Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest knownRoman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (nowAlgeciras) and diedc. AD 45.
His short work (De situ orbis libri III.) remained in use nearly to the year 1500.[1] It occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, and is described by theEncyclopædia Britannica (1911) as "dry in style and deficient in method, but of pureLatinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures."[2] Except for the geographical parts ofPliny'sHistoria naturalis (where Mela is cited as an important authority), theDe situ orbis is the only formal treatise on the subject inClassical Latin.
Little is known of Pomponius except his name and birthplace—the small town of Tingentera or Cingentera (identified asIulia Traducta) in southernSpain, onAlgeciras Bay (Mela ii. 6, § 96; but the text is here corrupt).[3] The date of his writing may be approximately fixed by his allusion (iii. 6 § 49) to a proposedBritish expedition of the reigning emperor, almost certainlythat of Claudius in AD 43. That this passage cannot refer to Julius Caesar is evidenced by several references to events ofAugustus's reign; especially to certain new names given to Spanish towns. Mela, like the twoSenecas,Lucan,Martial,Quintilian,Trajan,Hadrian, were all part of Italic communities settled in various parts of Spain that eventually relocated in Rome.[4] It has been conjectured that Pomponius Mela may have been related in some way toMarcus Annaeus Mela, son ofSeneca the Elder and father ofLucan.[5][6][7]
The general views of theDe situ orbis mainly agree with those current amongGreek writers fromEratosthenes toStrabo, though the latter was probably unknown to Mela. But Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the Earth into five zones, of which two only were habitable, he asserts the existence ofantichthones, inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to the folk of the northern temperate regions due to the unbearable heat of the interveningtorrid zone. On the divisions and boundaries ofEurope,Asia andAfrica, he repeats Eratosthenes; like all classical geographers fromAlexander the Great (exceptPtolemy) he regards theCaspian Sea as an inlet of the Northern Ocean, corresponding to the Persian and Arabian (Red Sea) gulfs on the south.
HisIndian conceptions are inferior to those of some earlier Greek writers; he follows Eratosthenes in supposing that country to occupy the south-eastern angle of Asia, whence the coast trended northwards to Scythia, and then swept round westward to the Caspian Sea. As usual, he places theRiphean Mountains and theHyperboreans near theScythian Ocean. In western Europe his knowledge (as was natural in a Spanish subject of Imperial Rome) was somewhat in advance of the Greek geographers. He defines the western coastline of Spain andGaul and its indentation by theBay of Biscay more accurately than Eratosthenes or Strabo, and his ideas of theBritish Isles and their position are also clearer than his predecessors. He is the first to name the Orcades orOrkney Islands, which he defines and locates fairly correctly. Of northern Europe his knowledge was imperfect, but he speaks of a great bay ("Codanus sinus") to the north of Germany, among whose many islands was one, "Codanovia", of pre-eminent size; this name reappears inPliny the Elder's work asScatinavia.Codanovia andScatinavia were both Latin renderings of theProto-Germanic *Skaðinawio, the Germanic name forScandinavia.[citation needed]
Mela's descriptive method follows ocean coasts, in the manner of aperiplus, probably because it was derived from the accounts of navigators. He begins at theStraits of Gibraltar, and describes the countries adjoining the south coast of theMediterranean; then he moves round bySyria andAsia Minor to theBlack Sea, and so returns to Spain along the north shore of the Euxine,Propontis, etc. After treating the Mediterranean islands, he next takes the oceanlittoral—to west, north, east and south successively—from Spain and Gaul round to India, from India toPersia,Arabia andEthiopia; and so again works back to Spain. Like most classical geographers he conceives of the continent of Africa as surrounded by sea and not extending very far south.
Theeditio princeps of Mela was published atMilan in 1471; the first critical edition was byJoachim Vadian (Wien, 1518), superseded by those ofJohann Heinrich Voss (1658),Johann Friedrich Gronovius (1685 and 1696), A. Gronovius (1722 and 1728), and Tzschucke (1806–1807), in seven parts (Leipzig; the most elaborate of all); G. Paithey's (Berlin, 1867) for its text. The English translation byArthur Golding (1585) was celebrated.[8]
A recent English translation is that of F. E. Romer, originally published in 1998.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bunbury, Edward Herbert;Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). "Mela, Pomponius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). p. 87.[By 'Seneca's house illustrious for its triple names']M. means Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero, his brother Gallio, and Annaeus Pomponius Mela, the writer on geography.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bunbury, Edward Herbert;Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). "Mela, Pomponius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). p. 87.
