Christian topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian monk /

Front matter

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

WORKS ISSUED BY

TL\)c Dafclu^t Society.

Contents

PAGE

Editor’s Preface .... ix-xii

Introduction :

Book I

The Places and Figures of the Universe ; the heresy of affirming that the Heavens are spherical, and that there are Antipodes ; Pagan errors as to the causes of rain and of earthquakes . . . . .7

Book II

The position, figure, length and breadth of the earth ; the site of Paradise ; the Greek inscriptions at Adule ; extract from Ephorus ; the ancient empires ; the Fall of Man and its effect on the Angels ; the circumscription of angels, demons and souls . . . 23

Book XII

Old Testament narratives confirmed by Chaldaean, Babylonian, Persian and Egyptian records ; the island Atlantis 375

Appendix :

Plates with figures illustrative of the Text, and explanations of them ...... 387

ERRATA.

Page ix, line 17, for Theodosius , read

„ 43, line 19, „ each of „

„ 76, line 4, „ diameter , „

„ 154, note 1, „ pavilio , „

„ 213, line 5, „ Appolinarius „

Theodorus.

veil.

eyKVK\ws.

each pair of. dimensions, papilio.

Apollinarius.

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

HE Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes is one of the prodigies of literature. The boldness and perverse ingenuity with which its author, from a long array of irrelevant scripture texts, seeks to construct an impossible theory of the universe can scarcely fail to astonish everyone who reads it. It made its appearance at that period in the world’s history, when Christendom, fast losing the light of Greek learning and culture, was soon to be shrouded in the long" night of mediaeval ignorance and barbarism. The work reflects with singular distinctness this prominent characteristic of the age which produced it ; for while Cosmas, on the one hand, held the principles of the Christian faith combined with others pervading the theology then current which led to the darkening of all true knowledge, he had, on the other hand, a somewhat considerable, if inexact, acquaintance with the philosophical and scientific speculations of the Greeks. He may thus not inaptly be compared to a two-headed Janus, with one face turned to the light of departing day, and the other to the shadows of the coming night.

X editor’s preface.

In our Introduction will be found a statement showing the sources whence the text of this unique work has been derived. A biography of its author then follows ; next, a synopsis of his cosmological views, and finally, citations of the opinions which have been passed upon his system of the world and the contents of his work generally.

The translation here presented is literal, as far as the exigencies of idiom would permit. It is the first that has been made of the whole work into English, or, indeed, into any other language except Latin and Norwegian. In its preparation we have lacked the advantage, generally enjoyed by translators of classical texts, that of having at hand for reference a variety of translations and commentaries to throw light on passages that are dark, dubious, or disputed, or otherwise perplexed. We have had, indeed, the assistance of Montfaucon’s Latin version, but no commentary whatever to give us light where we found Cosmas dark. That good and learned Lather is generally accurate, but, like the good Homer, he sometimes nods, and we give at the foot of the page a list of notes which refer to passages whereof his interpretations differ from our own.1 Another list of notes follows, in which suggestions are offered for the correction of the Greek text.2

EDITOR S PREFACE.

XI

Cosmas tells us, in the outset of his work, that he has inserted notes ( Trapa^pa^ai ) for the clearer exposition of the text (to /ceifj,evov). These notes he seems to have placed, not in the margin, but in the body of the work, after the text to which they refer. In our translation they appear in a similar position, but printed in a type somewhat smaller than that of the text.

Our rendering of the word requires a word

of explanation. In the days of Cosmas it was used, not so much to designate persons of Hellenic descent, as persons who clung to the old superstitions of Greece and Rome and rejected Christianity. Montfaucon’s rendering is Graeci , but we have considered Pagans as preferable.* 1 This class of persons Cosmas sometimes calls also ol e%w9ev, those ivithoiit the pale of the Church , an expression which we render mostly by pagans.

