The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in

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 ...

in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st century AD, and attributed to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, an educated citizen of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

of Greek descent. There is a fragmentary

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

dating to the fifth century. The earliest manuscripts of books 1–9 date to the tenth century, with a 13th-century manuscript containing the entire text.

Title of the work

Strabo refers to his ''Geography'' within it by several names: * geōgraphia, "description of the earth" * chōrographia, "description of the land" * periēgēsis, "an outline" * periodos gēs, "circuit of the earth" * periodeia tēs chōrās, "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 (''geōgraphei'') 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 Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...

and by ''chorography'',

political geography Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, ...

. 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 ''geōgraphika'' 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.

Ascribed 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 Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, where he is sure to have spent time in the famous library taking notes from his sources. Strabo did not date his work and determining this has been a matter of scholarly study since the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. The earliest attempts were in the 16th and 17th centuries (such as the 1549 Basel edition and the 1571 Heidelberg edition) however the first serious attempt was by Johannes Fabricus in 1717. 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 Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

's two sons. Cicero says:

The geographical work I had planned is a big undertaking...if I take Tyrannion's views too...

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 A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

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. Hw-augustus

Most of the events of the life of

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

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 to the summer 19 AD. The latest event mentioned is the death of

Juba Juba is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria, Central Equatoria State. It is the most recently declared national capital and had a populatio ...

at no later than 23 AD, when Strabo was in his 80s. 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. Dueck concludes that the ''Geography'' was written between AD 18–24.

Oldest extant manuscripts

"Today there are about thirty manuscripts in existence, with a fragmentary palimpsest of the fifth century the earliest (Vaticanus gr. 2306 + 2061 A). Two manuscripts in Paris provide the best extant text: Parisinus gr. 1397 of the tenth century for Books 1-9, and Parisinus gr. 1393 of the thirteenth century for the entire text. The end of Book 7 had been lost sometime in the latter Byzantine period. A

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translation commissioned by

Pope Nicholas V Pope Nicholas V (; ; 15 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV made him a Cardinal (Catholic Chu ...

appeared in 1469: this was the edition probably used by Columbus and other early Renaissance explorers. The first printed Greek edition was the Aldine of 1516, and the first text with commentary was produced by Isaac Casaubon in Geneva in 1587. The Teubner edition appeared in 1852-3 under the editorship of August Meineke." (Roller 51–52)

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 ....

Content

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 – Vicinity of the Sacred Cape

Chapter 2 – Bætica

Chapter 3
Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

Chapter 4 Chapter 5 - Islands of Iberia: Baleares, Cassiterides, Gades

Book IV – Gaul, Britain, Ireland, Thule, the Alps

Chapter 1 – Narbonitis

Chapter 2 –
Aquitania Gallia Aquitania (, ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France and the comarca of Val d'Aran in northeast Spain, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquit ...

Chapter 3 – Celtica

Chapter 4 – Northwest Gaul and the
Belgae The Belgae ( , ) were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth b ...

Chapter 5 –
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
,
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, and other islands

Chapter 6 – The Alps

Book V – Italy to Campania

Chapter 1 –
Northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

Chapter 2 – Tuscany and Umbria

Chapter 3 – The Sabine Hills and Latium

Chapter 4 – Picenum and Campania

Book VI – south Italy, Sicily

Chapter 1 – Southern Italy

Chapter 2 – Sicily

Chapter 3 – Greece

Chapter 4 – Italy summary

Book VII – north, east and central Europe

Chapter 1 – Germania

Chapter 2 – Germania

Chapter 3 – northern Black Sea region

Chapter 4 – Crimea

Chapter 5 – Illyria and Pannonia

Chapter 6 – Eastern Dacia and Thrace

Chapter 7 – Epirus

Book VIII – Greece

Book IX – More on Greece

Chapter 1 – Attica

Chapter 2 – Boeotia

Chapter 3 – Phocis

Chapter 4 – Locris

Chapter 5 – Thessaly

Book X – Yet more on Greece, Greek islands

Chapter 1 – Euboea

Chapter 2–3 – Aetolia and Acarnania

Chapter 4 – Crete

Chapter 5 – Archipelagos

Book XI – Russia east of the Don, the Transcaucasus, northwest Iran, Central Asia

Chapter 1 – East of the Don

Chapter 2 - Sarmatia

Chapter 3 – Iberia

Chapter 4 – Albania

Chapter 5 – The Caucasus

Chapter 6 - The Caspian

Chapter 7 - East of the Caspian

Chapter 8 - Geography of the Caspian and Iran

Chapter 9 – Parthia

Chapter 10 – Aria and Margiana

Chapter 11 – Bactria

Chapter 12 - The Taurus Mountains

Chapter 13 - Media

Chapter 14 - Armenia

Book XII – Anatolia

Chapter 1–2 – Cappadocia

Chapter 3 – Pontus

Chapter 4 –
Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

Chapter 5–7 – Galatia, Lycaonia and Pisidia

Chapter 8 – Phrygia

Book XIII – northern Aegean

Chapter 1 –
Troad The Troad ( or ; , ''Troáda'') or Troas (; , ''Trōiás'' or , ''Trōïás'') is a historical region in northwestern Anatolia. It corresponds with the Biga Peninsula ( Turkish: ''Biga Yarımadası'') in the Çanakkale Province of modern Tur ...

Book XIV – eastern Aegean

Chapter 2 – Asia Minor

Book XV – Persia, Ariana, the Indian subcontinent

Book XVI – Middle East

Summary

Chapter 1 – Assyria

Chapter 2 – Syria

Chapter 3 – Persian Gulf

Chapter 4 – Arabia

Book XVII – North Africa

Chapter 1 – Nile, Egypt, Cyrenaica

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Editorial history

Some thirty manuscripts of ''Geographica'' 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 100–300 AD. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote. A definitive one (by translator Stefan Radt) has been in publication since 2002, appearing at a rate of about a volume a year.

Editions and translations

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.

German

* Radt, Stefan (translator; critical apparatus) (2002–2011). ''Strabons Geographika''. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Books I–XVII in ten volumes.

References

External links

The text of Strabo online

* * * Books 6–14. * * Books 6–14. * Complete series at the

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