A Sketch of Antient Geography Author:Samuel Butler Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 19 ANTIENT WORLD. CHAPTER I. ORBIS VETERIBUS NOTCS. A. G. (Antient Geography) PI. I. The antient Greeks and Romans knew only the three divisions o... more »f the world — Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Europe, they had little or rather no acquaintance with the countries north of Germany, now Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which they called Scandia or Scandinavia, and thought to consist of a number of islands. East of Germany and north of the Black Sea, was Sarmatia, now Russia, equally unknown to them. In Asia they knew nothing north of the Caspian, but comprehended all the country under the general name of Scythia, divided into Scythia intra Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum; that is, on either side Mount Imaus, a general name for the central ranges of that continent, which connect the Himalaya with the Altai. Still eastward, they had a confused notion of Serica, or the north-western part of China, as an undefined continuation of Scythia. India they knew as far as the Ganges. The country beyond that river was comprised under the name of India extra Gangem, now the Birman Empire, and Assam, with the adjacent districts. They even mention a nation called Sinae, now part ofCochin China. In Africa they knew little beyond lat. 10 N., and little of that perfectly, beyond the immediate coast of the Mediterranean and the banks of the Nile. The gradual extension of knowledge, even to this limited amount, has been already detailed in the preceding Introduction. In the west of Europe was Hispania or Spain; above it Gallia, including France, Belgium, and Switzerland. West of this the island of Britannia or Great Britain, with Hibernia or Ireland beyond it. East of Gallia was Germania or Germany, still further east Sarmatia. Above Germany was Scandinavia; below it Rhastia, Vindelicia, Noricum, ...« less