Geographer and historian, born in Amaseia, Pontus. He spent his life in travel and study, was at Corinth in 29 BC, explored the Nile in 24 BC, and seems to have settled at Rome after AD 14. Of his great historical work in 47 books, Historical Studies, only a few fragments survive; but his Geographica in 17 books has come down almost complete, and is of great value for the results of his own extensive observation. He makes copious use of his predecessors, Eratosthenes, Polybius, Aristotle, Thucydides, and many writers now lost.
Strabo (63/64 BC – c. AD 24;
Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus (modern Amasya Turkey), which had recently become part of the Roman Empire. It is not known when his Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius.
Strabo's History is nearly completely lost. Although Strabo quotes it himself, and other classical authors mention that it existed, the only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46).
Several different dates have been proposed for Strabo's death, but most of them place it shortly after 23.
The Geography
The Geography is an extensive work in Greek, spanning 17 volumes, and can be regarded as an encyclopedia of the geographical knowledge of Strabo's time. Yet, while it does cover the entire world known to the Greeks and Romans of his time, it suffers from several major flaws: a constant and very intrusive defense of the poet Homer as a geographical source, leading Strabo to dismiss more recent writers, such as Herodotus, who were often eyewitnesses to what they reported; These byways, however, do provide modern scholars with valuable historical information on the methods of ancient geography and on many older geographers whose works are lost.
Some thirty manuscripts of the Geography, or parts of it, have survived. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote.
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