Cosmas had some skill in drawing, and seems to have taken as much delight in covering his MSS. with illustrative sketches as was taken, according to his showing, by the Israelites of old in covering the rocks of Mount Sinai with inscriptions when once they had been taught by Moses the art of writing. Montfaucon, having made a selection from these sketches, relegated them en masse to the end of n. 4, p. 120 ; n. i, p. 138 ; n. 1, p. 170 ; n. 2, p. 190 ; n. 1, p. 202 ; n. 1, p. 212; n. 1, p. 224; n. 2, p. 305: n. 4, p. 321; n. 1, P- 329; n- 3> P- 347 ; n. 1, p. 355 ; n. 7, p. 366; n. 2, p. 369; n. 2, p. 383.

1 This point will be found further explained in n. 2, p. 3.

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EDITOR S PREFACE.

his work. His copies of them, which are not always quite exact, have been reproduced for the present work, by photographic processes, in a way which leaves nothing to be desired, and will be found, with explanatory notes, in the Appendix.

The passages of Scripture to which Cosmas refers are very numerous, and the words are cited at length both in the Greek text and in the Latin version. We have, however, given only the references, in cases where this could be done without inconvenience to the reader.

In conclusion we have to express our obligations to Mr. J. Coles, Map-Curator of the Royal Geographical Society, and to Dr. James Burgess of Edinburgh, for their kindness in writing for us those mathematical notes to Book vi, in which they show how egregiously Cosmas erred in his calculations of the size of the sun j1 while to Mr. C. Robertson of Edinburgh, late of the Indian Civil Service, we stand greatly indebted for valuable suggestions and criticisms made while he had the goodness to hear us read over our translation to him. Mr. Foster, the Secretary of the Society, must permit us further to say how much the work has profited by his careful correction of the final proofs, and the suggestions which he was kind enough on occasion to offer.

J. W. MCC.

32, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh,

November 1897.

1 For the note with diagrams on pp. 247-8, we are indebted to Mr. Coles; and for n. 2, p. 249, n. 1, p. 250, and n. 1, p. 252, to Dr. Burgess.

Introduction

Sources of the Text.

HE CJiristian Topography of Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian Navigator, has been preserved in two copies: one a parchment MS. of the tenth century belonging to the Laurentian library in Florence, and containing the whole work except only the last leaf ; the other, a very fine uncial MS. of the eighth or ninth century, belonging to the Vatican library, and containing sketches drawn by Cosmas himself, but wanting entirely the twelfth book, which is the last. There is, besides, in the Imperial library in Vienna, a Cosmas MS., but this contains only a few leaves of the Topography.

The existence of the work, which had been for ages forgotten, and the importance and interest of its contents, were first made known in the latter half of the seventeenth century by Enteric Bigot. This learned French scholar, while visiting Italy, extracted from the Florentine Codex a copy of the

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INTRODUCTION.

Adulitic Inscriptions,1 and of passages relating to Ethiopia and India. These extracts were afterwards published in Thevenot’s Relation de divers Voyages, accompanied with a translation into French. Twenty years later (1706), the work appeared in its complete form as exhibited in the Florentine Codex, collated with that of the Vatican. It was not, however, published separately, but was included in the second volume of the splendid work Nova Collectio Patrum et Scriptornm Graecorum, edited by Father Montfaucon, a Benedictine monk, celebrated for his profound knowledge of Patristic literature. The Greek text was illustrated by a learned introduction and a Fatin translation of great elegance and accuracy. Notes were also added, chiefly to point out where discrepancies exist in the readings of the MSS. The present translation has been prepared from Montfaucon’s text, as reprinted in the 88th volume of the Patrologia Graeca , printed at the Migne Press, Paris, 1864.

The Title of the Work.

In the Florentine Codex, the index of the work reads thus : Avrq q Bl(3\o<; XpLariaviicq To7roypa<f)La TrepbeKTUC-q 7ravTo<; t ov tcocrpLov Trap qp.lv oovop-aapevq. This Book named by us Christian Topography comprehensive of the whole world. Montfaucon entitles it: Cosmae Egyptii Monachi Christiana Topographia, sive Christianorum Opinio de Mundo : The Christian

INTRODUCTION.

