Pliny on the Shape of the Earth

I recently had cause to consult with that most learned Roman writer, thinker and natural scientist, Pliny the Elder.

The uncle of my current travel mate, Pliny the Younger; Pliny Senior offers a wealth of scientific, botanical, zoological and ethnographic information from the ancient world. His comments concerning the shape of the earth have recently interested me:

160."The shape of the earth is the first fact about which there is general agreement. At any rate we call the earth a sphere and admit that it is included within poles. The form, however, is not that of a perfect sphere, for there are high mountains and widely spreading plains ... But the continuous revolution of the universe around the earth forces her huge globe into the shape of a sphere."

161. "There is a great conflict between the learned and the man in the street at this juncture. Scholars assert that men are spread out all round the earth and stand with their feet pointing towards each other and that the top of the sky is alike for all of them and that their feet point down towards the centre of the earth from wherever they are. An ordinary person, however, enquires why men on the opposite side do not fall off - as if there is not an equally good reason for them wondering why we do not fall off."

[Pliny The Elder, Natural History, Book II]

All I can say on this - writing as I am from Down Under - I don't know how it works, it just does!