Q- Describe the contributions of Roman Geographers to the

development of geographical knowledge.

Introduction
Most of the ancient Greek traditions in geography were carried
forward into Roman scholarship. The Roman produced not
much that was new in the sphere of geography. The scholars
who made significant contribution to geography were Strabo,
Plini and Ptolemy.
(1) Strabo
Strabo had carried forward the tradition of topographical work
of Greek geography as started by Herodotus. Strabo wrote a
seventeen volumes work named 'Geographia' which was largely
an encyclopaedic description of the world known to the Greeks.
"Geographia also included attempts to explain cultural
distinctiveness, types of governments and customs in particular
places. The significance of natural condition for cultural
development was discussed in relation to a number of places,
especially in the description of Italy."
The purpose of the book was to provide a handbook of general
information about various places and people to help the
imperial officers in the better appreciation and performance of
their task. Thus, Strabo's Geopraphia laid down a strong
foundation for chorological writing in geography.
He gave a correct explanation of the floods of the Nile which
were the result of heavy summer rains in upper parts of the
river e.g. Ethiopia. Strabo concluded the need of sound
mathematical base for geographers because it would provide
them accurate and reliable description of the parts of the
inhabitable world.
Strabo also accepted the zones of ecumene as defined by
Eratosthenes and asserted that the limit of possible human life
towards the equator was the latitude 12° 30', N though he did
not give the reason. He placed the northern limit of habitable
earth only 400 miles (640 km.) north of the Black sea where
cold was main limiting factor.
The work of Strabo is mainly historical. He considered history
and geography inter-related. He always and every where
attempted to introduce the history of a country side by side
with its geography, and illustrated the one by the other.
Strabo was the only geographer of the ancient Greek who
lucidly wrote about all the branched of geography e.g.
historical, political, physical and mathmatical.
(2) Pliny
He considered the earth as a sphere and told that the earth is
declined on its axis which is the reason of the change of
seasons. In the geographical description of various places he
had also mentioned the atmospheric conditions of those
places. The most typical work of Plini was his 'Historia Naturalis
(Natural History). Historia Naturalis is a voluminous
encyclopaedia of science which was completed in about 77 A.D.
It contains 37 volumes and subjects discussed varied from
cosmology and geography to economics.
Following 4 works of Plini are significant.
(i) Natural History (Historia Naturalis): It is major and most
important geographical work which was written in 37 volumes.
In these volumes Plini discussed various aspects of geography
and astronomy including size and shape of celestial bodies and
the earth, earth's surface, seasons, description of places and
facts related to anthropology, zoology and botany etc.
(ii) Meteorology: It is second important geographical work of
Plini which contains mainly facts of physical geography and
climatology.
(iii) History of Wars in Germany: It was published in 20
volumes and contained the description of wars of Germany.
(iv) History of His Own Times: Published in 21 volumes, it is
written following literary technique.
(3) Ptolemy
Ptolemy's major works include Almagest, Geographia, Planetary
Hypothesis, and Anaelema. Ptolemy contributed significantly in
the field of astronomy, cartography, mathmatical geography
and even general and regional geography.
(i) Astronomy: Ptolemy was a great astronomer of his time who
wrote a famous text an classical astronomy entitled 'Almagest'
which had for long remained the most standard reference on
the movement of celestial bodies. In this book Ptolemy
attempted to rationalize the earlier Greek astronomical and
geographical ideas into organized categories preparing them in
a scientific manner. According to Ptolemy the earth is a sphere
that remains stationary in the centre, while the celestial bodies
move around it in a circular motion.
Ptolemy's 'Planetary Hypothesis includes the description of
hypotheses related to inter-relationships between celestial
bodies, distance between them and their movement.
(ii) Cartography and Mathematical Geography: In mathematical
geography Ptolemy's principal work was concerned with the
construction of map projections. He accepted cartography as a
major aspect of geography.
Ptolemy's book 'Geographia' (The outline of Geography) was
devoted to the exact determination of the position of places by
means of graticules of latitudes and longitudes. The major
contribution of Ptolemy in the field of mathematical geography
includes circumference of the earth, prime meridian, graticule
and design of projection, dimensions of the habitable world,
the salient features of his map, and geographical characteristics
of the different part of the known world.
The great contribution of Ptolemy in the cartography (the art of
map making) lies in the considerable improvements he made
over the previously drawn maps by the Greek scholars. He
adopted modified conical projection for the world map drawing
the graticule of latitudes and longitudes. Ptolemy presented the
equator and other latitudes by parallel curves, and the
meridians as straight lines bisecting equator at right angles.
(iii) General and Regional Geography:
As a geographer, Ptolemy described the regions and nations of
western and southern Europe, northern Africa and western and
central Asia in detail. In his second volume of Geographia,
Ptolemy devoted two sections to the geography of the British
Isles.
So far as the geographical knowledge of France (Gaul) and
Iberian peninsula is concerned, these parts were well known to
Ptolemy.
Ptolemy described the geography of Central Asia. Ptolemy was
pioneer who plotted the source of the Ganges and its main
tributaries in the Himalayas.