Indeed their were many great thinkers during the Hellenistic Era ie. Archimedes of Syracuse and earlier on Euclid.

I never heard of that story before would you happen to have a source for it so I can look it up? :) The thing is that he should've known the difference between the two given the fact that it doesn't make sense logically. I mean they knew about the "Pillars of Hercules" in the West and the "Tin Isles" in the Northwest.

Hmm, you'd think a trade setup like that already existed like you said. I guess that maybe they were busy putting down all the revolts in their empire lol. Then again the setup of their empire was to effectively have each satrap governed as its own little kingdom who basically independent as long as they paid taxes and levied troops needed by the Empire when called upon. If anyone knows about cases of the individual satraps doing this I'd really like to hear about it. :)

Sorry it's early right now. :3