MEYLAN Pomponius (Pomponius Mela)

Pomponius Mela; Pomponius Mela, of Tingentery in Spain, I in. n. e., the Roman geographer. Author works Descriptive Geography (De chorographia) in 3 books, created ca. 43/44 years. n. e. Product rm. preconditioned in the genre Periplus (cm. Geographical Literature). The introductory part describes the location of Earth in the universe, on the inhabited lands of the continents and seas. After determining the size of three continents (Asia, Europe and Africa), the author proceeds to describe the individual countries. He begins with Mauritania, Egypt, Arabia, Asia Minor and the Black Sea coast, only to return to the Aegean Sea, and along the shores of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Sea to reach Gades in Spain. Here it turns north to reach Eastern Europe through the Caspian Sea and India, and only from there through the Persian Gulf and Libya returned to the starting point travel - Mauritania. Entangled presentation, as well as the mixing of scientific information with absolutely fantastic, clearly demonstrates that rm. compose a very diverse sources, including the crucial role played by geographical lost work Nepos. Descriptive geography rm. is the oldest surviving Latin geographical works, which is valuable because it preserved the information about the earliest Greek and Roman works in this area.