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
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 toThe 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
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.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 –
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
* ''References
External links
The text of Strabo online * * * Books 6–14. * * Books 6–14. Other links