{"id":55017,"date":"2022-06-26T06:51:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T05:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/?p=55017"},"modified":"2023-12-06T07:50:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T07:50:44","slug":"archive-7144","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/archive-7144\/","title":{"rendered":"Archive 7144"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1244\">1\u00a0|\u00a02005<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ancient Heritage Traditions<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did the Ancients know America? A controversial issue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Germaine\u00a0Aujac<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>163-191<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#abstract\">Summary<\/a>|\u00a0Index\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#toc\">| Plan<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#text\">Text<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#notes\">| Notes<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#illustrations\">Illustrations<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#quotation\">Quote<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#authors\">Author<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Summaries<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#abstract-1446-fr\">French<\/a>English<\/p>\n<p>In the aftermath of the great discoveries, historians of the New World, geographers, scholars, asked themselves the question: could the Ancients have known America? Opinions were divided. In addition to Plato&#8217;s Atlantis, distant islands were mentioned, described by Diodorus of Sicily or Ps. Aristotle. The reference to the island of Taprobane-Ceylon, in Pliny the Elder, served to show that, in antiquity, it was not unknown that the torrid zone was partially inhabited. But there were also many skeptics. The appeal to Latin authors, poets or prose writers, or to some Greek authors, often read in the Latin translation, proves in any case that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, classical teaching and culture were still widely trusted. But this one was essentially Latin and literary; the great Greek scientific texts were often ignored, at least in the West.<\/p>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Index entries<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords :<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1447\">great discoveries<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1448\">America<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1449\">New World<\/a>,\u00a0Atlantis,\u00a0Pliny the Elder,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1452\">geographers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1453\">Taprobane<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords\u00a0:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1454\">great discoveries<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1455\">America<\/a>,\u00a0New World,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1457\">Atlantis<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1458\">Plinius the Elder<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1459\">geographers<\/a>,\u00a0Taprobane<\/p>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Plan<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto1n1\"><strong> Some actors in the controversy<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto1n2\"><strong> The main authors invoked<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n1\">Plato, the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0and Atlantis<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n2\">Diodorus of Sicily (<em>c.\u00a0<\/em>90-20 BC J.-C.), the\u00a0<em>Historical Library<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n3\">Ps. Aristotle, the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>, the\u00a0<em>De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pliny the Elder (23-79),\u00a0<em>Natural History<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Seneca (4 BC\u201365 AD),\u00a0<em>Medea<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n6\">Festus Avi\u00e9nus (fourth century),\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto1n3\"><strong>III. Other useful but unused texts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other possible &#8220;inhabited worlds&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n8\">The Southern Hemisphere<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocto2n9\">The torrid habitable zone? The temperate equator?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Full text<\/p>\n<p>PDF 352kReport this document<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1<\/strong>On this planisphere, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac, &#8221; Maps in modern Greek printed in Padua in 1700\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn1\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>2<\/strong>Chrysanthos\u00a0Notaras\u00a0(\u00a01665-1733), nephew of patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem, whom he succeeded in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn2\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1Planisphere\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn1\"><strong>1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0printed in Padua in 1700, which had been put in Greek by Chrysanthos Notaras\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn2\"><strong>2<\/strong><\/a>, &#8220;priest and archimandrite of the Most Holy Patriarchal and Apostolic See of Jerusalem&#8221;, bore, in the hemisphere representing the New World, the explicit mention, &#8220;Atlantis, the island of Plato&#8221;. This map of the old and new world illustrated the\u00a0<em>Introduction to Geography and the Spherical\u00a0<\/em>(in Greek) which was published in Paris in 1716; one of the chapters of this treaty (Section IV, Chapter 19) asked the question: &#8220;If the Ancients knew America.&#8221; Answering in the affirmative, Chrysanthos Notaras evoked, among other things, the arguments proposed by the German geographer Philippe Cluvier (1580-1623), author of an\u00a0<em>Introductio in universam geographiam tam veterem quam novam<\/em>, published in Leiden in 1624 and republished many times. He added those proposed by the Dutchman Gerard Jean Vossius (1577-1649), who, in his\u00a0<em>De quatuor artibus popularibus<\/em>, published in Amsterdam in 1650, was nevertheless skeptical about the validity of the hypotheses formulated by those who wanted to demonstrate that the Ancients could have known America.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>3<\/strong> O.\u00a0Boura,\u00a0<em>Atlantis. G\u00e9n\u00e9alogie d&#8217;un mythe,\u00a0<\/em>Paris, Arl\u00e9a, 2003.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2In the centuries following the discovery of the New World, in fact, many geographers, philologists, scholars, men of letters took sides in these debates by relying on certain passages of ancient texts, Greek or Latin, even biblical, to which a prophetic value was often attributed\u00a0<strong>3<\/strong>. After recalling some of the authors who intervened in this controversy, we will examine the works or rather the fragments of works most often cited in support of their theses; we will then wonder why other, more explicit texts have not been included in the file.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom1n1\"><strong> Some actors in the controversy<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>3Is it necessary to recall that Christopher Columbus, discovering a world still unknown, thought he had simply reached the Indies, of which the maps of Ptolemy had spread the knowledge? Hence the name West Indies first given to America, and which persisted for quite a long time, reinforced by the similarity that was observed between the climate and the fauna of the two Indies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>4<\/strong> G.F.\u00a0deOviedo,\u00a0<em>Historia general y natural de las Indias,<\/em>\u00a0\u00e9d. J.\u00a0Perez de Tudela Bueso,\u00a0<em>Bibliot\u00a0<\/em>(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>5<\/strong>The Mainland was, as opposed to the islands, the coastline of the Caribbean Sea, towards Colombia\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>6<\/strong>J. Solin (<em>fl<\/em>. 200 AD)\u00a0J.-C.), author of a geographical summary of the known world of which the main\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn6\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4One of the first to describe the New World was the Jesuit Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557) who had reached the Indies in 1514 and returned there several times, mainly in Colombia and Santo Domingo. After a\u00a0<em>Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias<\/em>, published in 1526, in Toledo (translated into Italian by Batisto Ramusio in 1534), he produced a\u00a0<em>Historia general y natural de las Indias<\/em>,\u00a0<em>islas y Tierra Firma del mar Oceano<\/em>\u00a0in twenty books, which appeared in 1535, in Seville\u00a0<strong>4<\/strong>: he took Pliny the Elder as a model and meticulously described the flora and fauna he had observed in Central America, as well as the customs of the inhabitants. Against Pliny, however, who believed the torrid zone uninhabitable, Oviedo argued that it was inhabited, &#8220;as we have experienced in The Mainland\u00a0<strong>5<\/strong>\u00a0of the Indies&#8221; (<em>Historia General<\/em>\u00a0II, 1). Convinced that the Ancients knew where these Indies were, he saw in the island beyond Gibraltar, discovered by Carthaginians and quoted by Aristotle \u2013 to whom he attributed the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 &#8220;one of those that are in our Indies from below, such as Hispaniola, Cuba, or perhaps part of the Mainland&#8221;. But anxious to legitimize Spanish domination over the New World, he maintained that &#8220;these Indies are the famous Hesperides islands, so called of the twelfth king of Spain named Hesperus&#8221;, of the Hesperides that Solin\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn6\"><strong>6<\/strong><\/a>, in his\u00a0<em>Wonders of the World<\/em>\u00a0(chap. 68), placed forty days of navigation of the Gorgons (<em>sc<\/em>. Cape Verde).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>7<\/strong> F.L.\u00a0deGomara,\u00a0<em>Primera parte de la Historia general de las Indias<\/em>, pp. 155-294 in\u00a0<em>Biblioteca de\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn7\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>8<\/strong>Ophir and Tharsis are fabulously rich places, evoked in the Bible, where King Solomon bewilders\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn8\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>9<\/strong>The verses of\u00a0<em>Seneca&#8217;s Medea<\/em>\u00a0will be presented in the second part of the article.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5Francisco Lopez de Gomara (born 1510 in Seville), publishing in 1552 in Zaragoza\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn7\"><strong>7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0<em>Historia de las Indias<\/em>, disagreed with the identification of the New World with the Hesperides. After recalling what Plato says about Atlantis in the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Critias<\/em>, he added (p. 292): &#8220;Today, we must no longer dispute or doubt this island Atlantis, since the discovery and conquest of our Indies fully clarify what Plato wrote [&#8230;] Thus we can say that our Indies are the island and land of Plato, and not the Hesperides, nor Ophir nor Tharsis\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn8\"><strong>8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as some moderns have claimed.&#8221; Besides, wasn&#8217;t the poet Seneca\u00a0<strong>9<\/strong>\u00a0a good prophet &#8220;in his tragedy of\u00a0<em>Medea<\/em>, touching this New World that we call the Indies? Because it seems to me that this discovery confirms his words point by point, and that our Spaniards and Christopher Columbus have fulfilled his prophecy.&#8221; Many reasons therefore to believe that the Ancients knew or sensed the existence of the New World. Gomara, who was chaplain to Fernand Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, devoted the second part of the\u00a0<em>Cronica general de las Indias\u00a0<\/em>to the story of this conquest.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>10<\/strong>Peru had been discovered in 1528; in 1535, Pizarro founded Lima. Jos\u00e9 de Acosta had learned\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn10\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>11<\/strong>The following books were written in Spanish, Spain. Books III and IV deal with the\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>12<\/strong><em>Historia<\/em>\u00a0I, 7-8; Lactance, the Christian apologist who died in 323, denied their existence. Saint Au\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn12\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>13<\/strong><em>Historia<\/em>\u00a0I, 9-10. The Ancients divided the globe into five zones, two glacial zones\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn13\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>14<\/strong>The ancient texts invoked, all of which are more or less the same among the various authors, will be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn14\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6A little later, Jos\u00e9 de Acosta (1539-1600) who had spent about fifteen years in Peru\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn10\"><strong>10<\/strong><\/a>, mainly in a Jesuit college installed on the shores of Lake Titicaca, and then three years in Mexico City, composed in Latin, while he was in Peru, the first two books of his\u00a0<em>Historia\u00a0Natural y Moral de las Indias which contains\u00a0<\/em>seven\u00a0<strong>11<\/strong>\u00a0. He evoked the opinions of the Ancients, some of whom refused to believe in the existence of an unknown World, populated by inhabitants, while philosophers in general did not exclude this possibility. Were there\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn12\"><strong>12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0antipodes? Was the torrid zone\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn13\"><strong>13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0uninhabitable? could we cross the Ocean? So many questions that had received various answers in antiquity\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn14\"><strong>14<\/strong><\/a>. Jos\u00e9 de Acosta discusses them, with ancient texts in support.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>15<\/strong>He adds: &#8220;As for me, I do not have such reverence for Plato&#8221; (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 22).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>7But, if all men are descended from Adam and Eve, as Scripture requires, how could the New World have been populated? Since the crossing by sea was practically impossible before the discovery of the magnet stone (<em>Hist.<\/em>\u00a0I, 16-17), one can imagine that men were thrown by the storm and against their will on the unknown shores (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 19), but it is more likely that the first inhabitants of the West Indies arrived there by land (<em>Hist.<\/em>\u00a0I, 20): &#8220;I conjecture that the New World, which we call Indies, is not completely distinct from the Old or separate from it&#8230; I hold that both earths, in some place, join and continue, or at least get close and close. As for Plato&#8217;s account of Atlantis, Acosta judges it incredible\u00a0<strong>15<\/strong>, as he rejects the interpretations of Proclus, Porphyry or Origen, which insist on the veracity of the story told to Solon by the Egyptian priests: it is in any case not through this island, disappeared, that the Indians were able to arrive in the New World (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 22). If Atlantis existed and then was swallowed up, it cannot be America.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>16<\/strong>It is a valley of Greece, between Olympus and Ossa, whose beauty Virgil sang.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>8In Book II, Jos\u00e9 de Acosta paints an idyllic picture of this area wrongly said torrid by the Ancients: it is in fact temperate and much less dry than they represented it. From which he concludes: &#8220;What the poets sing of the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and the famous Temp\u00e9\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn16\"><strong>16<\/strong><\/a>, and what Plato tells us or leads us to believe about his famous Atlantis, men would certainly find in these lands, if with a generous heart they preferred to be masters, rather than slaves, of their money and greed&#8221; (<em>Hist.<\/em>\u00a0II, 14).<\/p>\n<p>9The\u00a0<em>Natural and Moral History of the Indies<\/em>, one of the first scientific works on the New World, was a great success. Published in Spanish in Seville in 1589, it was translated into Italian (1596), French (1598), German (1598), English (1604), Dutch (1698) and Latin (1590). Later geographers owe much of their knowledge to him.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>17<\/strong> Botero was best known in his time for his political opinions and economic studies\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn17\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>18<\/strong>The three historians of the New World presented here were Spaniards, familiar with the essen\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn18\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>19<\/strong>The island of Taprobane is present-day Sri Lanka (Ceylon), which Greek geographers placed around 12\u00b0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn19\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>20<\/strong>The last two books of that first part are devoted to the description of the New World\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn20\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>10It was in his\u00a0<em>Relazioni Universali<\/em>, published in Vicenza in 1595 (in three parts), then in Brescia in 1599 (in four parts), and especially in Venice in 1599, 1602, 1607, etc., that the Italian Giovanni Botero (1540-1617), who had never left Europe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn17\"><strong>17<\/strong><\/a>, in turn entered the arena. The first part of the\u00a0<em>Relazioni<\/em>\u00a0offered descriptions of Europe (l. I), Asia (l. II), Africa (l. III), each accompanied by the corresponding map. Book IV of this first part opened with the famous controversial question: &#8220;If the Ancients had knowledge of the New World&#8221;. The argument used the usual themes, considering that the New World was located in torrid zone\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn18\"><strong>18<\/strong><\/a>, well beyond Gibraltar. And this scorching area is inhabited, contrary to the opinion of Aristotle and many Elders. Moreover Pliny who tells the journeys of Hannon the Carthaginian and Eudoxus of Cyzicus around Africa, and who describes the island of Taprobane\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn19\"><strong>19<\/strong><\/a>, knew well, says Botero, that a large part of the torrid zone is habitable. Like d&#8217;Acosta, G. Botero points out that the Ancients had no way to cross the Ocean, since they were unaware of the powers of the magnetic needle, revealed only to Europeans around 1300. But he disputed the statements of his predecessor, named by name, about the temperate climate of the New World, and about its resources, superior to those of the Old World. On the other hand, he developed the same hypotheses as him about the origins of the settlement of America, concluding with him that the inhabitants of this long-unknown continent had come from Europe or Asia by land routes, north or south\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn20\"><strong>20<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>11Oviedo, Gomara, de Acosta and Botero, the Spaniards and the Italian, were united by the same faith and by a formation similar to the Jesuit school. Their work, rich in information of all kinds, gives a large place to religious considerations. Quite different is the project of the German Philippe Cluvier (1580-1623), whose\u00a0<em>Introductio in universam geographiam tam veterem quam novam<\/em>\u00a0quickly became the reference work for anyone dealing with geography.