Tracking the error in estimating Earth's size:

Eratothenes (276 BC - 194 BC)
Panaetius (195 BC - 109 BC)
Posidonius (135 BC - 51 BC)
Cleomedes (1st century AD)
Theon of Smyrna (70 AD - 135 AD)
Ptolemy (85 AD - 165 AD)
Tycho Brahe (1546 AD - 1601 AD)

Panaetius of Rhodes studied the philosophies of Plato and of Aristotle in Athens. For many years he lived in Rome, then he spent the last 20 years of his life in Athens as head of the school in Athens. Posidonius was educated in Stoic philosophy by Paneitius. Cleomedes was also educated as a Stoic, and wrote an astronomy textbook, with half of it copied bodily from Posidonius' work. Theon of Smyrna referenced the work of Eratosthenes heavily when writing his own book, but apparently lacked a deep understanding of the subject. Ptolemy was educated in astronomy by Theon of Smyrna. Afterward Ptolemy copied the work of Posidonius and Cleomedes, and propounded the geocentric theory (Aristotle) that prevailed for another 1400 years after. The geocentric theory was superceded by the heliocentric theory presented by Copernicus in 1543 AD. In fact, Tycho Brahe was the first person in history to accuse Ptolemy of plagiarism, of not producing original work, and producing erroneous work. Sir Isaac Newton followed, accusing Ptolemy of forgery, and crime against science and fellow scholars. He referred to Ptolemy's work as a fraud.

It is clear that the most popular scientific work when the New Testament was written was not just largely plagiarized, but was a fraud. It makes me wonder about some of the theories I read about regularly about Dark Energy and such. They sound unbelievable too. I find myself trusting my own derivations, indicating that as galaxies increase in virtual surface area, radation pressure from other galaxies will cause a constant acceleration away from each other.