Ill

Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk , or the Opinion of Christians concerning the World. As Cosmas all through the work keeps harping, with the most provoking reiteration, on his doctrine that the universe consists of only two places , namely, the earth which is below the firmament, and heaven, which is above it, the term Topography designates the treatise properly enough ; though on turning to peruse it for the first time, we should from its title expect its contents to be very different from what they are found to be.

Notice of the Work by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Montfaucon does not seem to have been aware that a brief notice of the Topography is to be found in the Bibliotheka of Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was elected to that dignity in a.d. 858. Photius states that the work had for its title Xpio-Tiavwv /3b/3 \o?, and was an exposition extending to the eighth book. He does not give the author’s name, but states that he flourished in the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinus, and dedicated his work to a certain Pamphilus. He condemns it as being below mediocrity in style, and faulty in its syntax; and at the same time calls in question the author’s veracity, saying that he makes up stories so incredible that he may fairly be regarded as a writer of fables rather than of facts. He then gives a very concise summary of the

b 2

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INTRODUCTION.

contents of the Topography , and concludes with a reference to the last four books, which had from time to time been added to defend the doctrines set forth in those which had preceded.

The Name of the Author of the “ Topography.”

A doubt long aom arose as to whether Cosmas was the proper or family name of the author of the Topography. Isaac Voss first started this doubt, and Fabricius subsequently gave currency to the opinion that Cosmas was so called because his work was devoted to a description of the Kosmos : just as the Abbot john of Sinai was called Climacius because he had published a work entitled Climax. In the absence of evidence, this must remain an open question.

Biography of Cosmas.

The Topography fortunately contains passages which throw light on the personal history of its author, and enable us also to fix with certainty the date at which he wrote. He was most probably a native of Alexandria, and may have been of Greek parentage. His education was confined to the more elementary branches of knowledge, such as would fit him for the career he pursued in the earlier part of his life — that of a merchant. But though he was not instructed, as he tells us himself,1

INTRODUCTION.

V in the “learning of the schools,” yet so inquisitive was his turn of mind and so sharp his intellect that he eventually acquired such a knowledge of literature and science as raised him to the level of the culture of his time, and to his being accepted as a capable exponent and defender of the Christian faith.

The commercial pursuits of Cosmas carried him into seas and countries far remote from his home. Thus he tells us that he had sailed upon three of the great gulfs which run up into the earth from the ocean, namely, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and Persian Gulf.1 He sailed also upon that part of the Erythraean Sea which beyond Cape Guardafui stretches southward toward the outlying ocean, which in those days was regarded with terror and held to be unnavigable on account of the violent currents and dense and dismal fogs in which it was thought to be enveloped. When the ship which carried Cosmas was approaching this dread region of currents and fogs, a storm gathered overhead, and flocks of albatrosses, like birds of ill omen, hovered on the wing high above the mast. Dismay seized alike the passengers and the crew, and amidst outcries of “ port the helm," the course of the vessel was reversed and she headed northwards.2 Cosmas does not say whether in the course of this voyage he reached India, which was his destination when he embarked.

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INTRODUCTION.

If he did not, he must have made a second and more successful attempt ; for no one, we think, who reads his eleventh book, in which he describes the island of Ceylon and the ports, commerce, and animals of India, can doubt that he writes about these places from personal knowledge of them.

One of the most interesting- and instructive parts of the Topography is that in which Cosmas relates what he had heard and seen in the course of his travels in Ethiopia.1 By the name of Ethiopia he designates in a general way the vast region which stretches southward from Egypt down towards the equator ; and from an incidental remark which he drops when treating of the Adulitic inscription on the throne,2 we learn that he had traversed it almost throughout its length and its breadth. Like Herodotus of old, he was ever athirst after knowledge, and when he was unable to visit places which lay in the vicinity of his route, he made inquiries about them from such persons as knew them and could be trusted to report things truly. The capital of Ethiopia at that time was Axum, an important centre of commerce, and also of religion and learning. It was one of the places which Cosmas, in pursuit of his calling, visited, :i and from one or two of his statements we may infer that he was well received at Court, and was permitted by the King, who professed the Christian faith and could speak Greek, to travel freely through his dominions.

INTRODUCTION.