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>21<\/strong>This geographical sum had numerous editions throughout the<sup>seventeenth<\/sup>\u00a0century, three in Leiden\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>12Born in Danzig, and after travels to Germany and Poland, Cluvier began studying law in Leiden, but soon developed a passion for history and geography, taught by Joseph Scaliger, a Protestant philologist (1540-1609). He took part in campaigns in Bohemia and Hungary, was taken prisoner, then traveled to England, Scotland, France, Italy to settle permanently in Holland where, after 1616, the Academy of Leiden granted him a regular pension which allowed him to devote himself to the writing and publication of his works:\u00a0<em>Germania Antiqua<\/em>\u00a0in 1616,\u00a0<em>Siciliae antiquae<\/em>\u00a0libri duo,\u00a0<em>Sardinia et Corsica antiqua<\/em>\u00a0in 1619,\u00a0<em>Italia\u00a0antiqua<\/em>, published after his death in 1624, and finally his grande\u00a0<em>Introductio<\/em>, in six books\u00a0<strong>21<\/strong>, published in Leiden in 1624.<\/p>\n<p>13Philippe Cluvier, as we could see from the title of his previous publications, is mainly interested in the old world. Book I of the\u00a0<em>Introductio<\/em>\u00a0summarizes the teaching of the Ancients in mathematical geography; Dealing with navigation on the Ocean, it refers to the journeys of Hannon and Eudoxus evoked by Pliny (<em>Hist. nat<\/em>., II, 169). Books II, III and IV contain a detailed description of Europe, &#8220;the most famous and famous part of everyone, both for the fact of arms and for the honor of literature&#8221; (II, 1). Book V is devoted to Asia, Book VI to Africa and America. Thus, of the six books of this geographical sum so famous, only the last part of Book VI deals with America.<\/p>\n<p>14In chapter 11, entitled &#8220;General Description of America,&#8221; Cluvier states, &#8220;One could draw some evidence from the writings of Plato and Diodorus that it was formerly recognized by the peoples of Europe.&#8221; He quotes the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0with the account of Atlantis, Book V of Diodorus of Sicily where is evoked a great island beyond the Columns of Hercules that would have reached, by mistake, Phoenicians swept away by the storm: &#8220;Now this island, if we consider its situation and its grandeur, can not be other than that which is vulgarly called America.&#8221; But Cluvier continues: &#8220;More the author of the little book\u00a0<em>Of the World<\/em>\u00a0that is attributed to Aristotle or Theophrastus, of which the Latin version was made by Apuleius, says that there are other great islands besides Europe, Asia and Africa, and so no doubt these Elders heard of America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>22<\/strong>Aujac, &#8221; Cartes g\u00e9ographiques &#8220;, p. 169.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>15Before closing this chapter, Cluvier recalls that &#8220;this land is named by some Western India, especially since it was discovered at the same time as Eastern India, and also that the peoples of both live in the same way; for they go naked as they go. The great fame of Cluvier geographer, who had no doubt that the Ancients could have had knowledge of a mysterious continent that would have been America, meant that the texts invoked in favor of this thesis, the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>, the\u00a0<em>Library<\/em>\u00a0of Diodorus, the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>, were very widely taken up and commented on by his successors. The\u00a0<em>Tabulae geographicae<\/em>\u00a0published in 1699 by the Seminary of Padua\u00a0<strong>22<\/strong>, the first part of which was to be used &#8220;for geography in general, but preferably for the illustration of the\u00a0<em>Introduction<\/em>\u00a0of Cluvier&#8221;, opened with a general map in two hemispheres, drawn up by N. Sanson and dated 1694: the hemisphere reserved for the American continent, very schematized, was described as &#8220;Atlantis, Plato&#8217;s island&#8221;, an indication later given in Greek by Chrysanthos Notaras in his own planisphere, printed in Padua in 1700 (<strong>cf. plate 5<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Plate 5: Map of the ancient and modern world in two hemispheres, attached to the\u00a0<em>Introduction to Geography and the Spherical\u00a0<\/em>by Chrysanthos Notaras (Bibl.Universitaria, Padova).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enlarge\u00a0Original (png, 303k)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>23<\/strong>Accused of being a supporter of Arminius, the Protestant theologian whose doctrine, softer than cell\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>16Another important player in the controversy was the Protestant theologian Gerard Jean Vossius (1577-1649), who studied in Leiden, was director of the College of States there from 1615 to 1618, then, after a short disgrace\u00a0<strong>23<\/strong>, professor of history at the University (1622-1633), before ending his career in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>24<\/strong>This Magellanic or southern land included everything south of the Strait of Mage\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>25<\/strong>Vossius refers here to\u00a0<em>de Mundo<\/em>, which was often attributed at the time to Aristotle.<\/li>\n<li><strong>26<\/strong> Diodorus of Sicily,\u00a0<em>Bibl. hist.\u00a0<\/em>II, 55-60, and Strabo,\u00a0<em>Geogr<\/em>. II, 5, 13.<\/li>\n<li><strong>27<\/strong>The original edition of the\u00a0<em>\u0152uvres<\/em>\u00a0d&#8217;Avi\u00e9nus, obtained by G. Valla and V. Pisani, had been printed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn27\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>17This Dutch humanist, who knew Greek, Latin, Hebrew, as well as mathematics, philosophy or theology, is the author of numerous treatises, gathered after his death in an ensemble published in Amsterdam, by J. Blaeu, in 1650 and 1660, under the title\u00a0<em>De quatuor artibus popularibus, de philologia et scientiis mathematicis<\/em>\u00a0. The four &#8220;folk arts&#8221;, treated in five chapters, are grammar, gymnastics, music and painting. Philology is detailed in twelve chapters, the eleventh of which is devoted to geography. Vossius declares (XI, 27): &#8220;It is necessary to know the unknown regions of the Ancients. In the past, only three continents were known. There is also America or Western India and Magellanic\u00a0<strong>24<\/strong>\u00a0or Southern Land [&#8230;] For many scholars, the Ancients seem not to have totally ignored these two continents. They think that refers to America what Plato says about Atlantis, and what Aristotle\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn25\"><strong>25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0reports from the expeditions of the Gaditan Phoenicians to an unknown region and the navigation of the Carthaginians to a large and deserted, but fertile island. In the same way they think that look at the Austral what can be read from the itinerary of Iambulos to Diodorus of Sicily in book II. Even Strabo, in Book II, says that it is likely that there are other lands than those then\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn26\"><strong>known.26<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0And above all it is clear in Festus Avi\u00e9nus\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn27\"><strong>27<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in its description of the maritime coasts. \u00bb<\/p>\n<p>18In the third part, devoted to Mathematical Sciences, chapter XLII is reserved for geography. Vossius recalls (XLII, 10) that &#8220;the other continent was ignored by the Ancients but is known to us. The so-called America or Western India was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. He refers to the verses of Avi\u00e9nus, quoted in\u00a0<em>De Philologia<\/em>, evokes Plato&#8217;s Atlantis and even takes the opportunity to criticize the translation given by Marsile Ficin (1433-1499) of one of the passages of the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>. Then he quotes Proclus, who, in his\u00a0<em>Commentary on the Timaeus<\/em>, recalls the opinion of Crantor, plato&#8217;s first interpreter, who held the story of Atlantis to be true. Vossius also appeals to the authors who spoke of the existence of mysterious islands located beyond the Columns of Hercules, Aristotle in the\u00a0<em>De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus<\/em>, or Diodorus in Book V of the\u00a0<em>Historical Library<\/em>. Referring to the island described by Diodorus, Vossius said: &#8220;Many think that this island is America,&#8221; but he himself remains skeptical about the identification with the New World of one or the other of these islands.<\/p>\n<p>19As for Chrysanthos Notaras (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01665-1733), the Greek scholar who was Patriarch of Jerusalem, he had to write most of his\u00a0<em>Introduction to Geography and the Spherical<\/em>\u00a0while he was in Padua, around 1700, and had his planisphere printed there. In this book of 153 pages, divided into four sections, it is the spherical that takes the lion&#8217;s share, occupying the first three sections. Section IV first includes a theoretical part, making maps, distance evaluation, orientation, etc. (pp. 117-139); it is only in the last thirteen pages (140-153) that the continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, America are succinctly described; In the 19th and final chapter (pp. 149-153), Notaras finally asks the question: &#8220;If the Ancients knew America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>20He first takes up the arguments evoked by Philippe Cluvier: the island atlantis, the mysterious island discovered by the Phoenicians at Diodorus of Sicily, the large islands evoked in the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>, attributed either to Aristotle or to Theophrastus. &#8221; Cluvier concludes that the Ancients knew a land other than the Old World, and it could be America. \u00bb<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>28<\/strong>For Strabo and for most Greek geographers prior to Ptolemy, the known world does not\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn28\">occu (&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>21Other authors, however, of contrary opinion, maintain that America was ignored by the Ancients, and invoke in support of their thesis the silences of Ptolemy and Strabo. But Chrysanthos is convinced that they are wrong and he gives proof of this. Strabo, for example, clearly stated his intentions when he proclaimed: &#8220;The purpose of the geographer is to describe the inhabited world in its known parts, to neglect the unknown lands, as well as what lies outside of it.&#8221; (Strabo,\u00a0<em>Geogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 5). A little further, comparing the northern temperate zone, on the surface of the globe, to an artichoke head, the Greek geographer specified the mission devolved to geography: &#8220;The detailed examination of the terrestrial globe or of the entire artichoke head for the area studied is a completely different science, as well as the question of whether the artichoke head is also inhabited in the other quarter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn28\"><strong>28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0; indeed, if so, it is certainly not inhabited by locals; it is then necessary to assume the existence of another inhabited world, which is plausible. But we only have to talk about our own. (Strabo,\u00a0<em>Geogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 13). This explains Strabo&#8217;s voluntary silence on an unknown continent whose existence he considers plausible, but which, from his point of view, has no interest in a geographer anxious to be useful to his contemporaries and especially to the elite of rulers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>29<\/strong>Jos\u00e9 de Acosta had already indicated &#8220;that some authors believed that Ofir means Peru in the\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>22After these objections to the words of those who refuse to believe that the Ancients had any knowledge of this new continent, Chrysanthos borrows from Vossius the quotations from\u00a0<em>Seneca&#8217;s Medea<\/em>\u00a0and Festus Avienus&#8217;\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em>. And he ends by evoking, in support of his thesis, what is said of Tarshish &#8220;in the second book of\u00a0<em>the Paralipomenes<\/em>\u00a09, 21&#8243;: king Solomon&#8217;s ship would have gone there, then returned after three years, full of gold and silver\u00a0<strong>29<\/strong>. As a result, &#8220;many thought it was Peru, a province of South America; for in Solomon&#8217;s time America was known. \u00bb<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>30<\/strong>Meletios had gone very young to learn in Veneto where he was in contact, through the\u00a0intermediary of (&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>23This was not the opinion of Meletios\u00a0<strong>30<\/strong>\u00a0d&#8217;Arta (1661-1714), a Greek from Joannina who, before being Archbishop of Athens, had taken advantage of a three-year forced stay in Naupacte (1698-1701) to write in Greek an\u00a0<em>Ancient and New Geography\u00a0<\/em>which was published only after his death (Venice, 1728). After some generalities of mathematical geography (pp. 1-41), Book I described Europe (pp. 42-441), Book II Asia (pp. 442-571), Book III Libya (pp. 572-608), Book IV America (pp. 609-620). From the first chapter of Book IV, Meletios asked the question: &#8220;Was this America known in ancient times? This seems insecure and doubtful. It is more plausible that it was totally ignored; but others argue the opposite&#8221;, invoking Plato in the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>, Diodorus of Sicily in Book V, the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>\u00a0whose author is not known to be Aristotle or Theophrastus. But, concludes M\u00e9l\u00e9tios, all these arguments are easily swept away.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>31<\/strong><em>Climata\u00a0<\/em>are bands parallel to the surface of the globe of varying width, which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn31\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>24In an excursus that is located at the end of the chapter devoted to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn31\"><strong>the 31<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0zones and\u00a0<em>climates\u00a0<\/em>of the earth, reviewing the main authors who have distinguished themselves in geography, M\u00e9l\u00e9tios cites, among the moderns, Jean Botero and Philippe Cluvier, which hardly surprises us.<\/p>\n<p>25Thus the question of whether America was known or not to the Ancients, occupied a fairly large place in the discussions of the humanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, still all penetrated by classical culture. Montaigne (1533-1592) also, in the\u00a0<em>Essays<\/em>\u00a0published in 1588, evoked Plato&#8217;s Atlantis, but he continued: &#8220;There is not much appearance that this island is this new world that we have just discovered; for it almost affected Spain, and it would be an incredible flooding effect to have retreated it, as it is, by more than twelve hundred leagues. (<em>Les Essais<\/em>, I, 31). He recalled a little further that &#8220;the other testimony of Antiquity to which we want to relate this discovery is in Aristotle, at least if this little book<em>\u00a0Of Incredible Wonders\u00a0<\/em>is his. He recounts there that some Carthaginians, having thrown themselves across the Atlantic Sea, out of the Strait of Gibraltar, and sailed for a long time, had finally discovered a large fertile island, all covered with wood and watered by large and deep rivers, far from all firm land [&#8230;] This narration of Aristotle also does not agree with our new lands. (I, 31)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom1n2\"><strong> The main authors invoked<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>26Thus, it is the same passages of the same ancient authors that are quoted, all the time, even if each supporter of one thesis or the other tried to bring new arguments; but the literary texts, the only ones used by humanists (who are disinterested in scientific treatises), are neither very numerous nor very explicit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n1\"><strong>Plato, the\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>Timaeus<\/em><\/strong><strong>\u00a0and Atlantis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>32<\/strong> Plato,\u00a0<em>Timaeus, Critias<\/em>, ed. and trans. A.\u00a0Rivaud, Paris, C.U.F., 1925 (<sup>6th<\/sup>tir. 1985) or Plato\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn32\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>27Plato&#8217;s Atlantis is the obligatory reference by those who want to see, or who refuse to see, the newly discovered continent. The\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>, one of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn32\"><strong>Plato&#8217;s<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0most difficult to access dialogues 32, has been studied and commented on throughout the centuries. The Latin version composed in the sixth century by Chalcidius, then that provided by Marsile Ficin in the fifteenth century, have greatly facilitated access in the Western world. The myth that introduces it (20d-25d), relating the history of the disappeared continent, seems to be relatively easy to interpret; yet it has caused much controversy.