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The ''Geographica'' (
Strabo refers to his ''Geography'' within it by several names:
* geōgraphia, "description of the earth"
* chōrographia, "description of the land"
* periēgēsis, "an outline"
* periodos gēs, "circuit of the earth"
* periodeia tēs chōrās, "circuit of the land"
Apart from the "outline", two words recur, "earth" and "country." Something of a theorist, Strabo explains what he means by Geography and Chorography:
Most of the events of the life of
A
World map as described by Strabo in Gegraphica
!--Secondary material * * * --> {{Authority control 1st-century books Ancient Greek geographical works Roman-era Greek historiography Greco-Roman ethnography Greek encyclopedias Encyclopedias in classical antiquity
The ''Geographica'' (Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek and attributed to Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...
, an educated citizen of the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
of Greek descent. There is a fragmentary palimpsest dating to the fifth century. The earliest manuscripts of books 1–9 date to the tenth century, with a 13th-century manuscript containing the entire text.
Title of the work
Strabo refers to his ''Geography'' within it by several names:
* geōgraphia, "description of the earth"
* chōrographia, "description of the land"
* periēgēsis, "an outline"
* periodos gēs, "circuit of the earth"
* periodeia tēs chōrās, "circuit of the land"
Apart from the "outline", two words recur, "earth" and "country." Something of a theorist, Strabo explains what he means by Geography and Chorography:It is the sea more than anything else that defines the contours of the land (''geōgraphei'') and gives it its shape, by forming gulfs, deep seas, straits and likewise isthmuses, peninsulas, and promontories; but both the rivers and the mountains assist the seas herein. It is through such natural features that we gain a clear conception of continents, nations, favourable positions of cities and all the other diversified details with which our geographical map (''chorographikos pinax'') is filled.From this description it is clear that by ''geography'' Strabo means ancient
physical geography
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere ...
and by ''chorography'', political geography. The two are combined in this work, which makes a "circuit of the earth" detailing the physical and political features. Strabo often uses the adjective ''geōgraphika'' with reference to the works of others and to geography in general, but not of his own work. In the Middle Ages it became the standard name used of his work.
Ascribed date
The date of ''Geographica'' is a large topic, perhaps because Strabo worked on it along with his ''History'' for most of his adult life. He traveled extensively, undoubtedly gathering notes, and made extended visits toRome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, where he is sure to have spent time in the famous library taking notes from his sources.
Strabo visited Rome in 44 BC at age 19 or 20 apparently for purposes of education. He studied under various persons, including Tyrannion, a captive educated Greek and private tutor, who instructed Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
's two sons. Cicero says:The geographical work I had planned is a big undertaking...if I take Tyrannion's views too...If one presumes that Strabo acquired the motivation for writing geography during his education, the latter must have been complete by the time of his next visit to Rome in 35 BC at 29 years old. He may have been gathering notes but the earliest indication that he must have been preparing them is his extended visit to Alexandria 25–20 BC. In 20 he was 44 years old. His "numerous excerpts" from "the works of his predecessors" are most likely to have been noted at the
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
there. Whether these hypothetical notes first found their way into his ''history'' and then into his ''geography'' or were simply ported along as notes remains unknown.
Most of the events of the life of Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
mentioned by Strabo occurred 31–7 BC with a gap 6 BC – 14 AD, which can be interpreted as an interval after first publication in 7 BC. Then in 19 AD a specific reference dates a passage: he said that the Carni
The Carni ( Greek: Καρνίοι) were a tribe of the Eastern Alps in classical antiquity of Celtic language and culture, settling in the mountains separating Noricum and Venetia (roughly corresponding to the more modern Slovenia and Carinthia) ...
and Norici had been at peace since they were "stopped ... from their riotous incursions ...." by Drusus
Drusus may refer to:
* Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Drusus) (10 BC–AD 54), Roman emperor from 41 to 54
* Drusus Caesar (AD 8–33), adoptive grandson of Roman emperor Tiberius
* Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC–AD 23), son of Roman emperor Tiberius
...
33 years ago, which was 15 BC, dating the passage 19 AD. The latest event mentioned is the death of Juba at no later than 23 AD, when Strabo was in his 80s. These events can be interpreted as a second edition unless he saved all his notes and wrote the book entirely after the age of 80.
Oldest extant manuscripts
"Today there are about thirty manuscripts in existence, with a fragmentary palimpsest of the fifth century the earliest (Vaticanus gr. 2306 + 2061 A). Two manuscripts in Paris provide the best extant text: Parisinus gr. 1397 of the tenth century for Books 1-9, and Parisinus gr. 1393 of the thirteenth century for the entire text. The end of Book 7 had been lost sometime in the latter Byzantine period.A
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
translation commissioned by Pope Nicholas V appeared in 1469: this was the edition probably used by Columbus and other early Renaissance explorers. The first printed Greek edition was the Aldine of 1516, and the first text with commentary was produced by Isaac Casaubon in Geneva in 1587. The Teubner edition appeared in 1852-3 under the editorship of August Meineke." (Roller 51–52)
Composition
Strabo is his own best expounder of his principles of composition:In short, this book of mine should be ... useful alike to the statesman and to the public at large – as was my work on ''History''. ... And so, after I had written my ''Historical Sketches'' ... I determined to write the present treatise also; for this work is based on the same plan, and is addressed to the same class of readers, and particularly to men of exalted stations in life. ... in this work also I must leave untouched what is petty and inconspicuous, and devote my attention to what is noble and great, and to what contains the practically useful, or memorable, or entertaining. ... For it, too, is a colossal work, in that it deals with the facts about large things only, and wholes ....
