Beliefs in a flat Earth are very old. In early Mespotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early Greek maps like those of Anaxaminder? and Hecataeus?. By classical times an alternate idea, that the Earth was spherical, had appeared; this was possibly expoused by Pythagoras and definitely by Plato. Its circumference was estimated fairly accurately by Eratosthenes?, and by that time the flat Earth had more or less disappeared, at least among the educated.
Beliefs in a flat Earth are very old. In early Mespotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early Greek maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus?. By classical times an alternate idea, that the Earth was spherical, had appeared; this was possibly espoused by Pythagoras and definitely by Plato. Its circumference was estimated fairly accurately by Eratosthenes?, and by that time the flat Earth had more or less disappeared, at least among the educated.
Changed: 7c7
Some have claimed that Russell has gone too far overboard on the evidence, however, pointing to various Church fathers such as [Diodorus of Tarsus]? who almost certainly supported a flat Earth. This is based on various implications of the Bible, which was written before the spherical Earth model gained currency. However, Diodorus's opinion on the matter is preserved only in an attack on it by the ninth century patriarch of Constantinople, Photius; the lack of any other reference suggests that Diodorus's ideas did not have wide currency. Another early medieval author often cited as believing in a Biblical model of a flat earth, [Cosmas Indicopleustes]?, who survives in 3 substantially complete Greek manuscripts and was not translated into Latin until 1706.
Some have claimed that Russell has gone too far overboard on the evidence, however, pointing to various Church fathers such as [Diodorus of Tarsus]? who almost certainly supported a flat Earth. This is based on various implications of the Bible, which was written before the spherical Earth model gained currency. However, Diodorus's opinion on the matter is preserved only in an attack on it by the ninth century patriarch of Constantinople, Photius; the lack of any other reference suggests that Diodorus's ideas did not have wide currency. Another early medieval author often cited as believing in a Biblical model of a flat earth, [Cosmas Indicopleustes]?, survives in 3 substantially complete Greek manuscripts and was not translated into Latin until 1706.
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