<\/p>\n<p>28&#8243;Oyez, therefore, Socrates, a very singular but absolutely true story, as Solon, the wisest of the seven sages, once said&#8221; (20d): this is how Critias announces the account he is going to make, transmitted by Solon who himself received it from Egyptian priests. It first celebrates the virtues of ancient Athens, in &#8220;a time, before the greatest destruction by the waters, where the city which is today that of the Athenians was, of all, the best in the war and singularly the best polished in all respects&#8221; (23c). Among the feats accomplished by this exemplary city, &#8220;one especially prevails over all the others in grandeur and heroism. Indeed our writings report \u2013 it is the Egyptian priest who speaks \u2013 how your city once annihilated an insolent power that invaded both all of Europe and all of Asia and threw itself on them from the bottom of the Atlantic Sea. Because, at that time, you could cross that sea. She had an island, in front of this passage that you call, you say, the columns of Hercules. This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined. And the travelers of that time could pass from this island to the other islands, and from these islands they could reach the whole continent, on the opposite shore of this sea. (24th). The invaders from Atlantis were repulsed by the Athenians alone, who thus liberated &#8220;all the other peoples and ourselves who dwell within the columns of Hercules. But in the time that followed, there were terrible earthquakes and cataclysms. In the space of a single terrible day and night, your whole army was engulfed in one fell swoop under the earth, and likewise atlantis was damaged into the sea and disappeared. That is why, even today, this Ocean from there is difficult and unexplorable, by the obstacle of the muddy and very low bottoms that the island, by engulfing itself, has deposited. (25c-d). The detailed description of Atlantis, poseidon&#8217;s lot, is found in the\u00a0<em>Critias<\/em>, a dialogue intended to be a continuation of the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>33<\/strong>Gomara,\u00a0<em>Primera parte<\/em>, pp. 165, 167, 292.<\/li>\n<li><strong>34<\/strong>Proclus of Lycia (410-485), one of the influential figures of Neo-Platonism, taught in Athens to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn34\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>29Gomara believes that it was for reading the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Critias\u00a0<\/em>that Christopher Columbus went in search of Marco Polo&#8217;s rich Cipango, and he concludes that the Indies are the island or land of Plato\u00a0<strong>33<\/strong>. Jos\u00e9 d&#8217;Acosta quotes only the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>, in chapter 12 of book I, entitled: &#8220;Of Plato&#8217;s feeling about this Western India&#8221;; according to him, &#8220;if anyone has dealt more particularly with this Western India, the glory goes to Plato, in the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>&#8220;. Botero makes no reference to Atlantis, which he probably considers a mere fable. Cluvier, on the other hand, summarizes the passage of the Timaeus evoking this\u00a0<em>disappeared<\/em>\u00a0continent: he sees in it a proof that America was formerly recognized by the peoples of Europe (<em>Introductio<\/em>\u00a0VI, 11). As for Vossius the Dutchman, without openly taking sides, he\u00a0<em>appealed to the Commentary of the Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0by Proclus\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn34\"><strong>34<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>35<\/strong> L.\u00a0Taran, &#8221; Proclus on the old Academy &#8220;, in\u00a0<em>Proclus, reader and interpreter of the Ancients<\/em>, Act\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>36<\/strong>Origen (185-254), a famous theologian and exegete of biblical texts, &#8220;said that the account was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn36\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>30In the world of Neo-Platonism in fact, the\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>, like many of Plato&#8217;s other dialogues, has often been commented. Some of these comments are now lost, such as that of Porphyry, but that of Proclus has been preserved. It read: &#8220;All this discourse on the Atlantines, some have said that it is purely and simply history, so Crantor, the first exegete of Plato\u00a0<strong>35<\/strong>\u00a0[&#8230;] Others say that Atlantis is a fable, a fiction that has not the slightest reality but has an indication of eternal realities or subject to becoming in the cosmos. But these people did not even listen to what Plato proclaims, that &#8220;the account is undoubtedly very strange, but absolutely true&#8221; (20d 8) [&#8230;] Others do not refuse to acknowledge that these events happened in this way but they say that for the moment they are brought as images of pre-existing oppositions in the universe&#8221; (Proclus,\u00a0<em>Commentary<\/em>\u00a076, 1-20, trans. Festugi\u00e8re); among the latter, Proclus counted Origen and Porphyry\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn36\"><strong>36<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>37<\/strong>The\u00a0<em>Complete Works<\/em>\u00a0of Plato translated into Latin by Marsile Ficin have been the subject of many\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn37\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>31Vossius was one of the few to use the Greek text of\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0and his commentators, and to criticize the Latin translation if necessary. The German Cluvier was probably content to resort to the Latin\u00a0<em>Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0of Chalcidius, published in Paris in 1520 and in Leiden in 1617, or more probably to the translation of Marsile Ficin\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn37\"><strong>37<\/strong><\/a>, published in Paris in 1536 and 1551. It goes without saying that the Greeks, Chrysanthos and Meletios, read Plato and his commentators in the text.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n2\"><strong>Diodorus of Sicily (<\/strong><strong><em>c.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><strong>90-20 BC J.-C.), the\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>Historical Library<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>38<\/strong> Diodorus of Sicily,\u00a0<em>The Library<\/em>, ed. and trans.\u00a0C.H.\u00a0Oldfather, London-Cambridge, Loeb Library,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn38\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>39<\/strong>The description of these more or less mythical eldorados is quite common among authors\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn39\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>32The existence of a large island beyond the Columns of Hercules is evoked by Diodorus of Sicily\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn38\"><strong>38<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in his\u00a0<em>Historical Library<\/em>, notably in book V, 19: &#8220;There is on the side of Libya an island of high seas, of considerable dimensions, located in the ocean at a distance from Libya of several days of navigation to the West. Its soil is fertile, mostly mountainous, but also with a spacious plain of great beauty. There flow navigable rivers used for irrigation, and the island contains many parks planted with trees of various species and gardens in quantity, crossed by freshwater currents; there are also private villas, of expensive construction, and, through these gardens, kiosks for banquets in flower beds; this is where the locals spend their time during the summer, because the land provides in abundance everything that contributes to the pleasures of existence and luxury [&#8230;] In general, the climate of the island is so mild that it produces in abundance the fruits of trees and seasonal harvests for most of the year, so that it seems that this island, given its exceptional bliss, is the home of gods and not men. The description is idyllic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn39\"><strong>39<\/strong><\/a>; this island, long unknown, would have been discovered by Phoenicians of Gades, pushed by the storm. &#8220;The Tyrrhenians, then masters of the sea, intended to send a colony there; but the Carthaginians opposed it, lest many inhabitants of Carthage emigrate there, given the excellent quality of the island, and also to have a place to seek refuge in case of misfortune, if a total disaster caused Carthage to perish. Their idea was that, masters of the sea, they could carry everything, houses and everything, to an island unknown to their conquerors. (<em>Bibl. Hist.\u00a0<\/em>V, 20).<\/p>\n<p>33Cluvier uses this account, which he quotes at length, to show that the Ancients were able to know America (<em>Introd<\/em>. VI, 11). But did he read Diodorus in the text? It is not impossible, but unlikely. It is known that the edition of the Greek text by H. Estienne (Geneva 1559, princeps edition) was preceded by partial translations into Latin or French. Books I to V in particular, translated into Latin by Poggio Bracciolini, were published in Bologna in 1472, while the Latin translation of the whole work, made by different authors (books I to V by Poggio Bracciolini), appeared in Basel in 1548. The Latin translation was probably easier to find and use than the Greek text.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>40<\/strong>Diodorus adds (II, 56) that they had their language divided into two parts, so that they could\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn40\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>41<\/strong>Palibothra, capital of North India, is present-day Patna.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>34Vossius, who defined two new continents, America or Western India, and Magellanic or Southern Land (<em>De Philologia<\/em>\u00a0XI, 27), assures that many scholars &#8220;think that look at the Austral what can be read from the itinerary of Iambulos in Diodorus of Sicily in Book II&#8221;. This Iambulos, who had gone to Arabia in search of spices, was taken prisoner by brigands, then by Ethiopians who, from the coast of Ethiopia, sent them by sea, he and his companions, to the south with six months of food, in search of a happy island. They found it after four months of storms: it was round, 5,000 tower stadiums, temperate climate although located under the equator: &#8220;the fruits ripen there all year round&#8221; (<em>Bibl. Hist<\/em>. II, 56). The inhabitants, beautiful, vigorous, tall\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn40\"><strong>40<\/strong><\/a>, led a simple life, well organized politically and morally, and lived one hundred and fifty years without disease. Iambulos, after staying there for seven years, was driven out, along with his companion, for contracting bad habits. Four months of difficult navigation brought them to India where they ran aground on a marsh. The companion died there. Iambulos was first taken to the king of the land residing at Palibothra\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn41\"><strong>41<\/strong><\/a>; then he returned to Greece through Persia and wrote the account of his adventures (<em>Bibl. Hist<\/em>. II, 55-60).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>42<\/strong> for example the map of the Pacific Sea, drawn up by Abraham Ortelius in 1589, and included in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn42\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>35Is this Eldorado located under the equator, described by Diodorus, a prefiguration of the unknown southern land, which the maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn42\"><strong>42<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0represented with very imprecise contours, and which extended to the south pole? It is less than likely, but the scholars of which Vossius speaks did not hesitate to fire all wood.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n3\"><strong>Ps. Aristotle, the\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>De Mundo<\/em><\/strong><strong>, the\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>43<\/strong> Ps. Aristotle,\u00a0<em>Du Monde<\/em>, trad. et notes J.\u00a0Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1990. But G.\u00a0Realeand A.P.\u00a0Bo\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn43\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>44<\/strong>For Poseidonios of Rhodes, or apamea (<em>\u00a0<\/em>135-50), whose entire work is lost, cf. K.\u00a0Reinha\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>36Another text that is often referred to is the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>, which was then hesitant to attribute to Aristotle\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn43\"><strong>43<\/strong><\/a>, also proposing Theophrastus as a possible author.\u00a0It is now thought that the writer of this small treatise would be a peripatetician strongly influenced by Stoicism, perhaps a disciple near or far of Poseidonios. This famous philosopher\u00a0<strong>44<\/strong>, very interested in scientific questions, would have composed among others two (lost) treatises,\u00a0<em>Elements of Meteorology<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>Du Monde<\/em>, which would have inspired, probably in the first century of our era, the author of the current\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>37In chapter III, the probable existence of other lands, apart from the then known world, is mentioned: &#8220;Common language has divided the inhabited land into islands and continents, ignoring that the earth is entirely one island, which bathes around the Atlantic Sea, as it is called. But it is likely that there are several other continents separated from ours and located on the other side of the water, some larger than this one, the others smaller, but all, with the exception of ours, invisible to our eyes. Indeed, what the islands of our world are in relation to our seas, the inhabited world is in relation to the Atlantic Sea, and many other continents in relation to the sea taken as a whole, because they are like very large islands bathed by immense seas that surround them. (392 b). We read a little further: &#8220;Among the islands, some are large islands, like the whole of what has been called the inhabited land, but there are many others, bathed all around by immense seas. &#8221; (393 a).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>45<\/strong> Apuleius,\u00a0<em>Philosophical Pamphlets (From the God of Socrates, Plato and His Doctrine, From the World) and Fra\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn45\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>46<\/strong> L.\u00a0Minio-Paluello<em>, Opuscula &#8211; The Latin Aristotle<\/em>, Amsterdam, Hakkert, 1972, pp. 108-113.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>38Cluvier, who cites this treatise, read it not in the text but in the Latin translation, elaborated by Apuleius\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn45\"><strong>45<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0125-170), who widely disseminated its content. Moreover, in addition to this translation of Apuleius, contained in his\u00a0<em>Complete Works<\/em>, the original edition of which was published in Rome in 1469 and which enjoyed a dozen editions until about 1600 (including one obtained by Scaliger in Leiden in 1600 precisely), there were two other Latin translations\u00a0<strong>46<\/strong>\u00a0made from Greek in the thirteenth century, one by Nicolo Siculo, which was printed in Venice in 1496, the other by Bartholomew of Messina, which remained in manuscript form. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, six or seven Latin translations of this treatise falsely attributed to Aristotle were made, and published (like that of Guillaume Bud\u00e9, Paris, 1526), or simply preserved in manuscript (like that of Jean Argyropoulos, made around 1471).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>47<\/strong> Aristotle, vol. XIV, transl. W.S.\u00a0Hett, London-Cambridge, Loeb Library, 1980.\u00a0Montaigne at the\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>48<\/strong>It seems that Vossius sought guarantors here. John Becan (or Goropius Becanus), born in 15\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>39Vossius, who does not quote the\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>, evokes on the other hand another pseudo-Aristotelian treatise, a late compilation made between the second and sixth centuries, the\u00a0<em>De mirabilibus auscultationibus<\/em>\u00a0that he had to read in text\u00a0<strong>47<\/strong>: the princeps edition of Aristotle containing it had appeared by Alde in 1495-1498. But the Latin translation, made around 1260 by Bartholomew of Messina who had specialized in\u00a0<em>pseudepigrapha<\/em>, had already been published in Venice in 1482, 1483, 1489, and was published in Basel in 1538. Here is the text to which Vossius alludes, close relative of that of Diodorus of Sicily, in book V: &#8220;In the sea beyond the Columns of Hercules, it is said that the Carthaginians discovered a deserted island, bearing trees of all kinds and navigable rivers, and admirable by all kinds of fruits, distant from several days of navigation. The Carthaginians often frequented it because of its prosperity, some even took up residence there; but the leaders of the Carthaginians announced that they would punish with death those who went by boat to this island, and that they would massacre all its inhabitants so that they would not go and tell stories; they feared that a mass of their own would gather on this island to seize it, which would ruin the prosperity of the Carthaginians. (<em>De mirabilibus auscultationibus<\/em>\u00a084, 336b). Vossius adds that, for many, the island thus described would be America; this would have been the opinion\u00a0<strong>48<\/strong>\u00a0of Jean Goropius Becan, in book III of his\u00a0<em>Origins of Antwerp<\/em>, published in Antwerp in 1569, of Adrien Turn\u00e8be, in book XX, chap. 11, of his\u00a0<em>Adversaria<\/em>\u00a0(Paris, 1580) and of Jacques de Pam\u00e8le, in his\u00a0<em>Argumenta et annotationes in Tertulliani opera<\/em>\u00a0(Paris, 1635). The accumulation of these diverse references shows that the question of the relationship between the New World and the knowledge of the Ancients did not occupy only geographers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>49<\/strong>Le cercle arctique en question n\u2019est pas notre cercle polaire, mais le parall\u00e8le 54\u00b0 N (ou S), qu\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn49\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>50<\/strong><em>M\u00e9t\u00e9orologiques<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 362 a 33\u2013b 10\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Il y a deux secteurs habitables \u00e0 la surface de la\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn50\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>40Quant au v\u00e9ritable Aristote, on lui reprochait en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral d\u2019avoir r\u00e9pandu l\u2019id\u00e9e que la zone situ\u00e9e entre les tropiques \u00e9tait \u00ab\u00a0torride\u00a0\u00bb et donc inhabitable par suite de la chaleur. Comme beaucoup d\u2019Anciens en effet, adeptes de la g\u00e9om\u00e9trie de la sph\u00e8re, il consid\u00e9rait que sur le globe terrestre seule la zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e, entre tropique et cercle arctique\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn49\"><strong>49<\/strong><\/a>, \u00e9tait habitable, les zones extr\u00eames, les deux glaciales et la zone torride \u00e9tant inhabitables par suite du froid ou de la chaleur\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn50\"><strong>50<\/strong><\/a>. Or la partie du Nouveau Monde que l\u2019on connaissait le mieux, notamment le P\u00e9rou, le Br\u00e9sil, le Mexique, \u00e9tait majoritairement situ\u00e9e entre les tropiques, dans ce que les Anciens et Aristote appelaient la zone torride jug\u00e9e inhabitable. Pour avoir pass\u00e9 de longues ann\u00e9es au P\u00e9rou et au Mexique, Jos\u00e9 de Acosta avait montr\u00e9 et proclam\u00e9 que ces territoires jouissaient d\u2019un climat relativement temp\u00e9r\u00e9, tr\u00e8s agr\u00e9able en tout cas, et \u00e9taient donc particuli\u00e8rement propices \u00e0 l\u2019habitation humaine. Si l\u2019on voulait sugg\u00e9rer que les Anciens avaient une certaine connaissance, m\u00eame imparfaite, de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique, il fallait trouver dans leur litt\u00e9rature des preuves qu\u2019ils savaient la zone torride habitable, et habit\u00e9e. Or des preuves en ce sens, on pouvait en trouver en particulier chez Pline l\u2019Ancien.