12-31-2010, 08:04 AM
The story about the dragon may have originated with Livy (or his sources), believe it or not.
Later the tale seems to have been embellished.
I think a number of writers say that Britain is triangular. They may be using an older source, like the 4th century BC Pytheas of Massalia.
Tacitus gives another example of its shape. He may have had more recent information to use in his writing.
Quote: Attilius Regulus, consul, having overcome the Carthaginians in a sea-fight, passes over into Africa: kills a serpent of prodigious magnitude, with great loss of his own men.
Livy, 18
Later the tale seems to have been embellished.
I think a number of writers say that Britain is triangular. They may be using an older source, like the 4th century BC Pytheas of Massalia.
Quote:The natural shape of the island is triangular, and one side lies opposite to Gaul.
Caesar, Gallic War, 5.13
Quote:Britain is triangular in shape, very much as is Sicily, but its sides are not equal.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 5.21
Tacitus gives another example of its shape. He may have had more recent information to use in his writing.
Quote:Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the most graphic of ancient and modern writers respectively, have likened the shape of Britain as a whole to an elongated shoulder-blade or to an axe-head. This is in fact its shape up to the borders of Caledonia, whence also this idea has been extended to the whole; but when you cross the border a vast and irregular tract of land runs out forming the final stretch of coast-line and eventually tapers as it were into a wedge. It was only under Agricola that the Roman fleet for the first time rounded this coast, the coast of the remotest sea, and established the insularity of Britain...
Tacitus, Agricola, 10
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
www.davidcord.com
