Strabo
Strabo was a historian,
geographer and
philosopher. He is mostly famous for his 17-volume work
Geographica, which 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.
Quotations
And Macedonia, of course, is a part of Greece.
Strab. VII, Frg. 9 (Loeb, H.L. Jones)
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Encyclopedia
Strabo was a historian,
geographer and
philosopher. He is mostly famous for his 17-volume work
Geographica, which 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
Kush, 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 AD 7, others around 18. Mention is given to the death in 23 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 .
Several different dates have been proposed for Strabo's death, but most of them place it shortly after 23.
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. 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
- in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones , at LacusCurtius
- in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones , Perseus Digital Library
Secondary material