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pline l\u2019Ancien (23-79), l\u2019<\/strong><strong><em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>41\u00c0 Pline l\u2019Ancien, auteur d\u2019une\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>\u00a0en trente six livres, immense encyclop\u00e9die qui dispensait les lecteurs d\u2019avoir recours directement aux sources grecques, Jos\u00e9 de Acosta emprunte d\u2019abord le r\u00e9cit des p\u00e9riples autour de l\u2019Afrique, qui ne pouvaient se faire qu\u2019en traversant ladite zone torride, et puis ce qui est dit de Taprobane.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>51<\/strong>Sur le p\u00e9riple d\u2019Hannon, cf. J.\u00a0Desanges, \u201c\u00a0Les routes africaines de l\u2019aventure, r\u00eave et r\u00e9alit\u00e9\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn51\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>52<\/strong>Pline l\u2019Ancien,\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>\u00a0II, \u00e9d. et trad. J.\u00a0Beaujeu, Paris, C.U.F., 1950.<\/li>\n<li><strong>53<\/strong>Il s\u2019agit d\u2019Eudoxe de Cyzique, dont l\u2019histoire est racont\u00e9e avec force d\u00e9tails par Strabon (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn53\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>42C\u2019est d\u2019abord le Carthaginois Hannon qui, avant 480 av. J.-C., aurait navigu\u00e9 depuis Gad\u00e8s jusqu\u2019en Arabie\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn51\"><strong>51<\/strong><\/a>. Plus tard, vers 110 av. J.-C., Eudoxe de Cyzique aurait fait le tour de l\u2019Afrique dans l\u2019autre sens. Voici ce que rapporte Pline au livre II\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn52\"><strong>52<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Alors que la puissance de Carthage \u00e9tait florissante, Hannon fit le grand tour depuis Gad\u00e8s jusqu\u2019aux fronti\u00e8res d\u2019Arabie et publia le r\u00e9cit de son p\u00e9riple, comme le fit aussi Himilcon que l\u2019on envoya dans le m\u00eame temps reconna\u00eetre les abords ext\u00e9rieurs de l\u2019Europe. En outre Cornelius N\u00e9pos garantit que de son temps un certain Eudoxe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn53\"><strong>53<\/strong><\/a>, fuyant le roi Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e Lathyre (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0141-81), sortit du golfe d\u2019Arabie et fit voile jusqu\u2019\u00e0 Gad\u00e8s.\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Hist. Nat<\/em>. II, 169). Ainsi la circumnavigation de l\u2019Afrique, comportant un long s\u00e9jour dans la zone torride, aurait eu lieu au moins deux fois, mais probablement bien plus souvent. De quoi montrer que les Anciens ont su, par la pratique, que dans la zone situ\u00e9e entre les tropiques la vie \u00e9tait possible, contrairement \u00e0 ce que soutenaient les th\u00e9oriciens comme Aristote.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>54<\/strong>Pline l\u2019Ancien,\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>\u00a0VI, \u00e9d. J.\u00a0Andr\u00c9\u00a0et trad. J.\u00a0Filiozat, Paris, C.U.F., 1980.<\/li>\n<li><strong>55<\/strong>Dans la conception traditionnelle, d\u2019un globe terrestre abritant peut-\u00eatre quatre mondes habit\u00e9s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn55\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>56<\/strong>M\u00e9gasth\u00e8ne (\u00a0300 av. J.-C.) fut ambassadeur de S\u00e9leucos Nicator aupr\u00e8s du roi Maurya Sandracot\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn56\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>57<\/strong>\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne (<em>\u00a0<\/em>275-195), l\u2019inventeur du terme\u00a0<em>geographia<\/em>\u00a0et le premier auteur d\u2019un tra\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>43Autre emprunt que fait d\u2019Acosta \u00e0 Pline\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn54\"><strong>54<\/strong><\/a>, et que d\u2019autres feront, pour montrer que les Anciens savaient une partie au moins de la zone torride habitable, la description de l\u2019\u00eele de Taprobane (<em>Hist. Nat<\/em>. VI, 81-91), que d\u2019Acosta identifie \u00e0 Sumatra, alors que l\u2019on a l\u2019habitude d\u2019y voir l\u2019\u00eele de Ceylan. \u00ab\u00a0(81) Taprobane a \u00e9t\u00e9 longtemps consid\u00e9r\u00e9e comme un autre monde, sous le nom de terre des Antichthones\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn55\"><strong>55<\/strong><\/a>. C\u2019est l\u2019\u00e9poque d\u2019Alexandre le Grand et ses entreprises qui ont prouv\u00e9 manifestement que c\u2019\u00e9tait une \u00eele. On\u00e9sicrite son amiral a \u00e9crit que les \u00e9l\u00e9phants y sont plus grands et plus belliqueux qu\u2019en Inde. M\u00e9gasth\u00e8ne\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn56\"><strong>56<\/strong><\/a>, qu\u2019elle est partag\u00e9e par un fleuve, que les habitants sont appel\u00e9s Palaeogones et qu\u2019ils produisent plus d\u2019or et de grosses perles que les Indiens. \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne\u00a0<strong>57<\/strong>\u00a0en a donn\u00e9 les dimensions\u00a0: 7\u00a0000 stades de long (<em>sc<\/em>. dans les 1\u00a0100 km) et 5\u00a0000 de large (<em>sc<\/em>. dans les 780 km), et indiqu\u00e9 qu\u2019elle n\u2019a pas de villes mais 750 villages. (82) Elle commence \u00e0 la mer orientale et s\u2019\u00e9tend face \u00e0 l\u2019Inde dans le sens Est-Ouest\u00a0; on la croyait jadis \u00e0 vingt jours de navigation de la nation des Prases (<em>sc<\/em>. des riverains du Gange)\u2026 mais la distance fut \u00e9valu\u00e9e plus tard \u00e0 sept jours d\u2019apr\u00e8s la vitesse de nos navires [\u2026]. (84) Nous avons parl\u00e9 jusqu\u2019ici d\u2019apr\u00e8s les auteurs anciens. Des renseignements plus exacts nous sont parvenus sous le principat de Claude (<em>regn<\/em>. 41-54), et m\u00eame des ambassadeurs sont venus de cette \u00eele [\u2026]. (87) Ils admiraient chez nous la Grande Ourse et les Pl\u00e9iades comme en un ciel nouveau, et d\u00e9claraient que m\u00eame la lune n\u2019\u00e9tait visible chez eux que du huiti\u00e8me au seizi\u00e8me jour et que dans leurs nuits brillait Canopus, une tr\u00e8s grande et brillante \u00e9toile. Mais ce qui les \u00e9tonnait le plus \u00e9tait que leurs ombres tombaient du c\u00f4t\u00e9 de notre ciel et non du leur, et que le soleil se levait \u00e0 gauche et se couchait \u00e0 droite au lieu du contraire\u00a0\u00bb. Autant d\u2019indications qui pla\u00e7aient Taprobane au sud du tropique d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9, prouvant que la zone torride \u00e9tait habitable, au moins partiellement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>S\u00e9n\u00e8que (4 av.\u201365 ap. J.-C.),\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>58<\/strong>Corneille s\u2019en est inspir\u00e9 pour sa propre\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>59<\/strong> par exemple,\u00a0<em>Questions Naturelles<\/em>VII, II, 3\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Est-ce le monde qui tourne autour de la terr\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn59\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>44Autre argument fr\u00e9quemment cit\u00e9\u00a0: quelques vers de la\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0de S\u00e9n\u00e8que, le philosophe sto\u00efcien, pr\u00e9cepteur de N\u00e9ron, auteur de dialogues, de trait\u00e9s philosophiques, des fameuses\u00a0<em>Lettres \u00e0 Lucilius<\/em>, mais aussi de trag\u00e9dies, comme\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn58\"><strong>58<\/strong><\/a>, compos\u00e9e vers 63-64, soit tr\u00e8s peu de temps avant sa mort programm\u00e9e par N\u00e9ron. En 62, il avait commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 travailler aux\u00a0<em>Questions Naturelles<\/em>, o\u00f9 il abordait toutes sortes de probl\u00e8mes scientifiques\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn59\"><strong>59<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>60<\/strong> S\u00e9n\u00e8que,\u00a0<em>Trag\u00e9dies<\/em>, t. I,\u00a0<em>Hercule furieux<\/em>,\u00a0<em>les Troyennes<\/em>,\u00a0<em>les Ph\u00e9niciennes<\/em>,\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>, \u00e9d. et\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn60\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>61<\/strong>Allusion \u00e0 l\u2019exp\u00e9dition des Argonautes vers la Colchide, sur la rive orientale de la mer Noire, e\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn61\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>62<\/strong>Thul\u00e9 \u00e9tait l\u2019\u00eele myst\u00e9rieuse, dont avait entendu parler Pyth\u00e9as le Massaliote, dans son p\u00e9riple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn62\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>45C\u2019est donc fort de sa confiance dans les progr\u00e8s incessants de la science qu\u2019il fait dire au Ch\u0153ur, dans\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn60\"><strong>60<\/strong><\/a>, les vers dont ceux qui se rapportent \u00e0 un futur lointain seront jug\u00e9s proph\u00e9tiques par les historiens du Nouveau Monde\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Maintenant la mer est soumise et se plie \u00e0 toutes nos lois\u00a0: il n\u2019est nul besoin de l\u2019illustre Argo\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn61\"><strong>61<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0assembl\u00e9e par la main de Pallas et sur laquelle les rameurs sont des rois\u00a0: la premi\u00e8re barque venue s\u2019aventure en haute mer\u00a0; toutes les limites se trouvent recul\u00e9es et les villes ont dress\u00e9 leurs murailles sur de nouvelles terres [\u2026]. Plus tard, dans le cours des ann\u00e9es, viendront des temps o\u00f9 l\u2019Oc\u00e9an rel\u00e2chera son emprise sur le monde, o\u00f9 la terre s\u2019ouvrira dans son immensit\u00e9, o\u00f9 T\u00e9thys nous r\u00e9v\u00e8lera de nouveaux mondes et o\u00f9 Thul\u00e9\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn62\"><strong>62<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0ne sera plus la limite de l\u2019univers.\u00a0\u00bb (v. 364-379, trad. Ch. Guittard).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>63<\/strong>Parmi eux, se trouvait Lopez de Gomara, comme il a \u00e9t\u00e9 signal\u00e9 plus haut (p. 164).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>46Jos\u00e9 de Acosta commente\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Beaucoup\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn63\"><strong>63<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0pensent que S\u00e9n\u00e8que le tragique fut le proph\u00e8te de ces Indes Occidentales dans\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 11). Botero, qui appr\u00e9cie la valeur proph\u00e9tique de ces vers, reproche \u00e0 l\u2019auteur d\u2019avoir mentionn\u00e9 Thul\u00e9 comme limite du monde habit\u00e9, ce qui sugg\u00e8rerait une prolongation du domaine connu vers le Nord. Or c\u2019est vers l\u2019Ouest qu\u2019a eu lieu l\u2019extension, par la d\u00e9couverte du Nouveau Monde. Et donc, argumente Botero, S\u00e9n\u00e8que aurait d\u00fb parler de Cadix, et non pas de Thul\u00e9, pour que cette proph\u00e9tie prenne tout son sens.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n6\"><strong>Festus Avi\u00e9nus (IVe si\u00e8cle),\u00a0<\/strong><strong><em>Ora Maritima<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>64<\/strong> Festus Avienus,\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em>, ed. et trad. A.\u00a0Berthelot, Paris, librarie anc. H.\u00a0Champion, 19\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn64\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>47Vossius, pour montrer que les Anciens avaient l\u2019habitude de naviguer au-del\u00e0 des colonnes d\u2019Hercule, invoque Festus Avi\u00e9nus\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn64\"><strong>64<\/strong><\/a>, dans les\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em>. Ce po\u00e8me en vers iambiques d\u00e9crit surtout la c\u00f4te, de Marseille \u00e0 Gad\u00e8s-Cadix, mais rappelle aussi bien des voyages effectu\u00e9s par les Grecs ou les Carthaginois dans l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Atlantique, vers 500 av. J.-C. Vossius cite un fragment du po\u00e8me dans le\u00a0<em>De Philologia<\/em>\u00a0(XI, 27), puis rappelle cette citation dans le\u00a0<em>De Scientiis Mathematicis<\/em>\u00a0(XLII, 10).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>65<\/strong>Ces \u00eeles o\u00f9 l\u2019on se procurait de l\u2019\u00e9tain \u00e9taient appel\u00e9es par les Grecs Cassit\u00e9rides. On les situ\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>66<\/strong>Tartessos, proche de l\u2019embouchure du Guadalquivir, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 occup\u00e9e par les Ph\u00e9niciens, hardis m\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>67<\/strong>La reconnaissance des c\u00f4tes atlantiques de l\u2019Europe par Himilcon eut lieu vers 500 av.\u00a0J.-C., mai\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn67\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>48Apr\u00e8s avoir \u00e9voqu\u00e9 les myst\u00e9rieuses \u00eeles \u0152strymnides\u00a0<strong>65<\/strong>, \u00ab\u00a0aux larges plaines et aux riches mines d\u2019\u00e9tain et de plomb\u00a0\u00bb, puis Albion et l\u2019Irlande, Avi\u00e9nus continuait par ces vers qui ont frapp\u00e9 Vossius\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Les Tartessiens\u00a0<strong>66<\/strong>\u00a0avaient l\u2019habitude de commercer aux limites des \u0152strymnides\u00a0: de m\u00eame les colons de Carthage et les gens r\u00e9pandus autour des Colonnes d\u2019Hercule visitaient ces r\u00e9gions. Le Carthaginois Himilcon\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn67\"><strong>67<\/strong><\/a>, qui rapporte avoir lui-m\u00eame exp\u00e9riment\u00e9 cette navigation, affirme que c\u2019est \u00e0 peine si l\u2019on peut les atteindre en quatre mois. Ainsi nul souffle ne propulse le navire, l\u2019eau de cette mer paresseuse semble engourdie. Il ajoute que du fond montent une multitude d\u2019algues qui souvent retiennent le bateau comme une haie\u00a0; n\u00e9anmoins, dit-il, la mer est sans profondeur, \u00e0 peine une mince couche d\u2019eau recouvre le sol\u00a0; toujours des animaux marins circulent \u00e7a et l\u00e0, des monstres nagent entre les navires qui se tra\u00eenent, lents et inertes.\u00a0\u00bb (v. 113-129, trad. A. Berthelot).<\/p>\n<p>49Citant ces vers, Vossius pr\u00e9tendait avec optimisme\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0ils paraissent s\u2019appliquer \u00e0 l\u2019Am\u00e9rique\u00a0\u00bb, ce qui est loin d\u2019\u00eatre \u00e9vident, puisque le p\u00e9riple d\u2019Himilcon, tel que le pr\u00e9sente Avi\u00e9nus, se serait surtout effectu\u00e9 en direction du nord, au large des c\u00f4tes europ\u00e9ennes de l\u2019Atlantique.<\/p>\n<p>50Tels sont les auteurs principaux invoqu\u00e9s au cours des discussions qui opposaient les tenants des th\u00e8ses oppos\u00e9es sur la connaissance que les Anciens avaient pu avoir de ce Nouveau Monde r\u00e9cemment d\u00e9couvert. Ce sont en majeure partie des auteurs latins plus ou moins tardifs (mais on \u00e9voquait aussi \u00e0 l\u2019occasion les po\u00e8tes Virgile ou Ovide)\u00a0; les quelques auteurs grecs cit\u00e9s semblent l\u2019avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 le plus souvent \u00e0 travers des traductions latines.<\/p>\n<p>51Or, si l\u2019on voulait montrer que les Anciens ont, sinon connu l\u2019Am\u00e9rique, du moins subodor\u00e9 l\u2019existence d\u2019un continent ou de plusieurs continents inconnus, il existait nombre de textes grecs, \u00e0 teneur plus ou moins scientifique, qui auraient fourni, sur bien des sujets de la controverse, des arguments de poids.<\/p>\n<p><strong>III. D\u2019autres textes utiles, mais non utilis\u00e9s<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>52Les grands th\u00e8mes abord\u00e9s dans ces d\u00e9bats portaient essentiellement d\u2019abord sur la possibilit\u00e9 pour les anciens d\u2019envisager d\u2019autres mondes habit\u00e9s, en dehors de celui qu\u2019ils occupaient, puis sur leur ignorance suppos\u00e9e de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re austral, enfin sur la croyance en l\u2019inhospitalit\u00e9 pour les humains de la zone dite torride, entre les tropiques. Si ces th\u00e8mes avaient d\u00e9j\u00e0 fait dans l\u2019Antiquit\u00e9 l\u2019objet de maintes discussions, plus ou moins passionn\u00e9es, le monde savant avait, lui, sur bien des points, des opinions relativement justes, dont po\u00e8tes et \u00e9crivains, grecs ou latins, se sont faits souvent les \u00e9chos.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Les autres \u00ab\u00a0mondes habit\u00e9s\u00a0\u00bb possibles<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>68<\/strong>Sur ce g\u00e9ographe c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, cf. par exemple, G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>Claude Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, astronome, astrologue, g\u00e9og\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn68\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>53Les g\u00e9ographes grecs en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral \u2013 Claude Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn68\"><strong>68<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00e9tant une exception tardive \u2013 ont consid\u00e9r\u00e9 que \u00ab\u00a0notre\u00a0\u00bb monde habit\u00e9, soit les trois continents connus, Europe-Asie-Afrique, \u00e9tait situ\u00e9 au nord de l\u2019\u00e9quateur, dans un des quarts du globe terrestre. Les trois autres quarts, encore inconnus, vu l\u2019impossibilit\u00e9 de s\u2019aventurer tr\u00e8s loin des c\u00f4tes, pouvaient donc \u00eatre occup\u00e9s par des terres, peupl\u00e9es ou non, ou par de vastes mers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>69<\/strong>Sur \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne (\u00a0275-195), qui fut \u00e0 la t\u00eate de la Biblioth\u00e8que d\u2019Alexandrie pendant\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn69\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>70<\/strong>\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne avait \u00e9valu\u00e9 \u00e0 252\u00a0000 stades la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre, ce qui mettait le degr\u00e9 de\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>71<\/strong>Sur Strabon (\u00a063 av.- 24 ap. J.-C.), contemporain de l\u2019empereur Auguste, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>Strabon\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn71\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>54\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn69\"><strong>69<\/strong><\/a>, qui avait le premier, au IIIe s. av. J.