the son of Aglaus, was born at Cyrene, on the northern coast of Africa, 275 B.C., and died at the advanced age of eighty, 194 B.C. We are told by Suidas that he studied under the philosopher Aristo of the island Chios, the grammarian Lysias of Cyrene, and the poet Callimachus, whilst Strabo mentions that he received instruction from Zeno the Citan. He was invited from Athens by Ptolemy Euergetes to take charge of the celebrated library at Alexandria; and here he continued to reside under the successors of this prince, till, having lost his sight from old age, he put an end to his life by means of hunger. Though the ancients were divided in their opinions respecting his merits, there is good reason to believe that he was a man of distinguished talent, and intimately acquainted with the whole circle of science then known to the world. He was a geometer, astronomer, geographer, philosopher, grammarian, and poet, and left works behind him in each of these departments; but they have all disappeared in the lapse of ages. It is in geography that he seems to have been most distinguished; the first two books of Strabo are almost entirely occupied with an examination of his system, and a correction of some of the errors into which he had fallen respecting the western parts of Europe. We do not think that Strabo does full justice to Eratosthenes, expecting more accuracy than the state of geographical knowledge in that age would warrant. But all later writers, including Strabo himself, borrowed largely from him; and where they have ventured to correct his observations, they have only more clearly proved their ignorance of the subject. Thus Eratosthenes is nearer the truth in respect to the length of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Sicily than Polybius, who found fault with him. The fragments of his works have been collected and published at Oxford in one vol. 8vo; also by Seidel, Göttingen, 1789, and Eratosthenica, by Bernhardy, Berlin, 1822. For a list of his works, see Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 513.