VII

The seaport of Axum was Adule or Adulis,1 the modern Zula or Thulla, situated near Annesley Bay and distant from the capital about one hundred and twenty miles or an eight days’ journey. Cosmas found himself here in the year 525 a.d., at which time Elesboas, the King of Axum, was preparing an expedition against the Homerites in Arabia.2 Here, at the request of the Governor, Cosmas, along with his friend Menas, a monk of the monastery at Raithu, copied the famous Greek inscriptions on the marble tablet and the basanite throne, which lay together outside the town on the road which led to Axum.3

Among other parts of Ethiopia which our traveller visited we may include the Aromatic country — that great projection on the east of the African Continent which terminates in Cape Guardafui. His description of this district (which supplied the Egyptians of old with their spices for embalming the dead), and of its products and its foreign trade, shows that it must have come from the pen of an eye-witness.4 He may also have proceeded to the north-west, and visited the kingdom of Meroe (now Khartum), for in that direction lay the seats of several tribes mentioned in the inscription on the throne. Montfaucon, in his Preface, credits him with the discovery, in the Abyssinian province called Agau, of the true source of the Nile. It was not, however, the source of the main stream

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which he discovered, but that of the Blue Nile,1 which, a millennium afterwards, was rediscovered by the Portuguese, and more recently by the Scottish traveller Bruce There was still another interesting locality which the traveller tells us he visited, and this lay on the other side of the Red Sea — the Desert, namely, of Sinai, where he found, strewn among the sands, fragments of rock covered with inscriptions which he took to have been carved by the Israelites when they were wandering in that wilderness.2

Cosmas, when all his travels were over, returned to Alexandria, perhaps after paying a visit to Jerusalem ; and, abandoning the secular life, retired to the seclusion of the cloister, where he devoted his leisure to the composition of works on descriptive geography, cosmography, and Scriptural exegesis. Of these, the Christian Topography alone is extant. The loss of the geographical treatise, as Montfaucon well says, is to be deplored with tears. It has been conjectured that the geographical passages in the Topography , as, for instance, the description of Ceylon in the eleventh book, are extracts from that treatise.

The Christian Sect to which Cosmas Belonged.

In the days of Cosmas ecclesiastical controversies were rife, and professing Christians were divided

INTRODUCTION.

IX into numerous sects. That to which Cosmas most probably belonged was the Nestorian. To this point Photius makes no reference, and it has been equally overlooked by Montfaucon. The first who called in question the orthodoxy of our Monk was De La Croze, who, in his Histoire du Christianisme des Indes , adduced the following arguments to prove his Nestorian proclivities : — 1°, that Cosmas calls Patricius, who was the Archbishop of Persia when that country had been infected with Nestorianism, a divine man and an illustrious teacher fi 2°, that Cosmas, in his list of heretical sects, names the Manichaeans, the Marcionists, the Eutychians, the Arians and the Apollinarians, but not the Nestorians;1 2 30, that in his exposition of Scripture, and in his system of the world, he always follows Theodosius of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus, who were the principal teachers of the Nestorians ; 40, that concerning Christ and the Incarnation of the Word, he uses the same modes of expression as the Nestorians.3 We may add as a fifth argument the glowing terms in which Cosmas speaks of the wide diffusion of Christianity among the heathen nations of the east, which was mainly the work of missionaries from Persia, where Nestorianism reigned supreme.4 Only one passage occurs to throw some doubt on the certainty of this conclusion— that in which Cosmas addresses Mary as

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the Mother of God, , an expression abhorrent to the Nestorians. Had Cosmas in his monastery relapsed into what was there considered orthodoxy ?

The Date at which the “Topography” was Written.