Content
An outline of the encyclopedia follows, with links to the appropriate Wikipedia article.Book I – definition and history of geography
Pages C1 through C67, Loeb Volume I pages 3–249.Chapter 1 – description of geography and this encyclopedia
Chapter 2 – contributors to geography
Chapter 3 – physical geography
Chapter 4 – political geography
Book II – mathematics of geography
Pages C67 through C136, Loeb Volume I pages 252–521.Chapter 1 – distances between parallels and meridians
Chapter 2 – the five zones
Chapter 3 – distribution of plants, animals, civilizations
Chapter 4 – criticisms of Polybius' and Eratosthenes' maps
Chapter 5 – Strabo's view of the ecumene
Book III – Iberian peninsula
Chapter 1 – Vicinity of the Sacred Cape
Chapter 2 – Bætica
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Book IV – Gaul, Britain, Ireland, Thule, the Alps
Book V – Italy to Campania
Book VI – south Italy, Sicily
Book VII – north, east and central Europe
Chapter 1 – Germania
Chapter 2 – Germania
Chapter 3 – northern Black Sea region
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Book VIII – Greece
Book IX – More on Greece
Chapter 1 – Attica
Chapter 2 – Boeotia
Chapter 3 – Phocis
Chapter 4 – Locris
Chapter 5 – Thessaly
Book X – Yet more on Greece, Greek islands
Chapter 1 – Euboea
Chapter 2–3 – Aetolia and Acarnania
Chapter 4 – Crete
Chapter 5 – Archipelagos
Book XI – Russia east of the Don, the Transcaucasus, northwest Iran, Central Asia
Chapter 1 – East of the Don
Chapter 2 - Sarmatia
Chapter 3 – Iberia
Chapter 4 – Albania
Chapter 5 – The Caucasus
Chapter 6 - The Caspian
Chapter 7 - East of the Caspian
Chapter 8 - Geography of the Caspian and Iran
Chapter 9 – Parthia
Chapter 10 – Aria and Margiana
Chapter 11 – Bactria
Chapter 12 - The Taurus Mountains
Chapter 13 - Media
Chapter 14 - Armenia
Book XII – Anatolia
Chapter 1–2 – Cappadocia
Chapter 3 – Pontus
Chapter 4 –
Bithynia
Bithynia (; Koine Greek: , ''Bithynía'') was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwe ...
Chapter 5–7 – Galatia, Lycaonia and Pisidia
Chapter 8 – Phrygia
Book XIII – northern Aegean
Chapter 1 – Troad
Book XIV – eastern Aegean
Chapter 2 – Asia Minor
Book XV – Persia, Ariana, the Indian subcontinent
Book XVI – Middle East
Book XVII – North Africa
Chapter 1 – Nile, Egypt, Cyrenaica
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Editorial history
Some thirty manuscripts of ''Geographica'' or parts of it have survived, almost all of them medieval copies of copies, though there are fragments from papyrus rolls which were probably copied out c. 100–300 AD. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote. A definitive one (by translator Stefan Radt) has been in publication since 2002, appearing at a rate of about a volume a year.Editions and translations
Ancient Greek
*Kramer, Gustav, ed., ''Strabonis Geographica'', 3 vols, containing Books 1–17. Berlin: Friedericus Nicolaus, 1844–52.Ancient Greek and English
* Contains Books 1–17, Greek on the left page, English on the right. Sterrett translated Books I and II and wrote the introduction before dying in 1915. Jones changed Sterrett's style from free to more literal and finished the translation. The ''Introduction'' contains a major bibliography on all aspects of Strabo and a definitive presentation of the manuscripts and editions up until 1917.French
* Books I – VI only. * Books VII – XII only.German
* Radt, Stefan (translator; critical apparatus) (2002–2011). ''Strabons Geographika''. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Books I–XVII in ten volumes.See also
* ''Bibliotheca historica
''Bibliotheca historica'' ( grc, Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, ) is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, ...
''
* Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which ...
* Codex Vaticanus 2061
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 2061, usually known as Uncial 048 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α1 ( Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript on parchment. It contains some parts of the New Testament, homilies of several authors, and Strabo's '' Ge ...
References
External links
The text of Strabo online * * * Books 6–14. * * Books 6–14. Other linksWorld map as described by Strabo in Gegraphica
!--Secondary material * * * --> {{Authority control 1st-century books Ancient Greek geographical works Roman-era Greek historiography Greco-Roman ethnography Greek encyclopedias Encyclopedias in classical antiquity