Off the Beaten Track in the Classics

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Off the Beaten Track in the Classics. By Carl KAEPPEL. Pp. 148; 2 sketch-maps. Mel- bourne : University Press (London : Milford), 1936. Cloth, 6s. HERE are eight pleasantly written essays, most of them read to the Classical Association of Victoria, and representing aspects of the writer's studies during a visit to England. The subjects are Solinus, ' a teller of wonder-tales', the Periplus of Hanno, Aristarchus of Samos, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Some early Greeks on India, Pytheas and Massilia, Poison Damsels and the Pseudo-Aristotle, and the Periplus of Scylax. Each essay contains a summary characterization of the subject, a few typical extracts, and bibliographical references. Hanno is printed in full, in Greek and in English, and has a sketch-map and useful bibliography. But many of the references are vague, and the commentary ranges far from the text, to Polybius, Juba, and spurious coin-finds: it is by no means the 'outstanding piece of scholarship' announced by the publisher. Aristarchus is presented as 'the Copernicus of antiquity' after a serviceable retrospect of Greek mathematical advances. The account of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea introduces us to Hippalus, the choice of great routes to the Far East, the Zimbabwe problem (only down to Maclver's Mediaeval Rhodesia), and the ancient balance of trade with India. The ' Greek writers on India' begin with Hecataeus and Herodotus and end with Megasthenes. Pytheas is introduced by a retrospect of Greek westward exploration; and a digression on the Ora Mari- tima. The note on Poison Damsels does little more than emphasize the Indian origin of an episode in the Secreta Secretorum. That on Scylax is admittedly an appendix to the chapter on Hanno. Though certainly ' off the beaten track', the book does not take us far. J. L. MYRKS. Oxford Greece & Rome , Volume 6 , Issue 17 , February 1937 , pp. 122 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S001738350000468X