Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/931

STRABO. The first two books of Strabo are an introduction to his Geography, and mnch the most difficult part of the work. A good commentary upon them would in fact be a criticism on all ancient geography up to Strabo's time. He began the first book with showing the importance of geographical knowledge and its uses. He then passes to Homer, whom he considers the earliest of geographers, and defends' against many of the objections of Eratosthenes. In this book he points out some errors of Eratos- thenes, and makes various remarks on the causes which operate to change the earth's surface. He concludes with some corrections of the errors of Eratosthenes, as to the extent and division of the inhabited part of the earth. The second book is mainly occupied with mathe- matical geography. It contains a criticism of the map of the world by Eratosthenes, and of his divi- sion of the habitable earth into portions ((r(/)pa77S6j); an examination of the doctrines of Posidonius, particularly the division into six zones adopted by him and by Polybius ; with remarks on the sup- posed circumnavigation of Libya by Eudoxus, and on some errors of Polybius. He also gives his own views on the form and magnitude of the earth, and of the extent of the habitable part of it ; and re- marks upon the delineation of the earth, enspheres and surfaces, and on a map of the world. He also gives a general sketch of the earth's habitable sur- face, with reference to seas, countries, and nations ; and concludes with explaining the doctrine of climates and of the shadows projected by objects in consequence of the sun's varying position with respect to them. In the third book he begins his description : he devotes eight books to Europe ; six to Asia ; and the seventeenth and last to Egypt and Libya. The third book comprises the description of Iberia, and Spain and Portugal, for which his principal authorities are Artemidorus, Polybius, and Posidonius, all of whom had visited Iberia. Arte- midorus was also an authority for his knowledge of the sea- coast in general, both that of the Medi- terranean, and that of the Ocean. At the end of this book he speaks of the Cassiterides, The fourth book treats of Gallia according to its four-fold division under Augustus, of Britain, the description of which is meagre, of lerne or Ireland, of Thule, and of the Alps. His principal authorities are the same as for the third book, with the addition of C. Julius Caesar, who is his only authority for Britain, with the exception of some little matter from Pytheas. Polybius is his autho- rity for the description of the Alps. But it is plain that he also obtained matter for his fourth book from oral communications during his residence in Italy. In the fifth and sixth books Strabo describes Italy and the adjacent islands ; and his description begins with North Italy, or Gallia Cisalpina, and the country of the Ligures, for which Polybius is his chief authority, though with respect to this and other parts of Italy he derived much information from his own personal observation. Eratosthenes, Artemidorus, Ephorus, Fabius Pictor, Caecilius, the Sicilian, and an anonymous chorographer are his main written authorities for the description of Italy. The anonymous chorographer is supposed to be a Roman, because he gives distances in Roman miles and not in Greek stadia. Some critics have conVictured that this chorographer is M. Vipsanius STRABO. 919 Agrippa, but this work of Agrippa, says Groskurd, was not completed and published until after his death, and in b. c. 12, and consequently much too late for Strabo to have made use of it between b. c. 29 and 26, at Rome. The translator here assumes that he has fixed Strabo's residence at Rome during this period, whereas it cannot be proved, and if it could, the argument would not even then be conclusive. It is a better objection to the supposition of this chorographer being Agrippa, "that Strabo made use of this work only for Italy, perhaps also southern Gaul, and for no other country, and yet it extended over the whole Ro- man empire." The fifth book concludes with a description of Campania, partly from his own knowledge and partly from Antiochus of Syracusae and others. In the sixth book he describes Southern Italy and Sicily, with the adjacent islands ; and adds at the end a short sketch of the extent and actual condition of the Roman Empire. In the seventh book he treats of the nations of northern and eastern Europe, including those north of the Ister, and, south of the Ister, Illyricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, the coast of Thrace on the Pontus, and Epirus, with some notices of Mace- donia and Thrace. That part of the book which treated of Macedonia and Thrace is lost ; and all that we have in place of it is a meagre epitome. Strabo does not state his authorities for what he says of the Germans ; but for the other northern nations he had the work of Posidonius. For the tracts south of the Ister he had the lost work of Aristotle on the constitution of states, Polybius, Posidonius, Theopompus, and Ephorus. The eighth, ninth, and tenth books comprehend the description of Hellas and the Islands, and, as already observed. Homer is the basis of his de- scription. The treatment of the subject in these three books differs considerably from that in the rest of the work: it is chiefly antiquarian and mythological. Heeren maintains that Strabo visited all Hellas and the islands of the Archipelago, but it is not easy to prove this from his work, and the defects of his description are better evidence for the opinion that he saw very little of the Pelopon- nesus and of Greece north of the Isthmus. The eleventh book begins with the description of Asia, which is considered as separated from Europe by the Tanais or Don. Strabo follows Eratosthenes in dividing Asia into two large masses, a northern and a southern mass ; a natural division determined by the direction of the moun- tain range of Taurus from west to east. The first or northern division, that on this side Taurus, com- prehends four parts, of which the first comprises the country between the Tanais, the Maeotis, the Pontus, and the Caspian ; the second comprises the tracts east of the Caspian, and Taurus itself ; the third comprises the countries south of the Caucasus, Media, Armenia, and Cappadocia ; and the fourth Asia Minor, from the Halys. The first three parts are described in the eleventh book, and the fourth, with Cappadocia and Pontus, in the twelfth, thir- teenth, and fourteenth books. For the first part, comprised in the eleventh book, Strabo might, and probably did obtain much oral information in his native country ; some little he derived from Hero- dotus, and still more from Artemidorus, Erato- sthenes, and the historians of the Mithridatic wars, among whom was Theophanes, the friend of Pom- 3 N 4