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H.'s knowledge of the Caspian is one of his geographical triumphs; subsequent writers, except Aristotle, to the time of Ptolemy (second century A. D.) thought that it was a gulf of the Northern Sea, as the Persian Gulf is of the Southern; Alexander (Arr. Anab. vii. 16. 2) was preparing to test this theory when he died. Even after Ptolemy mediaeval cartographers returned to the old blunder (Tozer, A. G. p. 367).

μία ἐοῦσα. This was known since Necho's circumnavigation of Africa (iv. 42). The name ‘Atlantic’ occurs first here, but was obviously already familiar. For the ‘pillars of Hercules’ cf. ii. 33. 3 n.

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