George of Cyprus (; Latinized as ''Georgius Cyprius'') was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

geographer of the early seventh century. Nothing is known of his life save that he was a

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the F ...

born at

Lapithos Lapithos or Lapethos (; ) is a town in Cyprus. ''De facto'', it is under the control of Northern Cyprus. Archeologists claim that Lapithos was founded by the Achean brothers Praxandros and Cepheus. According to Strabo, the ancient settlement o ...

in the island of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. He is known for his ''Descriptio orbis Romani'' ("Description of the Roman world"), written in the decade 600–610. It is written in

, and lists cities, towns, fortresses and administrative divisions of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

. The list begins with Italy and moves counterclockwise along the Mediterranean, from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and Oriens. The surviving list is evidently incomplete, as the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

are excluded. The ''Descriptio'' only survived in a compilation, probably from the 9th century, along with other lists such as ecclesiastical ''notitiae''. It is possible that the compiler, usually thought to be the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Basil of Ialimbana, altered George's text.Kazhdan (1991), pp. 837–838

Publications

* '' Georgii Cyprii Descriptio Orbis Romani'' (Lipsiae, 1890), editor

Heinrich Gelzer Heinrich Gelzer (1 July 1847 – 11 July 1906) was a German classical scholar. He wrote also on Armenian mythology. He was the son of the Swiss historian Johann Heinrich Gelzer (1813–1889). He became Professor of classical philology and an ...

Notes

References

* 7th-century Cypriot people Byzantine geographers 7th-century Byzantine writers 7th-century Byzantine scientists 7th-century geographers {{Cyprus-bio-stub

Publications

See also

Notes

References