of this book.
[751] Our author has referred to Hipparchus, in the 9th chapter of this book.
[752] “Aliter, inquit, et cautius multo Dionysodorus est audiendus, qui miraculo solo nititur, quam Hipparchus et Eratosthenes, qui geometricis nituntur principiis.” Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 469. Nothing further is known of Dionysodorus; see Hardouin’s Index Auct. in Lemaire, i. 123.
[753] Marcus Terentius Varro. He was born B.C. 116, espoused the cause of Pompey against Cæsar, and served as his lieutenant in Spain. He afterwards became reconciled to Cæsar, and died in the year B.C. 26. He is said to have written 500 volumes, but nearly all his works are lost (destroyed, it is said, by order of Pope Gregory VII.). His only remains are a Treatise on Agriculture, a Treatise on the Latin Tongue, and the fragments of a work called Analogia.
[754] C. Sulpicius Gallus was Consul in the year 166 B.C. He wrote a Roman History, and a work on the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.