sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 1

D. Graham J. Shipley: Geographers of the Ancient Greek World

The study of ancient geography has become popular in recent years, with editions of Eratosthenes, Dionysios Periegetes, Strabo, and Pliny appearing in the last decade, and ones of Pomponius Mela and Pausanias in production. Now a magnificent addition to this emergent corpus has appeared in a handsome two-volume set edited and produced by D. Graham J. Shipley with the assistance of 14 additional contributors, providing in whole or part the extant remains of 36 Greek (and a few Latin) authors who wrote on geography, either as their primary topic or an inherent factor in their works. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that a few of the present reviewer's translations were used or adapted, but he had no involvement in the preparation or production of the volumes.

The first hundred pages are an inciteful discussion of the nature of ancient geography, and, perhaps more importantly, the various issues encountered by modern scholars in handling Greek geographical texts. The first volume begins with a fine glossary of geographical terms, both technical and some of the toponymic ones, such as Arabikos Kolpos or Pontos, that are subject to confusion or misinterpretation, as well as the ever-baffling units of measurement. This is followed by a detailed introduction (1-85) which fully and clearly lays out issues such as the nature of geographical writing, its scope, how the material was transmitted, and, importantly, the problems that a translator faces. A timeline allows readers to organize the chronological trajectory of Greek geographical writing, from Homer onward, set against cross-references to events in Greco-Roman history. An interesting element is the continuation of this timeline into modern times with important events in the development of geographical scholarship, such as the first printed edition of a Greek geographical text (Angelus' Latin Ptolemy of 1475, probably well known to Columbus), and the more recent compendia of texts, such as Müller's Geographi graeci minores (1855-61).

As a prologue, there is a discussion of the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (96-106), an existential geography without being truly a geography, but which served as the basis for almost all later ancient geographical writing. The translated text is presented in its entirety with a brief commentary.

This is followed by the 36 translations themselves. From Aristeas of Prokonnesos (109-19), of uncertain date in the Archaic period, to the text known as the Circumnavigation of the Euxine (1000-26), also of uncertain date but perhaps from the late sixth century AD, this is as thorough a presentation of English translations of Greek geographical authors as has ever been created. The nature of these works varies greatly, as one might expect from over a thousand years of scholarship. Few of these works survive in extant form and must generally be accessed from the handful of geographical authors who do exist (such as Strabo, Pliny, and others). Some of the authors are in poetry (Aristeas, Dionysos Periegetes, Avienus) but most are in prose. A few Latin authors are included, such as Avienus, whose Ora Maritima is so heavily dependent on Greek predecessors that it paradoxically becomes a Greek geographical work.

It should be emphasized, as the sub-title of the work indicates, that this is a collection of texts; commentaries are limited and on occasion almost non-existent. But in many cases, such as with Artemidoros of Ephesos (501-60) or Markianos of Herakleia (939-84) these are the first modern English translations of the authors in question, indeed the first English translations of any date.

The body of the text is divided into four sections. First are the scant Archaic authors (109-49), namely Aristeas, Skylax of Karyandra, and Hekataios of Miletos. These are highly fragmentary, and indeed their authorship was disputed even in antiquity. Nevertheless, they laid the basis for Greek geographical writing without being truly geographers in any scholarly sense.

The second section, the Classical period, includes a larger number of writers, as interest moved toward a more academic handling of geographical issues. Some of these relied almost totally on personal experience, such as Hanno of Carthage (149-56), who recounted his voyage to the tropics of West Africa around 500 BC and left a report that may actually have been written in Greek, or Pytheas of Massalia (231-46), who in the late fourth century BC became the first Greek to penetrate the Arctic. Pytheas' study of the tides, perhaps the first author to do so, demonstrated that geographical concerns were moving more toward scientific concerns.

It is in the Hellenistic period (Part III of this work) that Greek geographical writing comes into its prime. During this era the term geographia came into usage (developed by Eratosthenes), the shape and size of the earth and its inhabited portions began to be determined, and even the heights of mountains and the depths of the seas were calculated. The 13 authors in this section, including Dikaiarchos of Messene, Eratosthenes, Hipparchos, and Poseidonios, placed academic geography on a firm footing and provided much of the data that became the basic extent of ancient geographical scholarship.

The fourth section, the Roman period, contains ten authors, generally Roman by their date but not their ethnicity, who built on their predecessors and expanded the reach of the geographical world. These include Juba II of Mauretania (631-52), who provided knowledge of the Canary Islands and the source of the Nile, Agatharchides of Knidos, who determined the limits of the Erythraian (modern Red) Sea, or Poseidonios, who continued the scientific development of geography by introducing topics such as hydrology and geology. A final section, Part V, is a handful of authors from late antiquity, most of whom are derivative but important nonetheless.

The final portion of the work is an extensive amount of analytical data that will make the understanding of the actual source material more valuable. There is the expected bibliography and index; to be sure, the index can be difficult to use because references are to author and section, not page number, but at the same time the use of subheadings in the index is much appreciated. There is a listing of the sources for each of the citations, and a concordance of extracts by chapter (1096-1129), with a second concordance by source author (1132-66). These will all become important reference tools for students of geography. The volumes are rounded out with 17 figures and 28 maps, all useful in providing visual representation of the material covered.

As with any work with a variety of (modern) authors, there can be some inconsistency in tone, but given that the bulk of the material is translation, and that nearly half of the entries were made by the same author, the volume editor, there is a remarkable unanimity. The greatest inconsistency is in the depth of detail of the commentaries, which vary from thorough to quite limited.

It may be unfair to quibble about details, and errors are few, although the Seleukos cited in the index (1186) was from Seleukeia, not Babylon. The choice of material to include was of course the editor's prerogative, but this reviewer might have wanted to see full entries for Polybios, Pomponius Mela, and more on Pliny, all of whom could be called geographers. In particular, an entry on Kosmas Indikopleustes, mentioned only in passing (44), would have been appreciated. His bizarre Christian Topography contains material not found elsewhere, but any detailed discussion of his work would force the reader to read Kosmas, not a pleasant task.

Yet these are all quibbles. In summary these volumes contain an amazing amount of information, often not easily available previously, and they will remain the standard for its topic for a long time.