original works, "that the diſtances between places were diſtinctly and accurately marked and divided by the Romans into portions of eight ſtadia each?"
Would it have been conſiſtent with the character of theſe menſores terrarum [1], perſons of rank entruſted with this charge by public authority, to have neglected one part in twenty-five of the diſtance which they were directed to meaſure, which, in large extents, would have amounted to a conſiderable ſpacel Thus Herodotus tells us, that the circumference of the lake Morris amounted to 3000 ſtadia; which extent is eſtimated by Mucianus, a perſon of the greateſt: authority, and frequently appealed to by Pliny, to be 450 m. p. which is eight ſtadia, and no more, to a mile. Had the third part of a ſtadium been added, it would have amounted only to 432 m. p. or about 18 miles ſhort of Mucianus's calculation; a ſpace too large to be properly overlooked in any ſurvey that pretends to accuracy.
Again, Pliny tells us, that the 252,000 ſtadia, which Eratoſthenes computed to be the circumference of the earth, amounted in Roman meaſure to 31,500 m. p. This, it is obvious, is no more than eight ſtadia to a mile; and it is ſurely very improbable, if Pliny had known (as he mutt have done, had it really been the caſe) that ⅓ of a ſtadium was neceſſary to be added to make up the
- ↑ In judicando, menſor bonum virum et juſtum agere debet, nulla admonitione aut ſordibus moveri, ſervare opiniouem, et arte et moribus omnia illi artificii veritas cuſtodienda eſt. Tatum autem hoc judicmdi ollicium hominem bomm, juſtum, ſobrium, caium, modeſtum tum, et artificem egregium exigit. Aggen. Urbicus de Ollicio Menſoris.
Via eſt illi ſua lectio, offendit quod dicit, probat quad didicit. Caſſodor. Var. 53.
