Positing a spherical Earth without much considering the mathematical ramifications of
sphericity, he divides the world into two longitudinal hemispheres (east and west) and,
following E, five latitudinal zones, all habitable (cf. P). Mela suggests
the existence of the Antikhthone ̄s, occupying the habitable but unknown and unexplored
southern zone (1.4, 1.54). Naming his sources with greater frequency in Book 3, Mela drew
from H and H, but especially C N (3.45).
Mela declares his purpose to describe the known world and trace the complex arrange-
ment of peoples and places (1.1–2). Mela overviews the continents from east to west:
Asia, Europe, Africa (1.3–23), but proceeds unusually counter-clockwise, detailing sites
and peoples in Africa (1.25–48), Asia (1.49–117), Europe (Book 2), outer coasts and
islands (Book 3). Mela’s interests included anthropological curiosities (3.75: hairy, fish-skin
wearing nomadic Carmanii of the Persian Gulf), paradoxa (1.39: the diurnal temperature
cycle of the Katabathmian fountain, boiling at midnight and freezing at midday; 1.94:
X’ sun on Trojan Mt. Ida), and topography (1.35: gulf of Syrtis; 3.70:
Taprobane), plus mythology (1.37: Lotus-Eaters; 2.120: Calypso’s island Aeaee) and history
(2.32: Xerxe ̄s’ invasion of Hellas). He exhibits some skepticism, especially regarding myth-
ical and legendary creatures of the African interior (1.23). No evidence suggests that maps
accompanied the text.
Ed.: A. Silberman (CUF 1988).
DSB 11.74–76, Ed. Grant; OCD3 1218, N. Purcell; P. Berry, Pomponius Mela: De Chorographia (1997);
F.E. Romer, Pomponius Mela’s description of the world (1998).
GLIM
Pontica (250 – 400 CE?)
Latin hexameter poem of which only the first 22 lines survive, in MSS of I S,
who is probably not the author. It describes the Black Sea, and assigns it as the province of
Ve n u s.
GRL §523.3; RE 22.1 (1953) 26, K. Ziegler.
PTK
M. Porcius Cato of Tusculum (185 – 149 BCE)
Born 234 BCE to a plebeian family in the Latin countryside outside Rome, and died 149
BCE one of the most important political and cultural figures of his day (for his life, we are
primarily indebted to P, Cato Maior). Early on his talents won him the nickname
Cato, “the Shrewd.” For the first half of his career political advancement and military
achievement alternated. Elected quaestor for 204, he served under Scipio Africanus in Sicily
and Africa, where he criticized his superior for allowing the Roman troops to indulge in
Greek ways. As governor of Sardinia he made his administration a model of justice and
frugality. A consulship in 195 saw him campaigning in Spain, where he put down a rebellion
and opened up gold and silver mines to Roman exploitation; for his efforts there he was
awarded a triumph. He played a key role in the defeat of Antiokhos III at the battle of
Thermopylae, leading his troops around the same short cut once taken by the Persians. His
censorship in 184 became the stuff of legend thanks to his efforts to clamp-down on luxuri-
ous living and corruption among senators and commoners alike; during his term he also
made much-needed improvements to the city’s infrastructure, in particular the sewer sys-
PONTICA