-C., mesur\u00e9 de fa\u00e7on scientifique la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre, attribuait \u00e0 la longueur du monde connu, d\u2019Est en Ouest, le long du parall\u00e8le de Rhodes (36\u00b0 N) consid\u00e9r\u00e9 comme le parall\u00e8le central de la carte, un peu plus du tiers du parall\u00e8le entier. D\u2019o\u00f9 il concluait que, \u00ab\u00a0si l\u2019immensit\u00e9 de l\u2019oc\u00e9an Atlantique n\u2019y faisait obstacle, il nous serait possible d\u2019aller par mer d\u2019Ib\u00e9rie jusqu\u2019en Inde\u00a0: il suffirait de suivre le m\u00eame parall\u00e8le et de parcourir la section qui reste, une fois \u00f4t\u00e9e la distance d\u00e9finie ci-dessus, soit un peu plus du tiers de la circonf\u00e9rence totale, en admettant une valeur inf\u00e9rieure \u00e0 200\u00a0000 stades pour le parall\u00e8le d\u2019Ath\u00e8nes\u00a0<strong>70<\/strong>\u00a0sur lequel a \u00e9t\u00e9 faite la pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente r\u00e9partition en stades depuis l\u2019Inde jusqu\u2019\u00e0 l\u2019Ib\u00e9rie.\u00a0\u00bb (Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0I, 4, 6). Si Strabon\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn71\"><strong>71<\/strong><\/a>, qui transmet l\u2019enseignement d\u2019\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, reconna\u00eet que le raisonnement est correct du point de vue math\u00e9matique, il \u00e9met des doutes sur la r\u00e9alisation d\u2019un tel projet, car \u00ab\u00a0l\u2019on admet que, dans la m\u00eame zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e, il peut y avoir deux mondes habit\u00e9s ou plus, et surtout \u00e0 la hauteur du parall\u00e8le d\u2019Ath\u00e8nes, dans la partie qu\u2019il d\u00e9crit \u00e0 travers l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Atlantique\u00a0\u00bb (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. I, 4, 6). La possibilit\u00e9 d\u2019un autre continent, habit\u00e9 ou non, dans la zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e nord \u00e9tait donc commun\u00e9ment envisag\u00e9e.<\/p>\n<p>55Vers le milieu du IIe s. av. J.-C. en effet, le sto\u00efcien Crat\u00e8s de Mallos, qui fut directeur de la Biblioth\u00e8que de Pergame, s\u2019\u00e9tait rendu c\u00e9l\u00e8bre pour avoir fabriqu\u00e9 un globe terrestre de trois m\u00e8tres de diam\u00e8tre (cf. Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 10) sur lequel il avait repr\u00e9sent\u00e9 quatre mondes habit\u00e9s sym\u00e9triques, s\u00e9par\u00e9s par des ceintures oc\u00e9aniques d\u00e9ploy\u00e9es l\u2019une le long d\u2019un m\u00e9ridien et l\u2019autre le long de l\u2019\u00e9quateur\u00a0; de ces quatre mondes habit\u00e9s, un seul \u00e9tait connu, \u00ab\u00a0le n\u00f4tre\u00a0\u00bb, les barri\u00e8res oc\u00e9aniques emp\u00eachant que l\u2019on ne d\u00e9barque sur les autres. Voil\u00e0 en tout cas une belle anticipation des exp\u00e9ditions futures, quand les navigateurs, connaissant l\u2019usage de la boussole, auront la hardiesse de traverser ces oc\u00e9ans, r\u00e9put\u00e9s infranchissables par les Anciens.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>72<\/strong>Sur Poseidonios, cf. n. 44. Les proc\u00e9d\u00e9s utilis\u00e9s par \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne et par Poseidonios pour mesurer\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>56Voulant rivaliser avec \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne et sa mesure du globe terrestre, Poseidonios\u00a0<strong>72<\/strong>, utilisant un autre proc\u00e9d\u00e9, astronomique, qui se r\u00e9v\u00e9lait bien peu fiable, r\u00e9duisait \u00e0 180\u00a0000 stades la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre, ce qui rendait encore plus courte la distance \u00e0 parcourir sur mer, d\u2019Ib\u00e9rie en Inde (il avait \u00e9galement r\u00e9duit la longueur du monde habit\u00e9)\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Poseidonios \u00e9met l\u2019hypoth\u00e8se que les quelque 70\u00a0000 stades qui repr\u00e9sentent la longueur du monde habit\u00e9 valent la moiti\u00e9 du cercle entier sur lequel est prise cette longueur, de sorte que, dit-il, si, partant de l\u2019Occident, l\u2019on naviguait par vent d\u2019est, au bout d\u2019un nombre \u00e9gal de stades, on aboutirait aux Indes.\u00a0\u00bb (Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 3, 6).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>73<\/strong>Marin de Tyr, l\u00e9g\u00e8rement ant\u00e9rieur \u00e0 Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, avait voulu corriger la carte du monde habit\u00e9 proc\u00a0(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>57Or c\u2019est sur cette mesure (largement erron\u00e9e) de la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre que se sont fond\u00e9s Marin de Tyr\u00a0<strong>73<\/strong>\u00a0et Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e. De plus, Marin de Tyr attribuait 225\u00b0 de longitude \u00e0 la longueur du continent eurasiatique, qui n\u2019en vaut en fait que 140, du cap Vert \u00e0 P\u00e9kin, ou de Gad\u00e8s-Cadix au Japon. Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, probablement pour simplifier le trac\u00e9 de la carte, r\u00e9duisait \u00e0 180\u00b0 l\u2019extension du continent eurasiatique, mais ne le limitait pas, \u00e0 l\u2019Extr\u00eame Orient, par la mer, ce qui laissait supposer une continuation des terres au del\u00e0 des 180\u00b0. L\u2019un comme l\u2019autre ont donn\u00e9 de faux espoirs (mais beaucoup de courage) \u00e0 Christophe Colomb, qui poss\u00e9dait un exemplaire de la\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ographie<\/em>\u00a0de Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e en latin (elle avait \u00e9t\u00e9 traduite d\u00e8s 1409), dans l\u2019\u00e9dition de Rome de 1478. Port\u00e9 par l\u2019esp\u00e9rance, Colomb est parti \u00e0 la recherche des Indes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n8\"><strong>L\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re austral<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>74<\/strong>Sur les enseignements de la g\u00e9om\u00e9trie de la sph\u00e8re, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>La sph\u00e8re, instrument au servic\u00a0<\/em>(&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>58La g\u00e9om\u00e9trie de la sph\u00e8re\u00a0<strong>74<\/strong>\u00a0avait appris depuis longtemps aux math\u00e9maticiens ou g\u00e9ographes grecs que le globe terrestre, r\u00e9plique de la sph\u00e8re c\u00e9leste, comprenait deux h\u00e9misph\u00e8res, l\u2019un septentrional, l\u2019autre m\u00e9ridional, s\u00e9par\u00e9s par l\u2019\u00e9quateur. Les zones \u00e9taient elles aussi sym\u00e9triques par rapport \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9quateur\u00a0; dans l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re austral, il y avait donc une zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e et une zone glaciale, \u00e9quivalentes \u00e0 celles de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re nord. Strabon est tr\u00e8s clair dans cet expos\u00e9 qui pr\u00e9sente l\u2019essentiel des connaissances (th\u00e9oriques) de l\u2019\u00e9poque. \u00ab\u00a0Il faut poser en pr\u00e9alable que le ciel a cinq zones, cinq zones aussi la terre, et que les zones portent le m\u00eame nom ici-bas qu\u2019en haut [&#8230;] Les zones seraient d\u00e9limit\u00e9es par des cercles parall\u00e8les \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9quateur, trac\u00e9s de chaque c\u00f4t\u00e9 de celui-ci, deux d\u2019entre eux isolant la zone torride, deux autres \u00e0 la suite formant \u00e0 partir de la zone torride les deux zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, et \u00e0 partir des zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es les zones glaciales&#8230; \u00c9tant donn\u00e9 que l\u2019\u00e9quateur coupe en deux la totalit\u00e9 du ciel, n\u00e9cessairement la terre est aussi divis\u00e9e en deux par l\u2019\u00e9quateur terrestre. Chacun des h\u00e9misph\u00e8res, au ciel comme sur terre, s\u2019appelle l\u2019un bor\u00e9al, l\u2019autre austral\u00a0; aussi puisque la zone torride est divis\u00e9e en deux par le m\u00eame cercle, une partie en sera bor\u00e9ale, l\u2019autre australe. Il est clair \u00e9galement que, des deux zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, l\u2019une sera bor\u00e9ale, l\u2019autre australe, du nom de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re dans lequel elle se trouve. On appelle h\u00e9misph\u00e8re bor\u00e9al celui qui contient la zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e dans laquelle, en regardant d\u2019Est en Ouest, on a le p\u00f4le \u00e0 sa droite, l\u2019\u00e9quateur \u00e0 sa gauche, ou encore celui dans lequel, quand on regarde vers le midi, on a le couchant \u00e0 sa droite, le levant \u00e0 sa gauche\u00a0; pour l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re austral, c\u2019est l\u2019inverse.\u00a0\u00bb (Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 3).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>75<\/strong>G\u00e9minos de Rhodes (<em>fl<\/em>. 50 av. J.-C.) est l\u2019auteur d\u2019un important trait\u00e9 (perdu) sur\u00a0<em>La Science ma\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn75\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>76<\/strong>Ce sont les Antichthones dont parlait Pline, \u00e0 propos de Taprobane (cf. n. 55).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>59Comme l\u2019on pensait aussi que seules les zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es \u00e9taient susceptibles d\u2019\u00eatre habit\u00e9es, il \u00e9tait courant d\u2019imaginer d\u2019autres mondes habit\u00e9s possibles, en dehors du n\u00f4tre\u00a0: on leur donnait, sans les conna\u00eetre, des noms \u00e9vocateurs. C\u2019est l\u2019enseignement que dispense G\u00e9minos\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn75\"><strong>75<\/strong><\/a>, dans son\u00a0<em>Introduction aux Ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes<\/em>, manuel \u00e9l\u00e9mentaire d\u2019astronomie et de g\u00e9ographie math\u00e9matique. Selon sa nomenclature, \u00ab\u00a0sont contigus les lieux situ\u00e9s dans la m\u00eame moiti\u00e9 de la m\u00eame zone\u00a0; sont sym\u00e9triques les lieux situ\u00e9s dans la m\u00eame zone, dans l\u2019autre moiti\u00e9 du cercle\u00a0; sont oppos\u00e9s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn76\"><strong>76<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0ceux situ\u00e9s dans la zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e australe mais dans un m\u00eame h\u00e9misph\u00e8re\u00a0; sont antipodes ceux situ\u00e9s dans la zone australe mais dans l\u2019autre h\u00e9misph\u00e8re, diam\u00e9tralement oppos\u00e9s \u00e0 notre monde habit\u00e9, d\u2019o\u00f9 leur nom d\u2019antipodes\u00a0: tous les graves en effet convergeant vers le centre du fait de l\u2019attraction des corps vers le milieu, si, \u00e0 partir d\u2019un lieu quelconque situ\u00e9 dans notre monde habit\u00e9, l\u2019on tire une droite en direction du centre de la terre et si on la prolonge, les lieux situ\u00e9s \u00e0 l\u2019extr\u00e9mit\u00e9 du diam\u00e8tre dans la zone australe sont les antipodes de ceux situ\u00e9s dans la zone bor\u00e9ale\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Introd. aux Ph\u00e9n.<\/em>\u00a0XVI, 1-2). Mais ce vulgarisateur intelligent ne manquait pas de mettre en garde ses lecteurs contre une interpr\u00e9tation trop litt\u00e9rale de cet enseignement.. \u00ab\u00a0Quand nous parlons de la zone australe et de ses habitants, en particulier des antipodes qu\u2019elle abrite, il convient de ne pas se m\u00e9prendre sur nos propos\u00a0: nous n\u2019avons aucune information sur la zone sud, nous ignorons si elle contient ou non des habitants, mais, \u00e9tant donn\u00e9 le syst\u00e8me sph\u00e9rique d\u2019ensemble, \u00e9tant donn\u00e9 la forme de la terre et la progression du soleil entre les tropiques, il existe certainement une seconde zone, au sud, qui a le m\u00eame climat temp\u00e9r\u00e9 que celle, au nord, o\u00f9 nous habitons nous-m\u00eames. De m\u00eame quand nous parlons d\u2019antipodes, nous n\u2019affirmons pas qu\u2019il existe effectivement des hommes qui nous seraient diam\u00e9tralement oppos\u00e9s, mais seulement qu\u2019il existe sur la terre un lieu habitable qui nous est diam\u00e9tralement oppos\u00e9.\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Introd. aux Ph\u00e9n.\u00a0<\/em>XVI, 19-20). On ne saurait \u00eatre plus prudent.<\/p>\n<p>60Nul des quelques auteurs, post\u00e9rieurs \u00e0 la d\u00e9couverte du Nouveau Monde, qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 retenus pour illustrer cette controverse sur les rapports entre les Anciens et l\u2019Am\u00e9rique ne cite cette si utile\u00a0<em>Introduction aux Ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes<\/em>, dont l\u2019\u00e9dition princeps, avec traduction latine (sous le titre peut-\u00eatre dissuasif de\u00a0<em>Elementa astronomiae<\/em>), fut publi\u00e9e \u00e0 Nuremberg en 1590, puis \u00e0 Lyon en 1603. Le trait\u00e9 de G\u00e9minos avait \u00e9t\u00e9 traduit en arabe probablement vers le IXe si\u00e8cle, et de l\u00e0, traduit en latin par G\u00e9rard de Cr\u00e9mone, travaillant \u00e0 Tol\u00e8de vers 1170, puis en h\u00e9breu par Moses Ibn Tibbon, \u00e0 Naples, en 1246. Quelques chapitres, dont celui sur les zones, en avaient \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9s en 1499 \u00e0 Venise par les soins d\u2019Alde Manuce, sous le titre trompeur de\u00a0<em>Sph\u00e8re de Proclus<\/em>, o\u00f9 le texte grec \u00e9tait accompagn\u00e9 d\u2019une traduction en latin procur\u00e9e par Thomas Linacre. Cela avait peut-\u00eatre contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 faire oublier le v\u00e9ritable auteur.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#tocfrom2n9\"><strong>La zone torride habitable\u00a0? L\u2019\u00e9quateur temp\u00e9r\u00e9\u00a0?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>77<\/strong>En fait H\u00e9rodote (<em>Enqu\u00eate<\/em>\u00a0IV, 42) parle des Ph\u00e9niciens partis d\u2019\u00c9gypte sur l\u2019ordre du pharaon N\u00e9\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn77\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>78<\/strong>H\u00e9raclide du Pont (<em>\u00a0<\/em>390-310), disciple de Platon, avait \u00e9mis l\u2019hypoth\u00e8se que le Soleil \u00e9tait im\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn78\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>79<\/strong>Eudoxe de Cyzique serait venu en \u00c9gypte comme ambassadeur sous le r\u00e8gne de Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e \u00c9verg\u00e8te II (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn79\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>80<\/strong>Cornelius N\u00e9pos (\u00a099-24 av. J.-C.), cit\u00e9 par Pline II, 169 et par Pomponius Mela III, 9, 90, so\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn80\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>61On se souvient que l\u2019un des arguments utilis\u00e9s par d\u2019Acosta et d\u2019autres pour montrer que les Anciens n\u2019ont pas connu le Nouveau Monde est la conviction, qu\u2019il pr\u00eate d\u2019ailleurs surtout \u00e0 Aristote, que la zone torride serait inhabitable, alors que l\u2019on avait fait l\u2019exp\u00e9rience dor\u00e9navant qu\u2019entre les tropiques la vie \u00e9tait parfaitement possible et le climat relativement agr\u00e9able. D\u2019o\u00f9, pour les d\u00e9fenseurs des Anciens, les r\u00e9f\u00e9rences aux r\u00e9cits des diverses circumnavigations de l\u2019Afrique qui prouvaient que, dans le monde antique aussi, on savait que la zone torride n\u2019\u00e9tait pas aussi insupportable que ne le pr\u00e9tendait la th\u00e9orie. Les humanistes ne citaient que Pline l\u2019Ancien. Mais Poseidonios avant lui avait rappel\u00e9 \u00ab\u00a0ceux dont la tradition veut qu\u2019ils aient fait le tour de la Libye, \u00e9voquant l\u2019opinion d\u2019H\u00e9rodote\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn77\"><strong>77<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0que des explorateurs \u00e0 la solde de Darius auraient boucl\u00e9 le circuit par mer, citant \u00e9galement H\u00e9raclide du Pont\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn78\"><strong>78<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0qui, dans un de ses dialogues, fait dire \u00e0 un mage arriv\u00e9 chez G\u00e9lon qu\u2019il vient d\u2019effectuer le circuit par mer\u2026 Puis Poseidonios raconte l\u2019histoire d\u2019un certain Eudoxe de Cyzique\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn79\"><strong>79<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0[&#8230;]\u00a0\u00bb (Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 3, 4). De cet Eudoxe, dont parle \u00e9galement Pline, sur la foi de Cornelius N\u00e9pos\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn80\"><strong>80<\/strong><\/a>, Poseidonios retra\u00e7ait avec force d\u00e9tails les d\u00e9m\u00eal\u00e9s particuli\u00e8rement rocambolesques avec les souverains d\u2019\u00c9gypte, et les diverses tentatives de p\u00e9riples, souvent avort\u00e9es, mais il reconnaissait honn\u00eatement qu\u2019il ignorait la fin de l\u2019histoire. Or le tour de l\u2019Afrique impliquait la travers\u00e9e de la zone torride et la preuve que ces lieux \u00e9taient habit\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>81<\/strong>Ces 16\u00a0800 stades repr\u00e9sentent 24 degr\u00e9s de m\u00e9ridien. M\u00eame si personne n\u2019avait jamais mesur\u00e9 conc\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn81\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>82<\/strong>Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, lui, \u00e9tend le monde habit\u00e9 au sud de l\u2019\u00e9quateur, jusqu\u2019au parall\u00e8le 16\u00b0 S, tandis que M\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn82\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>62Si ces tentatives de circumnavigation de l\u2019Afrique restaient \u00e9pisodiques, et furent souvent contest\u00e9es, les Anciens n\u2019ignoraient pas qu\u2019une grande partie de la zone torride \u00e9tait effectivement habit\u00e9e. \u00ab\u00a0Entre les tropiques, de nos jours, on est all\u00e9 voir\u00a0: on a constat\u00e9 que la majeure partie en est habitable [&#8230;] Sur les 16\u00a0800 stades\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn81\"><strong>81<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0qui s\u00e9parent le tropique d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9 de l\u2019\u00e9quateur, il y en a quelque 8\u00a0800 qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 parcourus, et les informations sur ces r\u00e9gions ont \u00e9t\u00e9 consign\u00e9es \u00e0 Alexandrie gr\u00e2ce aux souverains qui ont fait faire l\u2019enqu\u00eate [&#8230;] On voit par l\u00e0 que l\u2019opinion qui veut que la r\u00e9gion situ\u00e9e entre les tropiques soit inhabit\u00e9e par suite de l\u2019exc\u00e8s de chaleur, et particuli\u00e8rement la partie situ\u00e9e au centre de la zone torride, est erreur notoire.\u00a0\u00bb (G\u00e9minos,\u00a0<em>Intr. aux Ph\u00e9n<\/em>. XVI, 24-25). De fait, la carte du monde habit\u00e9 propos\u00e9e par \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne s\u2019\u00e9tend au moins vers le Sud\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn82\"><strong>82<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0jusqu\u2019au parall\u00e8le situ\u00e9 \u00e0 \u00e9gale distance du tropique et de l\u2019\u00e9quateur (12\u00b0 N).