eased. In the reign of Antoninus Pius, their armies had forced a
passage much further north in Britain than they had ever ventured before.
One of the results of this success was a maritime survey, or rather two
partial surveys of the north part of Britain, from which the geography of
that part of the island was compiled by Ptolemy.

The maritime laws of the Rhodians, or those which passed under their name,
seem to have been the basis and authority of the Roman maritime laws at
this period; for we are told, that when a merchant complained to the
emperor that he had been plundered by the imperial officers at the
Cyclades, where he had been shipwrecked, the latter replied, that he indeed
was lord of the earth, but that the sea was governed by the Rhodian laws,
and that from them he would obtain redress. This part of the Rhodian law,
however, had been but lately adopted by the Romans; for Antoninus is
expressly mentioned as having enacted, among other laws, that shipwrecked
merchandize should be the entire property of the lawful owners, without any
interference or participation of the officers of the exchequer, and that
those who were guilty of plundering wrecks should be severely punished.

One of the most important and complete surveys of the Roman empire (the
idea of which, as has been already stated, was first formed by Julius
Caesar) was begun and finished in the reign of Antoninus, and is well known
under the appellation of his Itinerary. It has, indeed, been objected to
this date of the Itinerary, that it contains places which were not known in
the time of Antonine, and names of places which they did not bear till
after his reign; thus mention is made of the province of Arcadia in Egypt,
and of Honorius in Pontus, so styled in honor of the sons of the emperor
Theodosius. But the fact seems to be that alterations and additions were
made to the Itinerary, and that occasionally, or perhaps under each
subsequent emperor, new editions of it were published. From the maritime
part of this Itinerary of Antoninus we derive a clear idea of the timidity
or want of skill and enterprise of the Mediterranean seamen in their
commercial voyages. All the ports which it was prudent or necessary, for
the safety of the voyage, to touch at, in sailing from Achaia to Africa are
enumerated; and of these there are no fewer than twenty, some of them at
the heads of bays on the coasts of Greece, Epirus, and Italy, and within
the Straits of Sic