Title: Geography with a Purpose
Product review: The most fascinating aspect of reading The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought by James S. Romm is to learn that for the ancients, geography was more of a literary device than a budding science. In a way, it was more complex than that as the lines between literature and science were often blurred. It is interesting to note that the idea of the edge of the earth was most often used to create a moral lesson and what a better well to draw a taste of moral water from than the area where the least information is available. It was a blank slate of sorts for the ancient historians, geographers, philosophers and various other writers to create their own messages for their own purposes. And in that the variety lies the pleasure in this short, readable look at the times of ancient Rome and Greece.
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