We have already mentioned that the Topography has data from which the time when Cosmas wrote can be certainly determined. In the second book (p. 55), where he mentions his visit to Adule, he observes that it was made when Elesboas the Axumite King was preparing an expedition against the Homerites in Arabia, and that this was at the beginning of the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinus, since which time some five-and-twenty years more or less had elapsed. Now, as it is known that the expedition was made in a.d. 522, and that Justinus was at that date in the fifth year of his reign, Cosmas must have been writing about the year 547. It is true that an indication which apparently conflicts with this appears in the tenth book (p. 351), where he speaks of Theodosius, the heretical Bishop of Alexandria, as residing at the time in Constantinople, and then on p. 353 refers to the death of his predecessor in office, Timothy the younger,1 as an event of recent occurrence. Now it is known that this Timothy died in 535, and was succeeded by Theodosius, who, after a brief

So called to distinguish him from Timothy the Cat.

INTRODUCTION.

XI residence in his diocese went to Constantinople, whence he was banished in 536. The tenth book must therefore have been written in the year preceding. How, then, is this earlier date to be reconciled with the later ? Montfaucon answers this question satisfactorily. Cosmas, he points out, in order to meet objections urged against his opinions, was in the habit of making additions from time to time to the number of its books. The earlier date thus probably indicates the time when he begmn to make such additions, and the later when he was making the last, or one of the last, recensions of his work.

Opinions of the Learned regarding the “ Topography.”

The condemnatory verdict of Photius upon the work of Cosmas has not been endorsed by modern opinion. The style of the Topography has no doubt the shortcomings which the Patriarch pointed out ; but Cosmas, it is proper to remember, expressly disclaims all pretensions to the learning of the schools. He pleads that from his early years he had been so engrossed in business, and had been besides so much abroad, that he had found no spare time for studying rules of grammar and the art of composition ; he could, therefore, only write in a homely style, without attempting any flights of rhetoric. Rhetoric, moreover would, he thought, be out of place in his books, since “ he wrote for

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Christians, who had more need of correct notions than of fine phrases.” The style has, notwithstanding, some redeeming points. Cosmas, in spite of his loose grammar, seldom fails to make his meaning clear, or to put forward his arguments with sufficient point and force. Some passages, besides, which give us an insight into the depth and fervour of his faith, rise to an eloquence which suggests the belief that, had he cultivated the art, he might have shone in pulpit oratory.

It is, however, in relating his travelling experiences that Cosmas is found at his best. The language he uses is simple, and his descriptions are not only remarkably vivid, but are, above all things, truthful. In this respect modern opinion is entirely at variance with that of Photius. The greater knowledge now possessed of the remote regions which Cosmas visited goes all to show that the thought of tickling the fancy of his readers with tales of wonder had never entered his mind, but that on the contrary he was a man who had a supreme regard for truth, and who was at once an acute observer, and shrewd in judging the value of the information which he received from others.

As soon as the Topography , in its complete edition by Montfaucon, made its appearance, it excited great interest in the circles of learning, and at once took rank as a work which contained more accurate and more valuable information on geographical subjects than any other document that had come down from the early mediaeval age.

introduction.

xi 11

At the same time, the extreme singularity of the views which it propounded on cosmology and on the interpretation of Scripture texts filled its readers with combined feelings of amazement and amusement.

Bibliographical Notices.

The Topography was republished at Venice in 1776 in Gallandi’s Bibliotheca veterum Pat rum, and its most valuable sections were printed, along with a French translation, at Paris in 1855, in Charton’s Voyageurs Anciens et Modernes. Its contents were made use of by Robertson in his Disquisition on Ancient India , and by Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The latter, referring to the absurd theory of the world held by Cosmas, remarks that “the nonsense of the Monk was, nevertheless, mingled with the practical knowledge of the traveller”.

Among the eminent geographers who have turned the Topography to account may be mentioned Mannert, Gosselin, Humboldt, Dodwell, Playfair, Bredow, Reinaud, Letronne, Sir Henry Yule,1 and Mr. Raymond Beazley ;2 while among

1 This distinguished Orientalist, in the Introduction to his Cathay and the Way Thither, has given a translation of the geographical portions of the Topography. He also occasionally cites the work in his celebrated edition of Mareo Polo.

2 This writer, in his work The Dawn of Modern Geography , published this year, — a work remarkable for learning and research, and its happy combination of accuracy of detail with breadth of

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ecclesiastical writers may be noted Allatius, Bandini, De La Croze, Assemanni, Cave and Milne Rae.* 1 The Adulitic inscriptions again have exercised the pens of such scholars as : Fabricius, Chishull, Vincent, Salt, Boeckh, V. de Saint-Martin, Dr. H. Muller of Vienna, and Dr. Glaser of Munich.

