MELA, POMPONIUS (fl. c. A.D. 43)7 the earliest Roman geographer. His little work (De situ orbis libri III.) is a mere compendium, occupying less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures. Excepting the geographical parts of Pliny's Historia naturalis (where Mela is cited as an important authority) the De situ orbis is the only formal treatise on the subject in classical Latin. Nothing is known of the author except his name and birthplace—the small town of Tingentera or Cingentera in southern Spain, on Algeciras Bay (Mela ii. § 96; but the text is here corrupt). The date of his writing may be approximately fixed by his allusion (iii. 6 § 49) to a proposed British expedition of the reigning emperor, almost certainly that of Claudius in A.D. 43 Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the earth into five zones, of which two only were habit able, he asserts the existence of antichthones, inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to the folk of the northern temperate regions from the unbearable heat of the intervening tor rid belt. In general he follows earlier classical geographers. But he
defines the western coast-line of Spain and Gaul and its inden tation by the Bay of Biscay more accurately than Eratosthenes or Strabo, and his ideas of the British Isles and their position are also clearer than his predecessors'. He is the first to name the Orcades or Orkneys, which he defines and locates pretty correctly. Of northern Europe his knowledge was imperfect, but he speaks vaguely of a great bay ("Codanus sinus") to the north of Germany, among whose many islands was one, "Codanovia," of pre-eminent size; this name reappears in Pliny as "Scandi navia." The first edition of Mela was published at Milan in 1471 ; the first good edition was by Vadianus (Basel, 1522), superseded by those of Voss (1658), J. Gronovius (1685 and 1696), A. Gronovius (1722 and 1728), and Tzschucke (18o6–o7), in seven parts (Leipzig; the most elaborate of all) ; G. Parthey's (Berlin, 1867) , gives the best text. The English trans. by Arthur Golding (1585), is famous; modern Eng lish translation by Philipp (1912). See also E. H. Bunbury, Ancient Geography, ii. and D. Detlefsen, Quellen and Forschungen zur alters Gesch. and Geog. (1908).