A Historical And Topographical Guide To The Geography Of Strabo

Strabo's Geography, completed in the early first century AD, is the primary source for the history of Greek geography. This Guide provides the first English analysis of and commentary on this long and difficult text, and serves as a companion to the author's The Geography of Strabo, the first English translation of the work in many years. It thoroughly analyzes each of the seventeen books and provides perhaps the most thorough bibliography as yet created for Strabo's work. Careful attention is paid to the historical and cultural data, the thousands of toponyms, and the many lost historical sources that are preserved only in the Geography. This volume guides readers through the challenges and complexities of the text, allowing an enhanced understanding of the numerous topics that Strabo covers, from the travels of Alexander and the history of the Mediterranean to science, religion, and cult.

The Geography of Strabo is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman Empire of Greek descent. In his 17 books, divided into three volumes, Strabo deals with ancient physical geography and chorography, by which he means political geography. The two are combined in this work, which makes a "circuit of the earth" detailing the physical and political features. Strabo's Geography contains a considerable amount of historical data, as he worked on his Geography and now missing History (his other work) at the same time.

This is the first thorough English commentary on the geographical books of Pliny the Elder, written in the AD 70s. Pliny's account is the longest in Latin, and represents the geographical knowledge of that era, when the Roman Empire was the dominant force in the Mediterranean world. The work serves both cultural and ideological functions: much of it is topographical, but it also demonstrates the political need to express a geographical basis for the importance of the Roman state. In five books, Pliny covers the entire world as it was known in his era and includes some of the first information on the extremities of the inhabited region, including Scandinavia and the Baltic, eastern Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The commentary provides a detailed analysis of all the points Pliny raises: his sources, toponyms, and understanding of the place of the earth in the cosmos.

This volume offers a detailed study of Ptolemy of Alexandria’s Geographical Guide, whose eight books contain a wealth of geographical information unavailable elsewhere and represent the culmination of the Greco-Roman discipline of geography. Written near the middle of the second century ad, the Geographical Guide is the most anomalous of the surviving works of ancient geographical scholarship but offers a vivid record of the expansion of geographical knowledge in antiquity. Roller examines this peculiar text, which offers unique data about explorations in the far reaches of the inhabited world, from Thoule and Hibernia in the northwest to Kattigara in the southeast, and from Serike in northeastern Asia southwest into central Africa. He positions the Guide within the tradition of ancient geography and gives close attention to the reason why Ptolemy wrote the guide and how it contributes to the genre of geographical scholarship. There is also an emphasis on the topographic and ethnic material within the Guide that is new or unique, especially explorations in sub-Saharan Africa and knowledge of the world beyond India. Because the Guide was written over half a century after the previous extant geographical work—the first books of Pliny’s Natural History—the book also assesses how knowledge of geography changed during this period. This work is an essential text for students and scholars of ancient geography, and is also of interest to anyone working on the cultural history of the Roman Empire during this period.

Strabo complete iin English n 2 volumes from the Loeb edition of Sterrett & Jones. 9 maps & 5 figs. Intro., biblio, notes.

This is the first thorough English commentary on the geographical books of Pliny the Elder, written in the AD 70s. Pliny's account is the longest in Latin, and represents the geographical knowledge of that era, when the Roman Empire was the dominant force in the Mediterranean world. The work serves both cultural and ideological functions: much of it is topographical, but it also demonstrates the political need to express a geographical basis for the importance of the Roman state. In five books, Pliny covers the entire world as it was known in his era and includes some of the first information on the extremities of the inhabited region, including Scandinavia and the Baltic, eastern Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The commentary provides a detailed analysis of all the points Pliny raises: his sources, toponyms, and understanding of the place of the earth in the cosmos.

"Written in the first century AD, Strabo's Geographica tells us just about everything one could know about the ancient world of his day. We find instructions on how to tame elephants, information on the production of asphalt, how saffron is collected, the treatment of the aged, the practice of yoga, the lineage of obscure eastern dynasties, religious festivals, prostitution, volcanic activity - to name but a few of the topics his great work expounds upon. From his home in what is now Turkey, Strabo travelled around the Mediterranean describing the locations he visited and those he passed through. Some of the information in his great work is derived from his own travels, but most of it is the product of his reading and research. So, it is not merely a travelogue or guidebook; but rather, an intellectual journey through ancient places and the literature of antiquity, which implicitly asks: "Who are we?" and, "Where do we come from?" His answer involves a detailed description of the first century world he thought his readers should know. In this new modern translation of the complete work, translator Sarah Pothecary renders Strabo's Geographica as an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how the world today came into being. The main obstacle for readers has always been how to approach what, at first sight, is a daunting work of 300,000 words. Even when translated from ancient Greek into English, Strabo's narrative has come across as sprawling and difficult to navigate. Ancient names for modern places used by Strabo sound naturally unfamiliar to contemporary readers, making it seem as if the world he describes is remote from our own, in terms of place as well as time. Pothecary's translation addresses these problems by orientating the reader within the twenty-first century world. As she progresses through the narrative, the reader will be able to locate where he is in the modern world, as well as in the ancient world. By doing so, this book mimics what Strabo was doing two thousand years ago - relating the rapidly changing "present" of his readers to their own "ancient" past. The questions of identity and origin that underlie his work are as relevant today as two thousand years ago. It is time, Pothecary argues, the modern world got to know Strabo better"--

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.