Note 899 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN (continued 2)
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Altera pars orbis sub aquis jacet invia nobis, Ignotaeque hominum gentes, nec transita regna, Commune ex uno lumen ducentia sole, etc. Manilius (Weber), i, 375.
The Christian fathers ridicule the antipodes severely. “More rational to say that black was white”; Lactantius, Div. Inst., iii, 24; Epitome, 39. “The earth stands firm on water [going back to Thales] and does not turn”; Chrysostom, Genesis, Hom. xii, 3, 4 (in Migne, iv, 101); In Titum Hom. iii, 3 (in Migne, xi, 680); cf. Cosmas Ind., op. cit., x, for other theological authorities on cosmology.