PROLEGOMENA.

I.

Since it is our purpose to discourse upon the cosmographies written in the Latin language during the age of the Roman emperors, we must begin from that world map which was depicted in the Porticus Pollae through the care of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, a friend of Augustus. For Agrippa, as Plinius Pliny the Elder 3.17 says, "when he was about to propose the world map to be viewed by the world [for Rome was accustomed to coincide with the world]," Augustus "completed that portico, which had been encompassed according to the plan and commentaries of M. Agrippa, begun by his sister." However, that portico, begun only after Agrippa died in the year 742/12 12 BCE, was not yet finished in the year 747/7 7 BCE (cf. Dio 55.8): Carolus Muellenhoff 1 p. 185 says it was completed in the year 768/15 15 CE, provided that in that year Strabo wrote what is read in book II p. 120 (frg. c).

The question arises, however, whether in addition to the painted map exhibited publicly, Agrippa either wrote or arranged for the writing of a book or books of commentaries. Many today rightly affirm this; and indeed some to such an extent that they think they have even unraveled from which part of the world Agrippa began his writing, which part Muellenhoff (l.c. p. 186) and Iosephus Partsch 2 (p. 19) say was India, but E. Schweder 3 (p. 40) says was Spain. F. Philippi and D. Detlefsen, in the places cited below, deny that Agrippa's book existed. Therefore, let us inquire what can be determined from the testimonies. For since "according to the plan" signifies nothing else but that Agrippa indicated in what manner he wanted the map to be constructed, "from the commentaries" also...

1) Muellenhoff, On the Roman World Map; Hermes vol. IX (1875) pp. 182—195.
2) Ios. Partsch, The Representation of Europe in the Geographical Work of Agrippa. Breslau 1875.
3) E. Schweder, Contributions to the Critique of the Chorography of Augustus. First Part. Kiel 1876.