Geographica
Strabo defines geography through the sea more than anything else, explaining how water forms gulfs, deep seas, straits, isthmuses, peninsulas, and promontories that give land its shape. Rivers and mountains assist these natural features in creating continents, nations, and favorable city positions for the geographical map. By combining physical geography with political geography, Strabo creates what he calls a circuit of the earth detailing both natural and human-made features. He refers to his work by several names including geographia meaning description of the earth, chōrographia describing the land, periēgēsis as an outline, periodos gēs as circuit of the earth, and periodeia tēs chōrās as circuit of the land. His encyclopedia requires encyclopedic knowledge of celestial, terrestrial, and maritime features alongside natural history and mathematics. Strabo states that knowledge of geometry is required to understand geography properly. The inhabited world is described as an island shaped like a truncated cone, measuring 70,000 stadia long by 30,000 stadia wide within a spherical quadrilateral formed between equator, arctic circle, and great circles passing through poles. He personally traveled from Armenia to Tyrrhenia and from the Euxine Sea to Ethiopia's frontiers, though most other geographers receive information mostly by hearsay.
Some thirty manuscripts of Geographica or parts of it have survived, almost all medieval recensions despite there being a fifth century palimpsest in three parts and fragmentary papyri dating to second and third centuries. Attempts at critical editions during the 1840s-50s by Kramer, Meineke, Müller, and Dübner did not benefit from manuscript discoveries which only occurred after their publications. The critical text primarily relies on five prototype manuscripts including Parisinus gr. 1397 from the tenth century covering Books 1-9 and Parisinus gr. 1393 from the thirteenth century containing the entire text. A rare fifth century bi-rescriptus palimpsest now split into three manuscripts contains portions of Books 12-17 written in Greek ogival majuscule across three columns. This Vaticanus manuscript was originally composed of 44 square leaves similar to Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, possibly written in Caesarea and held in Berytus Law school before being erased and rewritten multiple times through the eighth and tenth centuries. Today about thirty manuscripts exist with the earliest being the fragmentary fifth century palimpsest Vaticanus gr. 2306 plus 2061 A. Two manuscripts in Paris provide the best extant text for different sections of the work. The end of Book 7 had been lost sometime during the latter Byzantine period.
Book I establishes definitions and history while Book II covers mathematics including distances between parallels and meridians according to various geographers like Hipparchus, Eratosthenes, Pytheas, Deimachus, and Patrocles. Book III details Iberia describing it as poor, inhospitable, and mountainous measuring 6000 stadia north-south and 5000 east-west with the Purēnē oros aligned north-south separating it from Keltikē. Bætica region around the Bætis river exports wheat, wine, oil, and contains subsoil full of gold, silver, copper, and iron extracted through specific methods. Book IV examines Gaul covering Narbonitis, Aquitania, Celtica, northwest regions, Great Britain, Ireland, Thule, and the Alps with detailed descriptions of cities like Massalia, Lugdunum, and Durocortorum. Books V and VI cover Italy from northern regions through Campania, Sicily, and Greece with extensive ethnographic information about Italian peoples including Tyrrhenians, Caeretanians, and Pelasgians. Books VII through IX examine Germania, northern Black Sea regions, Crimea, Illyria, Pannonia, Dacia, Thrace, Epirus, and comprehensive Greek geography including Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, Locris, Thessaly, Euboea, Aetolia, Acarnania, Crete, and various archipelagos.
A Latin translation commissioned by Pope Nicholas V appeared around 1469 with another one following in 1472, these probably used by Columbus and other early Renaissance explorers during their voyages. The first printed Greek edition was the Aldine of 1516 while the first text with commentary was produced by Isaac Casaubon in Geneva in 1587 whose 840 page numbers prefixed by C are now standard text references. The Teubner edition appeared in 1852-3 under August Meineke's editorship followed by fully critical editions completed only in 2011 by Stefan Radt. An English translation contains Books 1-17 with Greek on left pages and English on right, where Sterrett translated Books I and II before dying in 1915 and Jones changed his style from free to more literal completing the work. Modern scholarship continues examining Strabo's methods through works like Duane W Roller's Geography of Strabo published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. Sarah Pothecary hosts comprehensive bibliographies at Strabo.ca as the most recent translator into English. The text remains available online through various digital archives including complete series at Internet Archive covering books 6-14 repeatedly for scholarly access.
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Common questions
When was Strabo's Geographica written and what are the key dates?
Strabo wrote his Geography between AD 18 and 24, with some scholars arguing it may have been composed entirely after age 80. The latest event recorded is the death of Juba no later than 23 AD when Strabo was in his 80s.
What did Strabo study under Tyrannion during his visit to Rome in 44 BC?
Strabo studied under Tyrannion, a captive educated Greek who served as a private tutor to Cicero's two sons. This early exposure to Roman intellectual circles shaped his lifelong perspective on geography and history.
How many manuscripts of Strabo's Geographica survive today and which are the most important?
About thirty manuscripts exist with the earliest being the fragmentary fifth century palimpsest Vaticanus gr. 2306 plus 2061 A. Two manuscripts in Paris provide the best extant text for different sections of the work including Parisinus gr. 1397 from the tenth century covering Books 1-9 and Parisinus gr. 1393 from the thirteenth century containing the entire text.
What regions does Book IV of Strabo's Geographica cover regarding Gaul and Britain?
Book IV examines Gaul covering Narbonitis, Aquitania, Celtica, northwest regions, Great Britain, Ireland, Thule, and the Alps with detailed descriptions of cities like Massalia, Lugdunum, and Durocortorum.
When was the first printed Greek edition of Strabo's Geographica published by Aldine?
The first printed Greek edition was the Aldine of 1516 while the first text with commentary was produced by Isaac Casaubon in Geneva in 1587 whose 840 page numbers prefixed by C are now standard text references.