Crates of Mallus
Crates of Mallus (
Life
He was born in
He visited Rome as ambassador of either Eumenes, in 168 BC, or Attalus in 159 BC. Having broken his leg after falling into an open sewer, he was compelled to stay in Rome for some time and delivered lectures which gave the first impulse to the study of grammar and criticism among the Romans.[1][2]
Works
Crates made a strong distinction between
Like
Besides his work on Homer, Crates wrote commentaries on the
The Globe of Crates
According to Strabo, Crates devised a globe representing the Earth, which is thus the earliest known globe representing the Earth:
We have now traced on a spherical surface the area in which we say the inhabited world is situated; and the man who would most closely approximate the truth by constructed figures must necessarily take for the earth a globe like that of Crates, and lay off on it the quadrilateral, and within the quadrilateral put down the map of the inhabited world. But since the need of a large globe, so that the section in question (being a small fraction of the globe) may be large enough to receive distinctly the appropriate parts of the inhabited world and to present the proper appearance to observers, it is better for him to construct a globe of adequate size, if he can do so; and let it be no less than ten feet in diameter.[6]
Following the theory of five climatic zones, Crates considered that the torrid zone is occupied by the Ocean and that, by analogy, one can imagine people living beyond the torrid zone:
For Crates, following the mere form of mathematical demonstration, says that the torrid zone is "occupied" by
Ethiopians on our side of Oceanus, who face the south throughout the whole length of the inhabited land, are called the most remote of the one group of peoples, since they dwell on the shores of Oceanus, so too, Crates thinks, we must conceive that on the other side of Oceanus also there are certain Ethiopians, the most remote of the other group of peoples in the temperate zone, since they dwell on the shores of this same Oceanus; and that they are in two groups and are "sundered in twain" by Oceanus.[7]
The classic drawing of the sphere displays the known world, or Oecumene (Europe, North Africa, and Asia), with three other continents, labeled the Perioeci, the Antipodes, and the Antioeci. Crates' Perioeci and Antipodes arguably do exist, corresponding roughly to North America and South America respectively, but the continent of the Antioeci, Terra Australis, does not, except in fragments (Australasia and southern Africa). And the earth does in fact have a ring of water around it, but at 60 degrees South latitude, not at the Equator.
Honours
Crates Bay in Antarctica is named after Crates of Mallus.
Notes
- Suetonius, De grammaticis, 2
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Smith 1870.
- ^ Maria Broggiato (ed.), Cratete di Mallo: I frammenti. Edizione, introduzione e note. La Spezia: Agorà Edizioni, 2001
- Ravenstein, E.G. (1911), , in Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 17 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 635
- ^ Strabo, Geography, ii.5.10
- ^ Strabo, Geography, i.2.24
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crates". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 381.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Crates (bio 3)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
