Laudator Temporis Acti

Oliver Rackham, "Landscape," in Graham Speake, ed., Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, Vol. 2 (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000), pp. 919-920 (at 919):

The best description of what the ancient Greek landscape looked like is the vision of the 12 mountains of Arcadia in the early Christian prophecy of Hermas, an Arcadian shepherd.

Shepherd of Hermas 78.4-10 (tr. Michael W. Holmes):

4 And he led me away to Arcadia, to a certain rounded mountain, and seated me οn top of the mountain, and showed me a great plain, and around the plain twelve mountains, and each mountain had a different appearance. 5 The first was black as soot, and the second was bare, without any vegetation, and the third was full of thorns and briars. 6 The fourth had half-withered vegetation; the tops of the plants were green, but the part by the roots was dry. And some of the plants were withering when the sun scorched them. 7 The fifth mountain had green grass and was very rugged, and the sixth mountain was all full of ravines, some small and some large, and the raνines had vegetation, but the vegetation was not very flourishing, but looked rather withered. 8 The seventh mountain had blooming vegetation, and the whole mountain was thriving, and cattle and birds of every kind were feeding οn the mountain; and the more the cattle and the birds ate, the more and more the vegetation of that mountain flourished. The eighth mountain was full of springs, and every species of the Lord's creation drank from the springs οη that mountain. 9 The ninth mountain had nο water at all, and was completely desolate; it had wild beasts and deadly reptiles that destroyed people. The tenth mountain had very large trees and was completely shaded, and beneath the shade sheep lay resting and chewing their cud. 10 The eleventh mountain was thickly wooded all over, and these trees were very productive, each adorned with various kinds of fruit, so that anyone who saw them wanted to eat of their fruit. And the twelfth mountain was completely white, and its appearance was very bright, and the mountain in and of itself was extraordinarily beautiful.