1st Edition

The Routledge Companion to Strabo

Edited By Daniela Dueck Copyright 2017
    422 Pages
    by Routledge

    422 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Routledge Companion to Strabo explores the works of Strabo of Amasia (c. 64 BCE – c. CE 24), a Greek author writing at the prime of Roman expansion and political empowerment. While his earlier historiographical composition is almost entirely lost, his major opus of the Geography includes an encyclopaedic look at the entire world known at the time: numerous ethnographic, topographic, historical, mythological, botanical, and zoological details, and much more.





    This volume offers various insights to the literary and historical context of the man and his world. The Companion, in twenty-eight chapters written by an international group of scholars, examines several aspects of Strabo’s personality, the political and scholarly environment in which he was active, his choices as an author, and his ideas of history and geography. This selection of ongoing Strabonian studies is an invaluable resource not just for students and scholars of Strabo himself, but also for anyone interested in ancient geography and in the world of the early Roman Empire.

    Acknowledgments



    List of Contributors





    Introduction Daniela Dueck



    I STRABO’S POINT OF VIEW



    1. Strabo’s philosophy and Stoicism Myrto Hatzimichali



    2. ‘Such is Rome...’ - Strabo on the ‘Imperial metropolis’ Nicholas Purcell



    3. Looking in from the outside: Strabo’s attitude towards the Roman people Jesper Majbom Madsen



    II THE GEOGRAPHY



    The inhabited world and its parts



    4. Strabo’s Mediterranean Katherine Clarke



    5. Strabo’s description of the North and Roman geo-political ideas Ekaterina Ilyushechkina



    6. Strabo and Iberia Benedict J. Lowe



    7. Strabo, Italy and the Italian peoples Elvira Migliario



    8. Strabo and the history of Armenia Giusto Traina



    9. Strabo’s Libya Jehan Desanges



    Human geography



    10. Ethnography and identity in Strabo’s Geography Edward Dandrow



    11. Strabo’s roads Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen



    12. Patterns of trade and economy in Strabo’s Geography Marta García Morcillo



    13. Strabo's cis-Tauran Asia: a humanistic geography María-Paz de Hoz



    Mathematical geography



    14. Measurement data in Strabo´s Geography Klaus Geus and Kurt Guckelsberger



    15. Strabo: from maps to words Pierre Moret



    The art of writing geography



    16. Signposts and sub-divisions: hidden pointers in Strabo’s narrative Sarah Pothecary



    17. A river runs through it: waterways and narrative in Strabo  Catherine Connors



    18. Spicing up geography: Strabo’s use of tales and anecdotes Daniela Dueck



    19. Strabo’s expendables: the function and aesthetics of minor authority Johannes Wietzke



    Traditions and sources



    20. Man of many voices and of much knowledge; or, In search of Strabo’s Homer Jane L. Lightfoot



    21. Strabo and the Homeric commentators Alexandra Trachsel



    22.  Myth as evidence in Strabo Lee E. Patterson



    23. Under the shadow of Eratosthenes: Strabo and the Alexander historians Antonio Ignacio Molina Marín



    The text



    24. Textual traditions and textual problems Roberto Nicolai



    25. On Translating Strabo into English Duane W. Roller



    III THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC WORK(S)



    26. Strabo the historian Gościvit Malinowski



    IV RECEPTION



    27. ‘So says Strabo’ - The reception of Strabo’s work in antiquity Søren Lund Sørensen



    28. Strabo’s reception in the West (15th-16th centuries) Patrick Gautier Dalché



    Index of references in Strabo



    Index of ancient sources



    Index of place names



    Index of personal names

    Biography

    Daniela Dueck is Associate Professor of Classical Studies and History at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

    "Strabo's "colossal work" is one of the most fascinating and puzzling accounts of the Roman world, a richly layered ethnographic and political commentary on the Mediterranean in transition, viewed at close quarters by a polymathic historian-geographer. This companion, written by a well-chosen international team of experts, brings to a wider public the very best of recent scholarship on this extraordinary and under-estimated work."

    - Greg Woolf, Institute of Classical Studies at the School of Advance Study, UK

    "With the current ‘spatial turn’ in ancient studies, Strabo has been attracting attention on a scale not seen since the Renaissance. This most welcome Companion to his work – the first ever – ranges wide and deep. It will have lasting value."

    - Richard Talbert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

    "[this book] is a useful tool for Strabo specialists because of the variety of topics covered, but also for those who are passionate about ancient geography."

    - Mélanie Lozat, Université de Genève, Switzerland, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019