Strabo‘s Geography

"Written in the first century AD, Strabo‘s Geographica tells us just about everything one could know about the ancient world of his day. We find instructions on how to tame elephants, information on the production of asphalt, how saffron is collected, the treatment of the aged, the practice of yoga, the lineage of obscure eastern dynasties, religious festivals, prostitution, volcanic activity - to name but a few of the topics his great work expounds upon. From his home in what is now Turkey, Strabo travelled around the Mediterranean describing the locations he visited and those he passed through. Some of the information in his great work is derived from his own travels, but most of it is the product of his reading and research. So, it is not merely a travelogue or guidebook; but rather, an intellectual journey through ancient places and the literature of antiquity, which implicitly asks: "Who are we?" and, "Where do we come from?" His answer involves a detailed description of the first century world he thought his readers should know. In this new modern translation of the complete work, translator Sarah Pothecary renders Strabo‘s Geographica as an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how the world today came into being. The main obstacle for readers has always been how to approach what, at first sight, is a daunting work of 300,000 words. Even when translated from ancient Greek into English, Strabo‘s narrative has come across as sprawling and difficult to navigate. Ancient names for modern places used by Strabo sound naturally unfamiliar to contemporary readers, making it seem as if the world he describes is remote from our own, in terms of place as well as time. Pothecary‘s translation addresses these problems by orientating the reader within the twenty-first century world. As she progresses through the narrative, the reader will be able to locate where he is in the modern world, as well as in the ancient world. By doing so, this book mimics what Strabo was doing two thousand years ago - relating the rapidly changing "present" of his readers to their own "ancient" past. The questions of identity and origin that underlie his work are as relevant today as two thousand years ago. It is time, Pothecary argues, the modern world got to know Strabo better"--