Strabo

Greek geographer and historian (c. 63 bc–ad 23)

Strabo, who was born at Amaseia (now Amasya in Turkey), traveled to Rome in 44 BC and remained there until about 31 BC. He visited Corinth in 29 BC and in about 24 BC sailed up the Nile.

Although the historical writings of Strabo, including his Historical Sketches, in 47 books, have been almost entirely lost, his Geography, in 17 books, has survived virtually intact. This major geographical work is an important source of information on the ancient world. In it Strabo accepted the traditional description of the Earth as divided into five zones with the oikoumene, or inhabited part, represented as a parallelogram spread over eight lines of latitude and seven meridians of longitude. Where he excelled, however, was in the field of historical and cultural geography and he gave a detailed account of the history and culture of the lands and people of the Roman Empire and of such areas as India, which lay beyond the dominion of Augustus. In this he quoted much from the earlier Greeks, including Eratosthenes, and Artemidorus.

Strabo, not content merely to describe the lands of the civilized world, also wished to understand its enormous diversity. He rejected the simple climatic determinism that he attributed to the Stoic Poseidonius, arguing in its place for the role of institutions and education. Despite the value of this work Strabo seemed to exercise little influence until Byzantine times.

Strabo (ca. 64 B.C.-ca. A.D. 23) was a Greek geographer and historian who saw the final collapse of the Roman Republic and the creation by Augustus of the Roman Empire. He wrote large-scale works in his fields.

Strabo was born in the Greek city of Amisea in the district of Pontus, probably in the winter of 64/63 B.C. He came from a wealthy and distinguished family and had an excellent education, first in Asia Minor and later in Rome, which he first visited sometime before the death of Julius Caesar in 44. He returned to Asia Minor but in 29 went back to Rome. There he met several prominent men, including Aelius Gallus, who obtained for him a grant of Roman citizenship. When Gallus went to Egypt as governor in 28 or 27, Strabo accompanied him, toured the province with him, and probably took part in Gallus's unsuccessful expedition into Arabia. Strabo stayed in Egypt for a time after Gallus's recall, but eventually he returned to Rome, where he lived for many years, devoting himself to studying and writing. He may have spent his last years in his native city and died probably in A.D. 23 or 24.

Historical and Geographical Works

Strabo's history, now lost, had the modest title of Historical Notes but was in fact a large-scale history in 43 books. It was essentially a continuation of the great work of the Greek historian Polybios and covered the history of the Greco-Roman world from 144 to 30 B.C.

Strabo's Geography, also a substantial work, was in 17 books. It has survived complete, except for the end of book 7, and was finished sometime between A.D. 17 and 23, though some sections were clearly written much earlier. In the first two books, Strabo examines the theoretical basis of his subject and discusses the views of his predecessors, especially Eratosthenes. The rest of the work contains a detailed descriptive geography of the world as known in his time, starting with Spain and continuing through the other European lands to Greece, Asia Minor, and further Asia (that is, India, Persia, and Syria) and concluding with Egypt and North Africa. In each country he discusses not only the main physical features but also its products and the character and history of its inhabitants. To some extent he depended on his own observations, but for the most part he drew his material from the works of earlier writers. He usually showed good sense in choosing his sources, though sometimes the information he derived was outdated. In general the Geography is a very valuable compilation of facts and gives an interesting picture of the world as it was known to educated men in the Augustan Age. But it was not merely a collection of data; Strabo wrote fine Greek prose and used considerable artistry in the organization of his material, making his opus the best of its kind to be handed down from antiquity.

Further Reading

The only complete modern translation of Strabo, with an introduction on his life and works, is The Geography of Strabo by Horace L. Jones (8 vols., 1917-1933). Numerous extracts in translation are in Eric H. Warmington, Greek Geography (1934). Henry F. Tozer, History of Ancient Geography (1897; 2d ed. 1964), still the standard work on the science of geography in Greco-Roman times, contains a good brief account of Strabo and his geographical work.

For a good account of the growth of geographical knowledge see Max Cary and Eric H. Warmington, The Ancient Explorers (1929). Max Cary, Geographic Background of Greek and Roman History (1949), a survey of Mediterranean geography with special reference to classical times, contains excellent sections on Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy. An interesting discussion of Strabo and other Greek writers in the context of Roman society in the Augustan Age is in Glen W. Bowersock, Augustus and the Greek World (1964). The best account of the Roman world during Strabo's lifetime is in Howard H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero (1959; 2d ed. 1963).

