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Geographica (Strabo)
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The Geographica (Ancient Greek: Ge???af???, Geographikα), or Geography, is a 17-volume encyclopedia of geographical knowledge written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman empire of Greek and Georgian descent. Work can have begun on it no earlier than 20 BC. A first edition was published in 7 BC followed by a gap, resumption of work and a final edition no later than 23 AD in the last year of Strabo's life.
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Encyclopedia
The Geographica (Ancient Greek: Ge???af???, Geographikα), or Geography, is a 17-volume encyclopedia of geographical knowledge written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman empire of Greek and Georgian descent. Work can have begun on it no earlier than 20 BC. A first edition was published in 7 BC followed by a gap, resumption of work and a final edition no later than 23 AD in the last year of Strabo's life. Strabo probably worked on his Geography and now missing History concurrently, as the Geography contains a considerable amount of historical data. Except for parts of Book 7, it has come down to us complete.
Name
Strabo refers to his Geography within it by several names:
- geographia, "description of the earth"
- chorographia, "description of the land"
- periegesis, "an outline"
- periodos ges, "circuit of the earth"
- periodeia tes choras, "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 (geographei) 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 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 geographika 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.
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 to Rome and Alexandria, 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's two sons. Says Sterrett:Tyrannion was also a distinguished geographer, and he may have guided Strabo into the paths of geographical study.
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 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 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 and Norici had been at peace since they were "stopped ... from their riotous incursions ...." by Drusus 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 80's. 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.
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 ....
Subject matter
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
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Book IV Gaul, Britain, Alps
Book V Italy to Campania
Book VI south Italy, Sicily
Book VII north, east and central Europe
Chapter 1 Germany
Chapter 2 Germany
Chapter 3 northern Black Sea region
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Book VIII Macedon and Greece
Book IX
Book X
Book XI
Book XII anatolia
Book XIII northern Aegean
Book XIV eastern Aegean
Book XV central Asia and its subcontinent
Book XVI middle east
Book XVII north Africa
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Publications
Some thirty manuscripts of Geographika 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 ca AD 100-300. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote. A definitive one has been in publication since 2002, appearing at a rate of about a volume a year.
Bibliography
Editions
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. .
See also
External links
The text of Strabo online
English text.
English text.
English text.
The Greek and Greek transliterated texts.
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