The System of the World according to Cosmas.

The Christian Topography is a production of which it may be truly said TO n rapepyov icpelrrov too epyov. It is essentially controversial, its professed design being to refute, from Scripture and common sense, the impious Pagan cosmography, according to which the earth is a sphere ; and the centre around which the heaven, which is also a sphere, revolves with all its luminaries. The arguments with which Cosmas seeks to demolish this theory and to illustrate his own are absurd in the extreme ; and were it not for the geographical, historical, and other kinds of notices which are here and there incidentally introduced into its pages, his work would chiefly serve for amusement. According to his view, the figure of view, makes frequent reference to the Topography , and even devotes an entire chapter to a searching analysis and criticism of its several books.

1 Author of The Syrian Church in India , a well-written, scholarly work (published in recent years), in which he comes to the conclusion that there is no evidence of the planting of a Christian Church in Southern India before the beginning of the sixth century, or less than half a century before Cosmas wrote.

INTRODUCTION.

XV the universe can best be learned from a study of the structure and furniture of the Tabernacle which Moses prepared in the wilderness.1 This wonderful conception did not originate with himself. Some of the Christian Fathers who preceded him had entertained it in a vague and general way, believing it might be warranted by the expressions in Hebrews , ix, 23 and 24, where the Tabernacle and its contents are said to be patterns (w roSeLj/iara) and antitypes or figures of the true ( avTiTVTra twv aXrjdivwv). It was left to Cosmas to develop the conception and work it out into all its details. So he explains again and again that the division of the Tabernacle into two places, by means of the veil, typified the division of the universe into two worlds — an upper and a lower, by means of the firmament. The table of shew-bread, again, with its waved border, represented the earth surrounded by the ocean, while its other parts and the things upon it symbolized each some object or other in the natural world. Now, as the table was twice as long as it was broad, and was placed lengthwise from east to west, and breadthwise from north to south, from this we learn that the earth is a rectangular plane which extends in length from east to west, and in breadth from north to south, and is twice as long as it is broad. The ocean, he further gives us to know, is unnavigable, and, while encompassing this earth of ours, is itself encompassed by another earth, which had been the

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seat of Paradise and the abode of man until the Ark, floating on the billows of the Flood, wafted Noah and his family over into this earth. The heavens come downward to us in four walls, which, at their lower sides, are welded to the four sides of the earth beyond ocean, each to each. The upper side of the northern wall, at the summit of heaven, curves round and over, till it unites with the upper side of the southern wall, and thus forms, in the shape of an oblong vault, the canopy of heaven, which Cosmas likens to the vaulted roof of a bathroom. This vast rectangular hall is divided at the middle into two stories by the firmament, which thus serves as a ceiling for the lower story and a floor for the upper. The lower story is this world, where men and angels have their abode until the Resurrection, and the story above is heaven — the place of the future state.

As to the position (#ecrt?) of the earth in the scheme of things, Scripture left Cosmas in no doubt. The Psalmist had declared that the Creator had founded the earth upon its own stability (eVi t^v da^dXeiav avTrjs) ; Job, that He had hanged it upon nothing; and Isaiah, that, while heaven was His throne, the earth was His footstool. Clearly, therefore, the place of the earth was at the bottom of the universe — a position to which it must have naturally sunk (as he shows in a very curious passage) at the very instant of its creation.1 What then can be more absurd than the Pagan doctrine that the earth is in the

INTRODUCTION.

xvn middle of the universe? Were it in the middle, there must be something below it as well as above it ; but there is nothing- below it, since we learn from Genesis that God made heaven and earth, and nothing else beyond these. Here then the Pagans are at war with divine Scripture ; but, not content with this, they are at war also with common sense itself and the very laws of nature, declaring, as they do, that the earth is a central sphere, and that there are Antipodes, who must be standing head-downward and on whom the rain must fall up.