The descriptions which historians and geographers have transmitted to us of the ancient world, are not generally deficient either in copiousness or accuracy. The theatre of those great events, which still interest mankind, may be commonly ascertained with sufficient precision. The distinct knowledge of the ancients, however, was limited to a certain sphere; after passing which, clouds always begin to envelope it. The almost total change of names, the uncertainty as to their itinerary measures, and the defects of their mathematical geography, leave no perfectly fixed point on which we can rest.