Among the earliest Roman geographers, and author of the only extant 

 in Classical Latin. Pomponius Mela was born in southern Spain. From a reference in his work to the Emperor's proposed expedition to Britain in 43CE, Mela appears to have lived during the reign of the 

. His famous geographical treatise, ‘De Situ Orbis’, remained highly influential throughout the following centuries until the Age of Exploration began.

Credit: Title page of Vadianus' first edition of Pomponius Mela work dated 1518 - Americana: Catalogue no. 600, Frankfurt am Main, Joseph Baer & Co., s.d., p. 31, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons