It has been even supposed that they anticipated Columbus in the discovery of America.

Niebuhr connects the primitive astronomy of Europe with that of America, and, therefore, must suppose the latter country to have been discovered .-- _Hist.

of Rome_, vol.i.p.

281.

This, however, is very vague ground of conjecture; the tide of knowledge, as well as emigration, was more probably eastward.
[50] _Procopius .-- Hist.