Strabo

Strabo (* about 63 BC in Amaseia in Pontos; † after 23 AD ), AltGr. Στράβων, latin Strabo ( " Cross-Eyes ") was an ancient Greek historian and geographer.

Life

Little is known about Strabo's life. His family lived in Amaseia that. According to the defeat of Mithridates VI was first determined against Lucullus and Pompey later ( and the subsequent suicide of Mithridates ) just as the capital of the new province of " Bithynia et Pontus " incorporated into the Roman Empire territories in Asia Minor. Strabo himself reports that he had studied at a certain Aristodemus, private tutor of the children of Pompey, in Caria. He then went as a 18 -year-old (ie, about 45 BC ) to Rome and continued his studies under the state geographers Tyrannion. 25 or 24 BC, he traveled to Egypt in the wake of the new Roman prefect Aelius Gallus, and is taking together with this a Nile Cruise.

After numerous further travels he returned to Amaseia, where he wrote the extensive " History Notes " ( Ἱστορικὰ Ὑπομνήματα, Historika Hypomnemata, 43 books), which was intended as a continuation of Polybius' work and has been preserved only in a few fragments. Then he wrote a historical work as a supplement to the designed 17- volume " geography " ( Γεωγραφικά, Geographika ), which has been handed down to some missing parts of the book VII. His aim was avowedly to create a for a wide range of readers easy to understand and easy to read, but nonetheless informative work.

The geography

• Books I and II: Long Introduction to prove in Strabo tried that Eratosthenes mistaken in his Geography, he negates the geographical information in Homer.
• Books III to X: Europe, especially Greece ( Books VIII to X ).
• Books XI -XIV: Asia Minor.
• Books XV -XVI: "Orient".
• Book XVII: Africa (Egypt and Libya).

Strabo represented in this his work the view that the richness of Greece was at least partly due to its favorable maritime position and outlined a correlation between the progress of civilization of a society and its access to the sea. At the same time he notes that the geographical situation not sufficient alone to explain the historical greatness of a nation and stressed that about the Greek civilization on the foundation of the interest of their citizens rest on art and politics.

Since he also various earlier texts (some dating back several centuries ) used for his work, and have a thorough knowledge of the Roman law systems in different cities and areas, it is also a valuable resource in terms of the beginning and course of the gradual Romanization of Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula. So he reported primarily in the books III and IV were made by the following the acculturation of individual walks emergence of a new culture of life in these areas.

Strabo also describes the classical Seven Wonders and provides among other things a description of Babylon.

Effect

In the Roman Empire the work of Strabo as a whole remains relatively unknown; he is rediscovered until the 5th century, citing strengthened from about this time, Strabo, however, developed in the intellectual life of Europe almost to the prototype of the geographer. In the 15th century, the Italian scholar Guarino Veronese translated the entire extant work of Strabo, which contributes to the intensification of importance Strabo, later historians like Wilamowitz discover her penchant for the literary qualities of the work. From Strabo is then also said that he better describe some of the places he had not traveled as Pausanias, who had been there.

Strabo wrote his " Geographica " one of today 's most historic works that have survived from the era. Through his travels to many of the dominated by the former Roman Empire countries and territories, it provides the historian with valuable information about location information, people and cultures of his time. As a distinguished Greek with studies in Rome he has thereby the major accessible in his time books and numerous reports of contemporaries processed according to own statement (including Demetrius of Kallatis and Theophanes of Mytilene, as the fragments obtained in the work of history suggest ). He stressed on several occasions that the information could be partially subjective, outdated or even invented and tried to dispel doubts and to identify things that seemed contradictory. Not least, this critical attitude is what makes his work important as a source.

A first Latin translation of geography appeared about 1469 editio princeps of the Greek text in 1516 in Venice. The critical edition of Isaac Casaubon, whose page count is still used today for references, appeared 1587th

After the major critical editions of Gustav Kramer (1844-1852) and August Meineke (1852-1853) has taken Stefan Radt developed a ten- volume edition of Strabo in attack. This edition provides a new text including extensive testimonies and critical apparatus, to a transfer (Volumes 1-4) and a text- critical and philological commentary ( in the volumes 5-8), also an edition of the medieval Strabo - Epitome and Chrestomathy ( band 9) and a register ( band 10).

According to him, the moon crater Strabo and the asteroid ( 4876 ) Strabo are named.

Editions and translations

• Stefan Radt: Strabo Geographika. 10 volumes. Cambridge University Press, Göttingen ( authoritative edition with translation ) Vol 1: Prolegomena. Book I -IV: Text and Translation, 2002, ISBN 978-3-525-25950-4.
• Vol 2: Book V-VIII: Text and Translation, 2003, ISBN 978-3-525-25951-1.
• Volume 3: Book IX -XIII: Text and Translation, 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-25952-8.
• Vol 4: Book XIV -XVII: Text and Translation, 2005, ISBN 978-3-525-25953-5.
• Vol 5: Abbreviated references cited, Book I-IV: Commentary, 2006, ISBN 978-3-525-25954-2.
• Vol 6: Book V-VIII: Commentary, 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-25955-9.
• Volume 7: Book IX -XIII: Commentary, 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-25956-6.
• Vol 8: Book XIV -XVII: Commentary, 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-25957-3.
• Vol 9: Epitome and Chrestomathy, 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-25958-0
• Vol 10: Register, 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-25959-7