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>83<\/strong>Polybe (\u00a0203-120), un Grec de M\u00e9galopolis, est l\u2019auteur d\u2019une\u00a0<em>Histoire<\/em>\u00a0en trente-neuf livres qu\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn83\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>84<\/strong>Les cercles tropiques en question sont les tropiques c\u00e9lestes. Pour les Grecs, les cercles fondam\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn84\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>85<\/strong>C\u2019est aussi l\u2019argument qu\u2019avance Poseidonios, \u00ab\u00a0que le d\u00e9placement du soleil sur le cercle obliqu\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn85\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>63Bien plus, dans les milieux cultiv\u00e9s, l\u2019opinion commen\u00e7ait \u00e0 pr\u00e9valoir que la zone \u00e9quatoriale \u00e9tait plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9e que les zones tropicales. On s\u2019\u00e9tait parfois demand\u00e9 en effet si, dans la zone torride, la partie m\u00e9diane n\u2019\u00e9tait pas plus habitable que les bords. G\u00e9minos rappelle \u00e0 ce sujet que \u00ab\u00a0Polybe l\u2019historien\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn83\"><strong>83<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0a m\u00eame compos\u00e9 un ouvrage intitul\u00e9\u00a0<em>R\u00e9gions \u00e9quatoriales<\/em>, d\u00e9signant par l\u00e0 les r\u00e9gions situ\u00e9es au centre de la zone torride. Il pr\u00e9tend que ces r\u00e9gions sont habit\u00e9es et jouissent d\u2019un climat plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9 que les contr\u00e9es situ\u00e9es aux fronti\u00e8res de la zone torride. Il commence par faire \u00e9tat d\u2019informations donn\u00e9es par des t\u00e9moins oculaires qui ont visit\u00e9 les lieux et exp\u00e9riment\u00e9 les apparences c\u00e9lestes\u00a0; puis il raisonne en s\u2019appuyant sur le mouvement naturel du soleil. Le soleil en effet reste longtemps aux entours des cercles tropiques\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn84\"><strong>84<\/strong><\/a>, dans son mouvement d\u2019aller et retour, si bien que pendant quarante jours \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s il s\u00e9journe sensiblement sur le cercle tropique\u00a0; c\u2019est d\u2019ailleurs la raison pour laquelle la dur\u00e9e des jours reste sensiblement la m\u00eame durant quarante jours. Le soleil s\u2019attardant ainsi sur les lieux situ\u00e9s sous les tropiques, il est in\u00e9vitable que de tels lieux soient calcin\u00e9s et inhabitables du fait de l\u2019exc\u00e8s de chaleur. \u00c0 l\u2019\u00e9quateur en revanche, il se trouve que les d\u00e9placements sont rapides\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn85\"><strong>85<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0; c\u2019est pourquoi aussi la dur\u00e9e des jours subit de fortes variations au moment des \u00e9quinoxes. Il est donc logique que les latitudes \u00e9quatoriales soient plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, puisque le soleil, au lieu de s\u2019attarder au z\u00e9nith, s\u2019en \u00e9loigne rapidement. Tous les lieux situ\u00e9s entre les tropiques sont bien dans une m\u00eame position par rapport au trajet du soleil\u00a0; seulement le soleil reste plus longtemps au z\u00e9nith pour les latitudes proches des tropiques\u00a0; c\u2019est pourquoi les lieux situ\u00e9s sous l\u2019\u00e9quateur, en plein c\u0153ur de la zone torride, sont g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9s que ceux situ\u00e9s aux fronti\u00e8res de la zone torride, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire sous les tropiques.\u00a0\u00bb (G\u00e9minos,\u00a0<em>Intr. aux Ph\u00e9n<\/em>. XVI, 32-38).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>86<\/strong>Sur le silphium, une plante aujourd\u2019hui disparue, qui avait fait la richesse de Cyr\u00e8ne, cf.\u00a0F.\u00a0Ch\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn86\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>64Avant Polybe, \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, apr\u00e8s lui Poseidonios, avaient \u00e9galement soutenu l\u2019opinion que l\u2019\u00e9quateur jouissait d\u2019un climat plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9 que les zones tropicales. Poseidonios avait propos\u00e9 de distinguer, \u00ab\u00a0du point de vue des ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes humains, deux zones \u00e9troites situ\u00e9es sous les tropiques\u00a0: le soleil y reste au z\u00e9nith pendant \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s la moiti\u00e9 d\u2019un mois et elles sont divis\u00e9es en deux par les tropiques. Ces zones ont ceci de particulier qu\u2019elles sont compl\u00e8tement dess\u00e9ch\u00e9es et recouvertes de sable, et qu\u2019elles ne produisent que du silphium\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn86\"><strong>86<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0et quelques fruits aigres et recuits [&#8230;] Manifestement, ajoute Poseidonios, ces caract\u00e8res sont particuliers \u00e0 ces zones, car, plus au sud, les conditions atmosph\u00e9riques sont plus temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, et la terre plus fertile et mieux arros\u00e9e.\u00a0\u00bb (Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0II, 2, 3).\u00a0Strabon critique cette mani\u00e8re d\u2019introduire deux zones tropicales\u00a0; il pr\u00e9f\u00e8rerait, lui, introduire une zone \u00e9quatoriale. \u00ab\u00a0Si, comme le dit \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, la r\u00e9gion situ\u00e9e sous l\u2019\u00e9quateur est temp\u00e9r\u00e9e (opinion partag\u00e9e par Polybe [&#8230;]\u00a0), mieux vaudrait d\u00e9finir une troisi\u00e8me zone temp\u00e9r\u00e9e, assez \u00e9troite, plut\u00f4t que d\u2019introduire les zones tropicales.\u00a0\u00bb (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. II, 3, 2). Comme on peut voir, les discussions allaient bon train, dans l\u2019Antiquit\u00e9, \u00e0 propos de la zone torride, de son extension et de son inaptitude pr\u00e9tendue \u00e0 la vie humaine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>87<\/strong>Copernic aussi, dans le\u00a0<em>De Revolutionibus<\/em>, invoquait des garants antiques.<\/li>\n<li><strong>88<\/strong>Les savants grecs sont tr\u00e8s peu sollicit\u00e9s. \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, Poseidonios, G\u00e9minos, Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e ne sont j\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn88\">(&#8230;)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>65Les t\u00e9moignages emprunt\u00e9s \u00e0 des g\u00e9ographes des XVIe et XVIIe si\u00e8cles montrent l\u2019influence persistante de la culture classique, largement diffus\u00e9e dans les \u00e9coles et les universit\u00e9s. D\u2019o\u00f9 le d\u00e9sir de concilier les connaissances, th\u00e9oriques plus que pratiques, des Anciens et les d\u00e9couvertes, th\u00e9oriques mais surtout exp\u00e9rimentales, faites par les modernes. Tandis que Christophe Colomb faisait conna\u00eetre de nouvelles terres, \u00e0 l\u2019Ouest, Nicolas Copernic (1473-1543) r\u00e9volutionnait l\u2019astronomie \u2013 jusqu\u2019alors largement fond\u00e9e sur l\u2019hypoth\u00e8se g\u00e9ocentrique \u2013 en mettant au point la th\u00e9orie h\u00e9liocentrique. Ce bouleversement des notions traditionnelles incitait les humanistes \u00e0 chercher dans les textes anciens les signes avant-coureurs de ce que les modernes venaient de d\u00e9couvrir. Si l\u2019on s\u2019en tient au strict point de vue g\u00e9ographique\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn87\"><strong>87<\/strong><\/a>, on constate l\u2019abondance des r\u00e9f\u00e9rences aux auteurs latins\u00a0; si l\u2019on citait quelques textes grecs\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn88\"><strong>88<\/strong><\/a>, plus ou moins authentiques, c\u2019\u00e9tait le plus souvent \u00e0 travers leur traduction latine. Et l\u2019on sollicitait les \u0153uvres litt\u00e9raires plut\u00f4t que les trait\u00e9s v\u00e9ritablement scientifiques. Si Pline l\u2019Ancien, avec son\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>, eut tant de succ\u00e8s au cours des si\u00e8cles, c\u2019est qu\u2019il donnait \u00e0 son lecteur l\u2019illusion d\u2019avoir consult\u00e9 des sources nombreuses, grecques en particulier, et d\u2019en reproduire plus ou moins fid\u00e8lement l\u2019enseignement. La vague teinture scientifique ainsi obtenue dispensait de se plonger dans des lectures plus ardues.<\/p>\n<p>66\u00c0 la question\u00a0: si les Anciens connaissaient l\u2019Am\u00e9rique, on ne peut r\u00e9pondre, comme M\u00e9l\u00e9tios d\u2019Arta et d\u2019autres, que par la n\u00e9gative. En revanche, ce que l\u2019on peut affirmer sans crainte, c\u2019est que, confiants dans ce que leur apprenait la g\u00e9om\u00e9trie de la sph\u00e8re dans le cadre du g\u00e9ocentrisme, les Grecs \u00e9taient persuad\u00e9s qu\u2019il pouvait exister d\u2019autres mondes habit\u00e9s que celui qu\u2019ils connaissaient\u00a0; ils n\u2019excluaient nullement l\u2019id\u00e9e de les d\u00e9couvrir un jour, quand l\u2019oc\u00e9an ne constituerait plus une barri\u00e8re infranchissable. La d\u00e9couverte de l\u2019aiguille aimant\u00e9e au XIIIe si\u00e8cle permit de r\u00e9aliser ce r\u00eave, aliment\u00e9 par l\u2019histoire mythique de l\u2019Atlantide. La circumnavigation de l\u2019Afrique, les exp\u00e9ditions \u00e9gyptiennes \u00e0 la recherche des sources du Nil, la reconnaissance de l\u2019\u00eele Taprobane-Ceylan, laissaient penser que la zone dite torride n\u2019\u00e9tait pas inhabitable\u00a0; Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e d\u2019ailleurs ne prolongeait-il pas jusqu\u2019au sud de l\u2019\u00e9quateur un monde habit\u00e9 que l\u2019on supposait jusqu\u2019alors tout entier inclus dans l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re nord\u00a0?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>89<\/strong>Ortelius,\u00a0<em>Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Monde<\/em>, Anvers, 1570.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>67La mappemonde qui ouvrait la s\u00e9rie des cartes dans la\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ographie<\/em>\u00a0de Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, \u00e9dit\u00e9e \u00e0 Ulm en 1482, montre l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Indien encercl\u00e9 de tous c\u00f4t\u00e9s par des terres. Quelque cent ans plus tard, la mappemonde d\u2019Ortelius\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#ftn89\"><strong>89<\/strong><\/a>, qui fait \u00e9tat de la d\u00e9couverte du Nouveau Monde, d\u00e9ploie sur une bonne partie de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re sud, jusqu\u2019au p\u00f4le, une \u00ab\u00a0Terra australis nondum cognita\u00a0\u00bb, avec la Terre des Perroquets, sous le cap de Bonne Esp\u00e9rance, et la Terre de Feu, s\u00e9par\u00e9e de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique du Sud par le d\u00e9troit de Magellan. On peut lire\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Ce continent austral, plus d\u2019un le nomme pays de Magellan d\u2019apr\u00e8s son inventeur.\u00a0\u00bb Ce fameux continent austral, dont l\u2019existence avait \u00e9t\u00e9 pressentie par les Anciens, fut ardemment recherch\u00e9 par les marins de toutes nationalit\u00e9s, jusqu\u2019\u00e0 ce que l\u2019explorateur anglais James Cook (1728-1779), patrouillant en 1772-1775 dans le sud de l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Indien et du Pacifique, finisse par assurer\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0J\u2019ai fait le tour de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re austral dans une haute latitude et je l\u2019ai travers\u00e9 de mani\u00e8re \u00e0 prouver, sans r\u00e9plique, qu\u2019il n\u2019y a point de continent, \u00e0 moins qu\u2019il ne soit pr\u00e8s du p\u00f4le et hors de port\u00e9e des navigateurs.\u00a0\u00bb Comme l\u2019Atlantide, le continent austral avait v\u00e9cu. Mais comme l\u2019Atlantide et les continents mythiques imagin\u00e9s par les Anciens, il avait donn\u00e9 l\u2019espoir de d\u00e9couvrir des terres inconnues, et le courage de partir \u00e0 leur recherche.<\/p>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Notes<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn1\"><strong>1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Sur ce planisph\u00e8re, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac, \u201c\u00a0Cartes g\u00e9ographiques en grec moderne imprim\u00e9es \u00e0 Padoue en 1700\u00a0\u201d,\u00a0<em>Geographia Antiqua<\/em>\u00a06 (1997), p.\u00a0165-181.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn2\"><strong>2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Chrysanthos\u00a0Notaras\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01665-1733), neveu du patriarche de J\u00e9rusalem Dosith\u00e9e auquel il succ\u00e9da en 1707, fit des \u00e9tudes \u00e0 Constantinople, les compl\u00e9ta de 1697 \u00e0 1700 \u00e0 Padoue, puis, sur le chemin du retour, passa par Paris o\u00f9 il fut accueilli par Cassini \u00e0 l\u2019Observatoire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn3\"><strong>3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. O.\u00a0Boura,\u00a0<em>Les Atlantides. G\u00e9n\u00e9alogie d\u2019un mythe,\u00a0<\/em>Paris, Arl\u00e9a, 2003.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn4\"><strong>4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. G.F.\u00a0de\u00a0Oviedo,\u00a0<em>Historia general y natural de las Indias,<\/em>\u00a0\u00e9d. J.\u00a0Perez de Tudela Bueso,\u00a0<em>Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles<\/em>, 117-121, Madrid, Atlas, 1959.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn5\"><strong>5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0La Terre Ferme \u00e9tait, par opposition aux \u00eeles, le littoral de la mer des Cara\u00efbes, vers la Colombie ou le V\u00e9n\u00e9zuela.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn6\"><strong>6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0G.J. Solin (<em>fl<\/em>. 200 ap.\u00a0J.-C.), auteur d\u2019un r\u00e9sum\u00e9 g\u00e9ographique du monde connu dont les principaux \u00e9l\u00e9ments sont emprunt\u00e9s \u00e0 Pline l\u2019Ancien et Pomponius Mela<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn7\"><strong>7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. F.L.\u00a0de\u00a0Gomara,\u00a0<em>Primera parte de la Historia general de las Indias<\/em>, p.\u00a0155-294 in\u00a0<em>Biblioteca de autores Espanoles, Historiadores primitivos de Indias,<\/em>\u00a0t. XXII, \u00e9d. Enrique de Vedia, Madrid, Atlas, 1946. Ce livre fut traduit en italien et publi\u00e9 \u00e0 Rome en 1556, \u00e0 Venise, en 1560 et 1565\u00a0; traduit en fran\u00e7ais par Martin Fum\u00e9e (\u00e0 qui est emprunt\u00e9e la traduction), il fut publi\u00e9 \u00e0 Paris en 1578, 1584, 1587, 1597 et 1605.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8<\/strong>\u00a0Ophir et Tharsis sont des lieux fabuleusement riches, \u00e9voqu\u00e9s dans la Bible, o\u00f9 le roi Salomon envoyait sa flotte pour en rapporter or, argent et autres denr\u00e9es pr\u00e9cieuses.(<em>2\u00a0Chron.<\/em>\u00a0ou\u00a0<em>2 Paralipom\u00e8nes<\/em>\u00a0IX, 10 et 21).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn9\"><strong>9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les vers de la\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0de S\u00e9n\u00e8que seront pr\u00e9sent\u00e9s dans la seconde partie de l\u2019article.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn10\"><strong>10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Le P\u00e9rou avait \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9couvert en 1528\u00a0; en 1535, Pizarro fondait Lima. Jos\u00e9 de Acosta avait appris suffisamment de Aymara et de Quechua pour composer un cat\u00e9chisme trilingue (1583).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn11\"><strong>11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les livres suivants furent r\u00e9dig\u00e9s en Espagne, en espagnol. Les livres III et IV portent sur la g\u00e9ographie physique et les ressources du pays, les livres V \u00e0 VII traitent de g\u00e9ographie humaine. Cf.\u00a0<em>Obras del P. Jose de Acosta<\/em>\u00a0dans\u00a0<em>Biblioteca de Autores Espa\u00f1oles<\/em>, Madrid, Atlas, 1954, et J.\u00a0de Acosta,\u00a0<em>Histoire naturelle et morale des Indes Occidentales<\/em>, trad. de J. Remy-Z\u00e9phir, Paris, Payot, 1979.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn12\"><strong>12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf.\u00a0<em>Historia<\/em>\u00a0I, 7-8\u00a0; Lactance, l\u2019apologiste chr\u00e9tien mort en 323, niait leur existence. Saint Augustin (354-430), dans la\u00a0<em>Cit\u00e9 de Dieu\u00a0<\/em>(XVI, 9), n\u2019y voyait qu\u2019une simple hypoth\u00e8se logique, sans aucun lien avec l\u2019exp\u00e9rience.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn13\"><strong>13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf.\u00a0<em>Historia<\/em>\u00a0I, 9-10. Les Anciens r\u00e9partissaient le globe terrestre en cinq zones, deux zones glaciales, autour des p\u00f4les, inhabitables par suite du froid, une zone torride entre les tropiques, inhabitable par suite de la chaleur, et deux zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, les seules consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme habitables. Pour les discussions passionn\u00e9es dans l\u2019Antiquit\u00e9 \u00e0 propos de l\u2019extension de ces zones, cf. Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ographie<\/em>\u00a0II, 2, 2 &#8211; 3, 2.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn14\"><strong>14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les textes anciens invoqu\u00e9s, qui sont tous \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s les m\u00eames chez les divers auteurs, seront examin\u00e9s ensemble dans la seconde partie.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn15\"><strong>15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Il ajoute\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Quant \u00e0 moi, je n\u2019ai pas pour Platon une telle r\u00e9v\u00e9rence\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 22).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn16\"><strong>16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0C\u2019est une vall\u00e9e de la Gr\u00e8ce, entre l\u2019Olympe et l\u2019Ossa, dont Virgile a chant\u00e9 la beaut\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn17\"><strong>17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0G. Botero \u00e9tait surtout connu de son temps pour ses opinions politiques et ses \u00e9tudes \u00e9conomiques. Son c\u00e9l\u00e8bre\u00a0<em>De la raison d\u2019\u00c9tat<\/em>, publi\u00e9 \u00e0 Venise en 1589 et 1619, \u00e0 Turin en 1596, fut traduit en plusieurs langues dont en fran\u00e7ais en 1606 par Pierre de Deimier. Un autre trait\u00e9,\u00a0<em>Des causes de la grandeur des cit\u00e9s<\/em>\u00a0(Rome, 1598), semble avoir eu moins de succ\u00e8s.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn18\"><strong>18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les trois historiens du Nouveau Monde pr\u00e9sent\u00e9s ici \u00e9taient des Espagnols, familiers pour l\u2019essentiel des territoires d\u00e9couverts et occup\u00e9s par l\u2019Espagne en Am\u00e9rique latine, P\u00e9rou, Colombie, Mexique, Panama. Botero leur emprunte sa connaissance du Nouveau Monde.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn19\"><strong>19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0L\u2019\u00eele de Taprobane est l\u2019actuelle Sri Lanka (Ceylan), que les g\u00e9ographes grecs pla\u00e7aient vers 12\u00b0 N (cf. Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.