Strabo

The Greek geographer Strabo in a 16th century engraving.

"Strabo" ("squinter") was a term given by the Romans to anyone whose eyes were distorted or crooked. The fathers of Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were called "Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo" and "Pompeius Strabo" respectively. One native of Sicily, so clear sighted that he could see things at great distance as if they were nearby, was also called "Strabo." Other people named Strabo were Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus (of the Julii Caesares), Walahfrid Strabo and Theodoric Strabo.

The most significant figure by this name was one Strabo, Greek Στράβων (63 BC/64 BC - c. 24 AD), a historian, geographer and philosopher. Today, Strabo is mostly remembered for his 17-volume work Geographica, which literally means "Geography". It presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the known world for his era.

Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia, which is in modern Amasya, Turkey, within Pontus; around which time it had recently become part of the Roman Empire. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome. He was philosophically a Stoic and politically a proponent of Roman imperialism. Later he made extensive travels to Egypt and Ethiopia, among others. It is not known when his Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts at around 7 AD, others around 18 AD. Mention is given to the death in 23 AD of Juba, king of Maurousia.

Strabo's History is nearly completely lost. Although Strabo quotes it himself, and other classical authors mention that it existed, the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46).

Several different dates have been proposed for Strabo's death, but most of them place it shortly after 23 AD.

Contents

1 The ''Geography''
2 External links

2.1 The text of Strabo online
2.2 Secondary material

The Geography

The Geography is an extensive work in Greek, spanning 17 volumes, and can be regarded as an encyclopedia of the geographical knowledge of Strabo's time. Except for parts of Book 7, it has come down to us complete. Yet, while it does cover the entire world known to the Greeks and Romans of his time, it suffers from several major flaws: a constant and very intrusive defense of the poet Homer as a geographical source, leading Strabo to dismiss more recent writers, such as Herodotus, who were often eyewitnesses to what they reported; a preoccupation with minute, often captiously argumentative, criticism of these other writers; a peculiarly Greek aprioristic attitude to facts, seeking to derive them from the pure exercise of reason. In sum, one would prefer more geography and less argumentation. These byways, however, do provide modern scholars with valuable historical information on the methods of ancient geography and on many older geographers whose works are lost.

Some thirty manuscripts of Geography, or parts of it, have survived. Almost all of these are medieval copies, though there are fragments from papyri which were probably copied some time between 100 - 300 AD. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote. One definitive edition has been in publication since 2002, appearing at the rate of about a volume a year.

External links

The text of Strabo online

[Books 1‑7, 15‑17] in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones (1924), at LacusCurtius
[Books 6‑14] in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones (1924), Perseus Digital Library

Secondary material

[Sarah Pothecary, "Editions of Strabo's Geographia"]; see also this author's ["Getting started with Strabo"]

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