For more information on Strabo, visit Britannica.com.

Strābo (Strabōn, 64 BC–after AD 24), Greek geographer from Amasia in Pontus, a member of a distinguished local family. He came to Rome in 44 BC to complete his education and subsequently visited the city several times. He travelled ‘from Armenia to Etruria, from the Black Sea to the borders of Ethiopia’, returning to his home in about 7 BC where he remained until his death. At some time he became a Stoic; he also developed a profound admiration for the Romans: like Posidonius, he regarded them as the creators of an earthly world-state comparable with the heavenly one.

He was the author of Historical Sketches in forty-seven books, now lost, which comprised an outline of historical events up to the opening of Polybius' history, followed by a complete history from 146 BC (where Polybius ended) up to at least the death of Julius Caesar. His surviving great work, the Geography in seventeen books, seems to have been completed by 7 BC. It has been suggested that it was originally published at Amasia, where it was perhaps revised and republished in about AD 18, in order to account for the surprising fact that it was not known to the Romans, not even to the Elder Pliny, although it seems to have been known in the East. Strabo insists that his geography is intended for political leaders and its aim is to impart practical wisdom; but it remains unclear whether it was intended for Romans or for the Greeks of his native Pontus. He describes the physical geography of the chief countries in the Roman world, giving the broad features of their historical and economic development and an account of anything remarkable in the customs of their inhabitants or in their animal and plant life. The first two books serve as a general introduction; after a remarkable preface in which he discusses geography as a branch of scientific inquiry, Strabo deals with the dimensions of the inhabited world and the position of various places with reference to a simple grid. Books 3–17 embrace Spain, the Isles of Scilly, Gaul, Britain (of which he knows little), Italy, Sicily, north and east Europe (he knows nothing of northernmost Europe and Asia), central Europe, north Balkans, Greece, Asia around the Black and Caspian Seas, Asia Minor, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and North Africa (Strabo takes Africa to be a triangle north of the equator).

Strabo based his geography on Eratosthenēs, whom he brought up to date. He regarded the world as a sphere, having one land mass, in the northern hemisphere, entirely surrounded by ocean. His whole work is invaluable in informing us about the state of geographical knowledge in his day, as well as containing incidentally many entertaining descriptions: how the Indians capture elephants and long-tailed apes, how the Arabians get fresh water out of the sea, how the Egyptians feed their sacred crocodiles; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the whales of the Persian Gulf, the aromatics of the Sabaeans. The work, in an epitomized form, was used as a school-book in the Middle Ages.

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Greek geographer and historian born about 64 bc whose extensive Geography includes descriptions of the Mediterranean world from Spain to Egypt and Asia Minor, together with accounts of barbarian Europe including Gaul and Britain. He died about ad 21.

Greek geographer who flourished in Augustan Rome (c.58 BC-c. AD 24) whose seventeen-book Geographia provides much widely cited, descriptive information about early Celtic society. The standard modern translation is by H. L. Jones (8 vols.) in the Loeb Classical Library (New York, 1917–33). See also CLASSICAL COMMENTATORS.

Strabo (strā'bō) , b. c.63 B.C., d. after A.D. 21, Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher, b. Amasya, Pontus. He studied in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and Alexandria and traveled in Europe, N Africa, and W Asia. Primarily a historian, he wrote a group of historical sketches (47 books) quoted by later authors but almost entirely lost. His Geographia, written subsequently, is based on his own observations and on the works of his predecessors, including Homer, Eratosthenes, Polybius, and Posidonius; it contains historical material as well as descriptions of places and peoples and is a rich source of ancient knowledge of the world. Its value is uneven, in great part because Strabo attributed to Homer an accurate knowledge of places and peoples mentioned in his epics and because he virtually disregarded Herodotus' information, which was often firsthand. The Geographia (extant except for part of the 7th book) is divided into 17 books: 2 introductory (largely a discussion of the definition and scope of geography), 8 on Europe, 6 on Asia, and one on Africa, mainly Egypt. Although a Latin translation appeared in 1472, the first printed edition in the original Greek was the Aldine (1516). There are numerous modern editions and translations.

Bibliography

See the Loeb Classical Library edition, The Geography of Strabo (ed. by H. L. Jones, 8 vol., 1917–32), with an introduction on his life and works.

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