\u00a0<\/em>II, 5, 35). Elle se trouve en fait entre 7\u00b0 et 10\u00b0 N. Ovide, dans les\u00a0<em>Pontiques<\/em>\u00a0I, 5, soulignait son excentricit\u00e9\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Quel int\u00e9r\u00eat pour toi d\u2019\u00eatre lou\u00e9 par la br\u00fblante Sy\u00e8ne (<em>sc<\/em>. Assouan), ou par les lieux o\u00f9 l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Indien baigne Taprobane\u00a0?\u00a0\u00bb (v. 79-80). D\u2019apr\u00e8s Pline (<em>Hist. Nat.<\/em>\u00a0VI, 81), Taprobane avait longtemps \u00e9t\u00e9 consid\u00e9r\u00e9e comme un autre monde et qualifi\u00e9e de terre des Antichthones, ce qui la situait dans l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re sud. D\u2019Acosta qui en parle aussi l\u2019identifiait \u00e0 Sumatra. Sur cette identification, fr\u00e9quente \u00e0 la Renaissance, cf. M.T.\u00a0Gamblin, \u201c\u00a0L\u2019\u00eele Taprobane\u00a0: probl\u00e8mes de cartographie dans l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Indien\u00a0\u201d, in\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ographie du monde au Moyen \u00c2ge et \u00e0 la Renaissance<\/em>, \u00e9d. M.\u00a0Pelletier, Paris, \u00e9ditions du C.T.H.S., 1989, p.\u00a0191-200.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn20\"><strong>20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les deux derniers livres de cette premi\u00e8re partie sont consacr\u00e9s \u00e0 la description du Nouveau Monde. La deuxi\u00e8me partie traite des principaux princes d\u2019Europe, d\u2019Asie, d\u2019Afrique, avec un livre sp\u00e9cial pour les pouvoirs du Pape, du Roi Catholique et du Grand Turc. La troisi\u00e8me partie analyse les croyances et les religions des divers peuples connus. La quatri\u00e8me partie porte sur le Nouveau Monde, sa connaissance de Dieu, son ignorance de l\u2019\u00c9vangile et les efforts pour y rem\u00e9dier<\/p>\n<p><strong>21<\/strong>\u00a0Cette somme g\u00e9ographique eut des \u00e9ditions nombreuses pendant tout le XVII<sup>e<\/sup>\u00a0si\u00e8cle, trois \u00e0 Leyde (1624, 1627, 1641), dix \u00e0 Amsterdam (1629, 1651, 1659, 1661, 1663, 1677, 1682, 1683, 1683, 1697), quatre \u00e0 Paris (1630, 1631, 1635, 1635), o\u00f9 fut publi\u00e9e aussi, en 1642 et 1648, une traduction fran\u00e7aise de ce trait\u00e9. Des grands noms particip\u00e8rent de pr\u00e8s ou de loin \u00e0 ces diverses \u00e9ditions\u00a0: P. Bertius, Daniel Heinsius, Jean Bunon, Reiskius.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn22\"><strong>22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf.\u00a0Aujac, \u201c\u00a0Cartes g\u00e9ographiques\u00a0\u201d, p.\u00a0169.<\/p>\n<p><strong>23<\/strong>\u00a0Accus\u00e9 d\u2019\u00eatre partisan d\u2019Arminius, le th\u00e9ologien protestant dont la doctrine, plus douce que celle de Calvin, \u00e9tait l\u2019objet de maintes controverses, Vossius fut destitu\u00e9 de sa charge, mais rentra en gr\u00e2ce d\u00e8s 1622.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn24\"><strong>24<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cette Magellanique ou terre australe comprenait tout ce qui se trouvait au sud du d\u00e9troit de Magellan, soit, outre la Terre de Feu, un continent qui se prolongerait jusqu\u2019au p\u00f4le sud, selon les cartographes du XVI<sup>e<\/sup>\u00a0s. (Abraham Ortelius, 1570 et G\u00e9rard Mercator, 1587).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn25\"><strong>25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Vossius fait ici allusion au\u00a0<em>De Mundo<\/em>\u00a0qu\u2019on attribuait souvent, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque, \u00e0 Aristote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>26<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Diodore de Sicile,\u00a0<em>Bibl. hist.\u00a0<\/em>II, 55-60, et Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. II, 5, 13.<\/p>\n<p><strong>27<\/strong>\u00a0L\u2019\u00e9dition princeps des\u00a0<em>\u0152uvres<\/em>\u00a0d\u2019Avi\u00e9nus, procur\u00e9e par G. Valla et V. Pisani, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 imprim\u00e9e \u00e0 Venise en 1488. Vossius cite les vers 113 \u00e0 129 des\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>28<\/strong>\u00a0Pour Strabon et pour la plupart des g\u00e9ographes grecs ant\u00e9rieurs \u00e0 Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, le monde connu n\u2019occupait m\u00eame pas une moiti\u00e9 de l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re nord, donc m\u00eame pas un quart du globe terrestre. D\u2019o\u00f9 la possibilit\u00e9 d\u2019imaginer l\u2019existence d\u2019autres terres inconnues dans les trois autres quarts du globe. L\u2019hypoth\u00e8se avait \u00e9t\u00e9 mat\u00e9rialis\u00e9e sur le globe terrestre fabriqu\u00e9 par Crat\u00e8s de Pergame (<em>fl.<\/em>\u00a0165 av. J.-C.) \u00e0 la surface duquel il avait repr\u00e9sent\u00e9 quatre mondes, habit\u00e9s ou non, s\u00e9par\u00e9s par des ceintures oc\u00e9aniques infranchissables. De ces quatre mondes imaginaires, un seul, \u00ab\u00a0le n\u00f4tre\u00a0\u00bb, \u00e9tait connu.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn29\"><strong>29<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Jos\u00e9 de Acosta avait d\u00e9j\u00e0 indiqu\u00e9 \u00ab\u00a0que quelques auteurs ont cru qu\u2019Ofir signifie P\u00e9rou dans les Saintes \u00c9critures\u00a0\u00bb (<em>Hist<\/em>. I, 13)\u00a0; Ofir est ce lieu myst\u00e9rieux o\u00f9 la flotte de Salomon se rendit et d\u2019o\u00f9 elle rapporta au roi 450 talents d\u2019or (<em>2 Paralipom\u00e8nes<\/em>\u00a0VIII, 18).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn30\"><strong>30<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0M\u00e9l\u00e9tios \u00e9tait all\u00e9 tr\u00e8s jeune s\u2019instruire en V\u00e9n\u00e9tie o\u00f9 il fut en contact, par interm\u00e9diaire livresque, avec l\u2019essentiel du monde savant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn31\"><strong>31<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les\u00a0<em>climata\u00a0<\/em>sont des bandes parall\u00e8les, \u00e0 la surface du globe terrestre, de largeur variable, qui ont m\u00eame dur\u00e9e du jour solsticial et sensiblement m\u00eame hauteur du p\u00f4le au dessus de l\u2019horizon. Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, dans la\u00a0<em>Syntaxe Math\u00e9matique<\/em>\u00a0(II, 6), dresse un tableau des\u00a0<em>climats<\/em>\u00a0depuis l\u2019\u00e9quateur jusqu\u2019au p\u00f4le.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn32\"><strong>32<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. Platon,\u00a0<em>Tim\u00e9e, Critias<\/em>, \u00e9d. et trad. A.\u00a0Rivaud, Paris, C.U.F., 1925 (6<sup>e<\/sup>\u00a0tir. 1985) ou Platon,\u00a0<em>\u0152uvres compl\u00e8tes<\/em>, trad. L.\u00a0Robin\u00a0et J.\u00a0Moreau, 2 tomes, Paris, Pl\u00e9iade, 1950.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn33\"><strong>33<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Gomara,\u00a0<em>Primera parte<\/em>, p.\u00a0165, 167, 292.<\/p>\n<p><strong>34<\/strong>\u00a0Proclus de Lycie (410-485), l\u2019un des personnages influents du n\u00e9o-platonisme, enseigna \u00e0 Ath\u00e8nes de 438 \u00e0 485. Son\u00a0<em>Commentaire sur le Tim\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0fut imprim\u00e9 \u00e0 B\u00e2le en 1534, et l\u2019\u00e9dition gr\u00e9co-latine d\u2019\u00c9mile Portus \u00e0 Hambourg en 1618. Cf. Proclus,\u00a0<em>Commentaire sur le Tim\u00e9e<\/em>, trad. A.-J.\u00a0Festugi\u00c8re, Paris, Vrin, 1966.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn35\"><strong>35<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. L.\u00a0Taran, \u201c\u00a0Proclus on the old Academy\u00a0\u201d, in\u00a0<em>Proclus, lecteur et interpr\u00e8te des Anciens<\/em>, Actes du colloque Paris 1985, publi\u00e9s par J.\u00a0P\u00e9pin\u00a0et H.D.\u00a0Saffrey, Paris, \u00e9d. du CNRS, 1987, p.\u00a0227-276. Pour Crantor, Platon avait attribu\u00e9 le r\u00e9cit sur l\u2019Atlantide \u00e0 des \u00c9gyptiens afin de faire t\u00e9moigner par les \u00c9gyptiens eux-m\u00eames que l\u2019\u00c9tat id\u00e9al pr\u00e9sent\u00e9 dans la\u00a0<em>R\u00e9publique<\/em>\u00a0n\u2019\u00e9tait pas emprunt\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9gypte, comme le pr\u00e9tendaient des adversaires de Platon. D\u2019o\u00f9 ce r\u00e9cit assurant qu\u2019Ath\u00e8nes jadis avait eu une excellente constitution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn36\"><strong>36<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Orig\u00e8ne (185-254), c\u00e9l\u00e8bre th\u00e9ologien et ex\u00e9g\u00e8te des textes bibliques, \u00ab\u00a0disait que le r\u00e9cit \u00e9tait une fiction\u00a0\u00bb (Proclus,\u00a0<em>Comment<\/em>. 83, 27). Pour Porphyre (233-305) et son commentaire du\u00a0<em>Tim\u00e9e<\/em>, perdu, cf. Porfirio,\u00a0<em>I frammenti dei commentari al Timeo di Platone<\/em>, traduzione a cura di A.R.\u00a0Sodano, Portici (Napoli), Centro Bibliotecario, 1974.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn37\"><strong>37<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Les\u00a0<em>\u0152uvres compl\u00e8tes<\/em>\u00a0de Platon traduites en latin par Marsile Ficin ont fait l\u2019objet de maintes \u00e9ditions, Venise 1491 et 1581, Florence 1494, B\u00e2le 1532, 1539, 1546, 1561, Lyon 1550 et 1590, Francfort 1602.<\/p>\n<p><strong>38<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Diodore de Sicile,\u00a0<em>The Library<\/em>, \u00e9d. et trad.\u00a0C.H.\u00a0Oldfather, Londres-Cambridge, Loeb Library, l. II, 1933 (repr.\u00a01979)\u00a0; l. V, 1939, (repr. 1993).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn39\"><strong>39<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0La description de ces eldorados plus ou moins mythiques est assez fr\u00e9quente chez les auteurs anciens. Mais les Grecs situent plut\u00f4t ces pays vers l\u2019Orient, en des endroits th\u00e9oriquement accessibles. Strabon par exemple d\u00e9crit l\u2019Albanie, sur la rive ouest de la mer Caspienne et au sud du Caucase, comme une terre au sol si fertile qu\u2019il produit spontan\u00e9ment toutes sortes de fruits\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0les hommes sont exceptionnellement beaux et grands, simples dans leurs mani\u00e8res et d\u00e9pourvus de tout esprit mercantile\u00a0\u00bb (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. XI, 4, 3-4). L\u2019Hyrcanie de m\u00eame, sur le bord m\u00e9ridional de la mer Caspienne, est pr\u00e9sent\u00e9e comme extr\u00eamement fertile\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0un plant de vigne produit un m\u00e9tr\u00e8te (<em>sc.<\/em>\u00a040 litres) de vin, le bl\u00e9 repousse du grain tomb\u00e9 de l\u2019\u00e9pi, les abeilles \u00e9difient leurs ruches dans les arbres et le miel ruisselle des feuilles.\u00a0\u00bb (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. XI, 7, 2). Mais Diodore de Sicile, fid\u00e8le sujet de l\u2019empire Romain, pr\u00e9f\u00e8re situer son Eldorado en plein Oc\u00e9an, hors d\u2019atteinte des hommes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn40\"><strong>40<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Diodore ajoute (II, 56) qu\u2019ils avaient la langue divis\u00e9e en deux parties, si bien qu\u2019ils pouvaient converser avec deux hommes \u00e0 la fois.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn41\"><strong>41<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Palibothra, capitale de l\u2019Inde du Nord, est l\u2019actuelle Patna.<\/p>\n<p><strong>42<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. par exemple la carte de la Mer Pacifique, \u00e9tablie par Abraham Ortelius en 1589, et incluse dans son\u00a0<em>Theatrum orbis terrarum<\/em>, Anvers, 1592, o\u00f9 la \u00ab\u00a0<em>Terra australis sive Magellanica nondum detecta<\/em>\u00a0\u00bb couvre toute la partie sud de la Mer Pacifique. De m\u00eame sur la carte circulaire catalane de Mod\u00e8ne, dat\u00e9e de 1450, la plus grande partie de la moiti\u00e9 sud est occup\u00e9e par la demi-lune d\u2019un continent inconnu, \u00ab\u00a0<em>terra australis incognita\u00a0<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>43<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Ps. Aristote,\u00a0<em>Du Monde<\/em>, trad. et notes J.\u00a0Tricot, Paris, Vrin, 1990. Mais G.\u00a0Reale\u00a0et A.P.\u00a0Bos<em>, Il Trattato Sul Cosmo per Alessandro attribuito ad Aristotele<\/em>\u00a0(Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1974, repr. 1995) soutiennent que ce trait\u00e9 est vraiment d\u2019Aristote.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn44\"><strong>44<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Pour Poseidonios de Rhodes, ou d\u2019Apam\u00e9e (<em>c.\u00a0<\/em>135-50), dont toute l\u2019\u0153uvre est perdue, cf. K.\u00a0Reinhardt,\u00a0<em>Poseidonios<\/em>, Munich, Beck, 1921, ou M.\u00a0Lafranque,\u00a0<em>Poseidonios, essai de mise au point<\/em>, Paris, P.U.F., 1964.\u00a0Et aussi,\u00a0<em>Posidonius<\/em>, I<em>, The Fragments<\/em>, II,\u00a0<em>The Commentary<\/em>, L.\u00a0Edelstein\u00a0and I.G.\u00a0Kidd, Cambridge, University Press, 1972 et 1988.<\/p>\n<p><strong>45<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Apul\u00e9e,\u00a0<em>Opuscules Philosophiques (Du Dieu de Socrate, Platon et sa doctrine, Du Monde) et fragments<\/em>, \u00e9d. et trad. J.\u00a0Beaujeu, Paris, C.U.F., 1973. Dans le passage auquel Cluvier fait allusion, Apul\u00e9e disait\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Je n\u2019ignore pas que la plupart des sp\u00e9cialistes ont divis\u00e9 ainsi les terres \u00e9merg\u00e9es\u00a0: pour une part, selon eux, ce sont des \u00eeles\u00a0; l\u2019autre part, ils l\u2019ont appel\u00e9e continent, sans savoir que toute l\u2019immensit\u00e9 de notre continent est entour\u00e9e par l\u2019Oc\u00e9an Atlantique et ne forme elle-m\u00eame qu\u2019une \u00eele avec toutes ses \u00eeles. En effet il y en a de semblables \u00e0 celles-ci, les unes plus grandes, les autres plus petites, qu\u2019entoure l\u2019Oc\u00e9an\u00a0; mais elles passent \u00e0 juste titre pour inconnues puisque m\u00eame celle-ci que nous habitons, nous ne pouvons la parcourir tout enti\u00e8re. Car de m\u00eame que les flots s\u00e9parent ces \u00eeles proches qui se trouvent dans notre mer, de m\u00eame les \u00eeles lointaines situ\u00e9es dans l\u2019Oc\u00e9an universel sont environn\u00e9es par des \u00e9tendues d\u2019eau plus vastes.\u00a0\u00bb (392b-393a).<\/p>\n<p><strong>46<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. L.\u00a0Minio-Paluello<em>, Opuscula &#8211; The Latin Aristotle<\/em>, Amsterdam, Hakkert, 1972, p.\u00a0108-113.<\/p>\n<p><strong>47<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Aristotle, t. XIV, transl. W.S.\u00a0Hett, Londres-Cambridge, Loeb Library, 1980.\u00a0Montaigne lui aussi faisait appel, on l\u2019a vu (cf.\u00a0<em>supra<\/em>, p.\u00a0172), au t\u00e9moignage de ce trait\u00e9 d\u2019Aristote, \u00ab\u00a0au moins si ce petit livre est \u00e0 lui\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>48<\/strong>\u00a0Il semble que Vossius se soit cherch\u00e9 ici des garants. Jean Becan (ou Goropius Becanus), n\u00e9 en 1518 dans le Brabant, se fixa par la suite \u00e0 Anvers o\u00f9 il mourut en 1572\u00a0; il r\u00e9digea les\u00a0<em>Origines d\u2019Anvers<\/em>\u00a0en neuf livres dont le troisi\u00e8me avait pour titre\u00a0<em>Niloscopium<\/em>. Le Fran\u00e7ais Adrien Turn\u00e8be (1512- 1565) occupa \u00e0 partir de 1547 la chaire de grec puis de philosophie grecque et latine \u00e0 Paris, o\u00f9 il eut pour \u00e9l\u00e8ve H. Estienne\u00a0; les\u00a0<em>Adversaria<\/em>, en trois parties, r\u00e9unissaient des notes sur les auteurs anciens, parcourus dans le d\u00e9sordre (Strasbourg, 1604). Jacques de Pam\u00e8le (1536-1587), n\u00e9 \u00e0 Bruges, \u00e9tudia la philosophie \u00e0 Louvain puis Paris\u00a0; il \u00e9dita Cassiodore, Cyprien et Tertullien (Paris, 1584).<\/p>\n<p><strong>49<\/strong>\u00a0Le cercle arctique en question n\u2019est pas notre cercle polaire, mais le parall\u00e8le 54\u00b0 N (ou S), qui en fait se trouvait \u00eatre le cercle de perp\u00e9tuelle visibilit\u00e9 pour l\u2019horizon de Rhodes (36\u00b0 N).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn50\"><strong>50<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf.\u00a0<em>M\u00e9t\u00e9orologiques<\/em>\u00a0II, 5, 362 a 33\u2013b 10\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Il y a deux secteurs habitables \u00e0 la surface de la terre, l\u2019un dans lequel nous habitons, vers le p\u00f4le sup\u00e9rieur, l\u2019autre vers l\u2019autre p\u00f4le, le p\u00f4le sud\u2026 Ce sont les seules r\u00e9gions habitables. Les r\u00e9gions au del\u00e0 des tropiques ne sont pas habitables, car l\u2019ombre ne s\u2019y dirige pas vers le nord, et nous savons que la terre cesse d\u2019\u00eatre habitable avant que l\u2019ombre disparaisse ou se dirige vers le sud, tandis que les r\u00e9gions situ\u00e9es sous l\u2019Ourse sont inhabitables par suite du froid.\u00a0\u00bb En fait Aristote, apr\u00e8s avoir indiqu\u00e9 que sont habitables les deux zones temp\u00e9r\u00e9es, nord et sud, ne consid\u00e8re par la suite que les limites de la zone comprise dans l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re nord, laissant au lecteur le soin d\u2019extrapoler pour l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re sud. Jos\u00e9 de Acosta avait cit\u00e9, dans ce m\u00eame chapitre des\u00a0<em>M\u00e9t\u00e9orologiques<\/em>, le passage pr\u00e9cisant que, \u00ab\u00a0si l\u2019immensit\u00e9 de la mer ne l\u2019emp\u00eachait, l\u2019on pourrait faire le tour de la terre en longitude.\u00a0\u00bb (362 b 18).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn51\"><strong>51<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Sur le p\u00e9riple d\u2019Hannon, cf. J.\u00a0Desanges, \u201c\u00a0Les routes africaines de l\u2019aventure, r\u00eave et r\u00e9alit\u00e9\u00a0\u201d, in\u00a0<em>Les routes mill\u00e9naires<\/em>, Paris, Nathan, 1988, p.\u00a065-86. H\u00e9rodote avait \u00e9galement relat\u00e9 (<em>Enqu\u00eate<\/em>\u00a0IV, 42) le p\u00e9riple des marins de N\u00e9chao autour de l\u2019Afrique\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Et ils racontaient \u2013 chose que, quant \u00e0 moi, je ne crois pas, mais que d\u2019autres peuvent croire \u2013 que, pendant qu\u2019ils accomplissaient le p\u00e9riple de Libye, ils avaient eu le soleil \u00e0 leur droite.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn52\"><strong>52<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Pline l\u2019Ancien,\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>\u00a0II, \u00e9d. et trad. J.\u00a0Beaujeu, Paris, C.U.F., 1950.<\/p>\n<p><strong>53<\/strong>\u00a0Il s\u2019agit d\u2019Eudoxe de Cyzique, dont l\u2019histoire est racont\u00e9e avec force d\u00e9tails par Strabon (<em>G\u00e9ogr<\/em>. II ,3, 4) sur la foi de Poseidonios. C\u2019est \u00e9galement de Poseidonios que la tient Cornelius N\u00e9pos, cit\u00e9 par Pline et aussi par Pomponius Mela,\u00a0<em>Chorographie<\/em>\u00a0III, 9, 90.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn54\"><strong>54<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Pline l\u2019Ancien,\u00a0<em>Histoire Naturelle<\/em>\u00a0VI, \u00e9d. J.\u00a0Andr\u00c9\u00a0et trad. J.\u00a0Filiozat, Paris, C.U.F., 1980.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn55\"><strong>55<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Dans la conception traditionnelle, d\u2019un globe terrestre abritant peut-\u00eatre quatre mondes habit\u00e9s dans les quatre quarts du globe, dont un seul, le n\u00f4tre, serait connu, les Antichthones seraient les habitants du monde situ\u00e9 dans l\u2019h\u00e9misph\u00e8re sud, au dessous du monde connu, tandis que les antipodes occuperaient l\u2019autre quart du m\u00eame h\u00e9misph\u00e8re sud.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn56\"><strong>56<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0M\u00e9gasth\u00e8ne (<em>fl.<\/em>\u00a0300 av. J.-C.) fut ambassadeur de S\u00e9leucos Nicator aupr\u00e8s du roi Maurya Sandracottos \u00e0 Palibothra (<em>sc<\/em>. Patna). Il composa des\u00a0<em>Indica<\/em>\u00a0en quatre livres, tr\u00e8s utilis\u00e9s par les g\u00e9ographes post\u00e9rieurs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn57\"><strong>57<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne (<em>c.\u00a0<\/em>275-195), l\u2019inventeur du terme\u00a0<em>geographia<\/em>\u00a0et le premier auteur d\u2019un trait\u00e9 portant ce titre, dressa aussi la premi\u00e8re carte scientifique du monde habit\u00e9 fond\u00e9e sur sa mesure de la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre obtenue par moyens gnomoniques. Cf. G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne, le pionnier de la g\u00e9ographie<\/em>, Paris, \u00e9d. du C.T.H.S., 2001.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn58\"><strong>58<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Corneille s\u2019en est inspir\u00e9 pour sa propre\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn59\"><strong>59<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf. par exemple,\u00a0<em>Questions Naturelles<\/em>\u00a0VII, II, 3\u00a0: \u00ab\u00a0Est-ce le monde qui tourne autour de la terre immobile ou le monde est-il fixe et la terre roule-t-elle dans l\u2019espace\u00a0? En effet des savants ont affirm\u00e9 que l\u2019univers nous emporte sans que nous nous en doutions\u00a0; d\u00e8s lors les levers et les couchers ne sont pas les effets du mouvement du ciel, c\u2019est la terre qui se l\u00e8ve et qui se couche. Voil\u00e0 une question digne que nous l\u2019examinions. Car il s\u2019agit de savoir quelle est notre situation dans le monde, si nous avons en partage la demeure la plus paresseuse ou la plus rapide, si Dieu fait rouler l\u2019univers autour de nous, ou si c\u2019est nous qu\u2019il m\u00e8ne.\u00a0\u00bb (trad. P.\u00a0Oltramare, Paris, C.U.F., 1929). Allusions aux hypoth\u00e8ses r\u00e9volutionnaires d\u2019H\u00e9raclide de Pont (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0390-310) et d\u2019Aristarque de Samos (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0310-230), qui pla\u00e7aient le soleil au centre et faisaient tourner la terre autour de lui.<\/p>\n<p><strong>60<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. S\u00e9n\u00e8que,\u00a0<em>Trag\u00e9dies<\/em>, t. I,\u00a0<em>Hercule furieux<\/em>,\u00a0<em>les Troyennes<\/em>,\u00a0<em>les Ph\u00e9niciennes<\/em>,\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>, \u00e9d. et trad. F.R.\u00a0Chaumartin, Paris, C.U.F., 1996\u00a0; ou S\u00e9n\u00e8que,\u00a0<em>M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/em>, trad. Ch.\u00a0Guittard, Paris, Flammarion, 1997, dont j\u2019emprunte la traduction.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn61\"><strong>61<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Allusion \u00e0 l\u2019exp\u00e9dition des Argonautes vers la Colchide, sur la rive orientale de la mer Noire, en qu\u00eate de la Toison d\u2019or\u00a0; ils s\u2019en empareront avec l\u2019aide de M\u00e9d\u00e9e, la fille du roi de Colchide, amoureuse de Jason. Le r\u00e9cit l\u00e9gendaire de l\u2019exp\u00e9dition avait \u00e9t\u00e9 chant\u00e9 en grec par Apollonios de Rhodes, au III<sup>e<\/sup>\u00a0s. av. J.-C., et en latin par Valerius Flaccus (<em>c<\/em>.\u00a045-88 ap. J.-C.).<\/p>\n<p><strong>62<\/strong>\u00a0Thul\u00e9 \u00e9tait l\u2019\u00eele myst\u00e9rieuse, dont avait entendu parler Pyth\u00e9as le Massaliote, dans son p\u00e9riple autour de l\u2019Europe du Nord-Ouest\u00a0: le jour du solstice d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9, le soleil ne se couchait pas\u00a0; Thul\u00e9 \u00e9tait donc sur le cercle polaire, \u00e0 66\u00b0 N. Pour Pyth\u00e9as et \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, le parall\u00e8le de Thul\u00e9 constituait la limite septentrionale du monde habit\u00e9. D\u2019o\u00f9 l\u2019<em>Ultima Thule<\/em>\u00a0de Virgile.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn63\"><strong>63<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Parmi eux, se trouvait Lopez de Gomara, comme il a \u00e9t\u00e9 signal\u00e9 plus haut (p. 164).<\/p>\n<p><strong>64<\/strong>\u00a0Cf. Festus Avienus,\u00a0<em>Ora Maritima<\/em>, ed. et trad. A.\u00a0Berthelot, Paris, librarie anc. H.\u00a0Champion, 1934. Avienus est aussi l\u2019auteur d\u2019une\u00a0<em>Description du monde<\/em>, en quelque 1400 hexam\u00e8tres s\u2019inspirant beaucoup du po\u00e8me grec de Denys le P\u00e9ri\u00e9g\u00e8te (<em>fl.<\/em>\u00a0130. ap.\u00a0J.-C.).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn65\"><strong>65<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Ces \u00eeles o\u00f9 l\u2019on se procurait de l\u2019\u00e9tain \u00e9taient appel\u00e9es par les Grecs Cassit\u00e9rides. On les situait soit vers l\u2019archipel des Sorlingues, devant la Cornouaille anglaise, soit au large du cap Finisterre, pointe extr\u00eame au Nord-Ouest de l\u2019Ib\u00e9rie. On h\u00e9sitait d\u2019autant plus sur leur localisation que le trajet vers ces \u00eeles avait \u00e9t\u00e9 longtemps tenu secret par les commer\u00e7ants ph\u00e9niciens ou carthaginois d\u00e9sireux de conserver le monopole sur ce produit pr\u00e9cieux et rare. Cf. Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ogr.<\/em>\u00a0III, 5, 11.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn66\"><strong>66<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Tartessos, proche de l\u2019embouchure du Guadalquivir, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 occup\u00e9e par les Ph\u00e9niciens, hardis marins et grands commer\u00e7ants, qui importaient l\u2019\u00e9tain de Grande-Bretagne.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn67\"><strong>67<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0La reconnaissance des c\u00f4tes atlantiques de l\u2019Europe par Himilcon eut lieu vers 500 av.\u00a0J.-C., mais ce qui en est dit ici rend difficile l\u2019identification de son itin\u00e9raire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn68\"><strong>68<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Sur ce g\u00e9ographe c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, cf. par exemple, G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>Claude Ptol\u00e9m\u00e9e, astronome, astrologue, g\u00e9ographe<\/em>, Paris, \u00e9d. du C.T.H.S., 1993 (repr. 1998).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn69\"><strong>69<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Sur \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne de Cyr\u00e8ne (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0275-195), qui fut \u00e0 la t\u00eate de la Biblioth\u00e8que d\u2019Alexandrie pendant une cinquantaine d\u2019ann\u00e9es , cf. n. 57.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn70\"><strong>70<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne avait \u00e9valu\u00e9 \u00e0 252\u00a0000 stades la circonf\u00e9rence terrestre, ce qui mettait le degr\u00e9 de m\u00e9ridien \u00e0 700 stades. Les parall\u00e8les \u00e0 la surface du globe terrestre \u00e9tant tous inf\u00e9rieurs \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9quateur, \u00e0 proportion de leur \u00e9loignement, le parall\u00e8le de Rhodes (ou d\u2019Ath\u00e8nes), \u00e0 36\u00b0 N, \u00e9tait \u00e9valu\u00e9 \u00e0 200\u00a0000 stades en chiffres ronds\u00a0: le degr\u00e9 de longitude sur le parall\u00e8le de Rhodes valait alors dans les 555 stades. La longueur du monde habit\u00e9, de l\u2019Ib\u00e9rie jusqu\u2019en Inde, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 fix\u00e9e par \u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne \u00e0 quelque 78\u00a0000 stades (soit dans les 140\u00b0 de longitude). On a beaucoup discut\u00e9 sur les diverses valeurs du stade, dont l\u2019une, 157m 50, serait assez proche du stade th\u00e9orique d\u2019\u00c9ratosth\u00e8ne, sept centi\u00e8me partie d\u2019un degr\u00e9 de m\u00e9ridien.<\/p>\n<p><strong>71<\/strong>\u00a0Sur Strabon (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a063 av.- 24 ap. J.-C.), contemporain de l\u2019empereur Auguste, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>Strabon et la science de son temps<\/em>, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1966. Et aussi et surtout Strabon,\u00a0<em>G\u00e9ographie<\/em>, t. I (l. I et II), \u00e9d. et trad. G.\u00a0Aujac, Paris, C.U.F., 1968.<\/p>\n<p><strong>72<\/strong>\u00a0On Poseidonios, cf. n. 44. The methods used by Eratosthenes and Poseidonios to measure the Earth&#8217;s circumference were described in the II<sup>e<\/sup>\u00a0s. ap. J.-C. par Cl\u00e9om\u00e8de,\u00a0<em>De motu circulari\u00a0<\/em>I, 10 (ou\u00a0<em>Th\u00e9orie \u00e9l\u00e9mentaire<\/em>, trad. R.\u00a0Goulet, Paris, Vrin, 1980, p. 121-126).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn73\"><strong>73<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Sailor of Tyre, slightly prior to Ptolemy, had wanted to correct the map of the inhabited world provided by Eratosthenes, but there had been occasional corrections, which gave Ptolemy the desire to carry out a complete repair of the map, on new fees.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn74\"><strong>74<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0On the teachings of the geometry of the sphere, cf. G.\u00a0Aujac,\u00a0<em>La sph\u00e8re, instrument au service de la d\u00e9couverte du monde<\/em>, Caen, Paradigme, 1993.<\/p>\n<p><strong>75<\/strong>\u00a0G\u00e9minos of Rhodes (<em>fl<\/em>. 50 BC) is the author of an important (lost) treatise on\u00a0<em>Mathematical Science<\/em>, an\u00a0<em>Abstract of the Meteors of Poseidonios<\/em>\u00a0(also lost), and this popularization manual fortunately preserved. Cf. G\u00e9minos,\u00a0<em>Introduction aux Ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes<\/em>, \u00e9d. et trad. G.\u00a0Aujac, Paris, C.U.F., 1975.<\/p>\n<p><strong>76<\/strong>\u00a0It was the Antichthones of whom Pliny spoke, about Taprobane (cf. n. 55).<\/p>\n<p><strong>77<\/strong>\u00a0In fact Herodotus (<em>Inquiry<\/em>\u00a0IV, 42) speaks of the Phoenicians who left Egypt on the order of Pharaoh Nechao, between 609 and 594, and who after three years of journey had returned to Egypt via the Strait of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn78\"><strong>78<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Heraclid of Pontus (<em>c.\u00a0<\/em>390-310), a disciple of Plato, had hypothesized that the Sun was motionless and that the Earth was circulating around it. All his work is lost. Gelon (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0540-478) became tyrant of Syracuse in 485; the Magi were Babylonian scholars: they would have arrived in Sicily after circling Africa and crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n<p><strong>79<\/strong>\u00a0Eudoxus of Cyzicus is said to have come to Egypt as ambassador during the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes II (<em>regn.<\/em>\u00a0146-117); he made several attempts, the final result of which Poseidonios did not know. Pliny (II, 169) says the success, on the basis of a statement by Cornelius Nepos.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn80\"><strong>80<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cornelius Nepos (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a099-24 BC), quoted by Pliny II, 169 and pomponius Mela III, 9, 90, maintained that this Eudoxus, which left the Arabian Gulf, had reached Gades by going around Africa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn81\"><strong>81<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0These 16,800 stages represent 24 degrees of meridian. Even if no one had ever concretely measured this distance, the evaluation was easy since the measurement of the Earth&#8217;s circumference made by Eratosthenes: the degree of meridian was worth 700 stages; and for the tropical-equator distance, it had long been fixed at 1\/15 of a large circle, although Eratosthenes had found a better value. But the Greeks always preferred to use round figures and useful approximations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn82\"><strong>82<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Ptolemy extends the inhabited world south of the equator to the parallel 16\u00b0 S, while Marin of Tyre extended it to the winter tropic (24\u00b0 S).<\/p>\n<p><strong>83<\/strong>\u00a0Polybius (<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0203-120), a Greek from Megalopolis, is the author of a\u00a0<em>History<\/em>\u00a0in thirty-nine books that traces the irresistible rise of Roman power; Staying in Rome as a hostage after the defeat of the Achaean League, he formed friendships with the Scipio family, accompanied Scipio Emilian to Spain and Numidia, returned with him to Africa, and explored the coasts of Mauritania. Book XXXIV, lost, was devoted to geography, with insights into the continents and the settlement of the equatorial zone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn84\"><strong>84<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0The tropic circles in question are the celestial tropics. For the Greeks, the fundamental circles of the sphere (equator, tropics, Arctic circles) are first and foremost celestial circles, of which the terrestrial circles are only the projection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>85<\/strong>\u00a0This is also the argument put forward by Poseidonios, &#8220;that the movement of the sun on the oblique circle (<em>sc.<\/em>\u00a0the ecliptic) is faster there, as is its movement from East to West, because, among the movements made at similar speed, the fastest are those which are made on the largest circle&#8221; (Strabo,\u00a0<em>Geogr.<\/em>\u00a0II 3, 2).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn86\"><strong>86<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0On silphium, a plant now extinct, which had made the wealth of Cyrene, cf. F.\u00a0Chamoux,\u00a0<em>Cyr\u00e8ne sous la monarchie des Battiades<\/em>, Paris, 1952, p. 246-264.<\/p>\n<p><strong>87<\/strong>\u00a0Copernicus also, in the\u00a0<em>De Revolutionibus<\/em>, invoked ancient guarantors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>88<\/strong>\u00a0Greek scholars are very little solicited. Eratosthenes, Poseidonios, Geminos, Ptolemy are never named (Strabo is little), for the benefit of the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Proclus.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/1446#bodyftn89\"><strong>89<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Cf.\u00a0Ortelius,\u00a0<em>Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Monde<\/em>, Antwerp, 1570.<\/p>\n<p>Haut de page<\/p>\n<p>Table of illustrations<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"4\" width=\"38\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Title<\/td>\n<td><strong>Plate 5: Map of the ancient and modern world in two hemispheres, attached to the\u00a0<em>Introduction to Geography and the Spherical\u00a0<\/em>by Chrysanthos Notaras (Bibl.Universitaria, Padova).<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"0\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>URL<\/td>\n<td>http:\/\/anabases.revues.org\/docannexe\/image\/1446\/img-1.png<\/td>\n<td width=\"0\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>File<\/td>\n<td>image\/png, 303k<\/td>\n<td width=\"0\">&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>To quote this article<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paper reference<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Germaine\u00a0Aujac, &#8220;Did the Ancients Know America? A controversial question in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries&#8221;,\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>, 1 | 2005, 163-191.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Electronic reference<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Germaine\u00a0Aujac, &#8220;Did the Ancients Know America? A controversial issue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries&#8221;,\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>\u00a0[Online], 1 | 2005, posted September 13, 2011, accessed May 24, 2015. URL : http:\/\/anabases.revues.org\/1446<\/p>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Author<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/223\"><strong>Germaine\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Aujac<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>University of Toulouse-Le Mirail<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Articles by the same author<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/5160\">Arnaud\u00a0Mac\u00e9(dir.),\u00a0<em>Le Savoir public. The political vocation of knowledge in ancient Greece<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a020 | 2014<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/4734\">Bruce\u00a0Gibson&amp; Thomas\u00a0Harrison\u00a0(ed.),\u00a0<em>Polybius and his world, Essays in Memory of F.W. Walbank<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a019 | 2014<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/4736\">Gilles\u00a0Gorreand Perrine\u00a0Kossmann (eds.),\u00a0<em>Espaces et territoires de l&#8217;\u00c9gypte gr\u00e9co-romaine, Actes des journ\u00e9es d&#8217;\u00e9tude, 23 June 2007 et 21 juin 2008<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a019 | 2014<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/4743\">V\u00e9ronique\u00a0Krings&amp; Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0Pugni\u00e8re\u00a0(eds.),\u00a0<em>N\u00eemes et ses Antiquit\u00e9s. A present past\u00a0xvi<\/em>\u00a0<em>e-xix<\/em>\u00a0th\u00a0<em>century<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a019 | 2014<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/4398\">Edith\u00a0Fosterand Donald\u00a0Lateiner\u00a0(eds.),\u00a0<em>Thucydides and Herodotus<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/4303\">18 | 2013<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/669\">Classical culture in Basel in Erasmus&#8217; time after three frontispieces<\/a>[Full text]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Published in\u00a0<em>Anabases<\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/454\">10 | 2009<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150524192027\/http:\/anabases.revues.org\/223\">All texts&#8230;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Top of Page<\/p>\n<p>Copyright<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Anabases<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1\u00a0|\u00a02005 Ancient Heritage Traditions Did the Ancients know America? A controversial issue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Germaine\u00a0Aujac 163-191 Summary|\u00a0Index\u00a0|\u00a0| Plan\u00a0Text|\u00a0| Notes\u00a0Illustrations|\u00a0Quote|\u00a0Author Summaries FrenchEnglish In the aftermath of the great discoveries, historians of the New World, geographers, scholars, asked themselves the question: could the Ancients have known America? Opinions were divided. In addition to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5322],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55017"}],"version-history":[{"count":76,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60372,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55017\/revisions\/60372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}