DOCSLIB.ORG

10 · Greek Cartography in the Early Roman World

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
10 · Greek Cartography in the Early Roman World 10 · Greek Cartography in the Early Roman World PREPARED BY THE EDITORS FROM MATERIALS SUPPLIED BY GERMAINE AUJAe The Roman republic offers a good case for continuing to treat the Greek contribution to mapping as a separate CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THEORETICAL strand in the history ofclassical cartography. While there CARTOGRAPHY: POLYBIUS, CRATES, was a considerable blending-and interdependence-of AND HIPPARCHUS Greek and Roman concepts and skills, the fundamental distinction between the often theoretical nature of the Greek contribution and the increasingly practical uses The extent to which a new generation of scholars in the for maps devised by the Romans forms a familiar but second century B.C. was familiar with the texts, maps, satisfactory division for their respective cartographic in­ and globes of the Hellenistic period is a clear pointer to fluences. Certainly the political expansion of Rome, an uninterrupted continuity of cartographic knowledge. whose domination was rapidly extending over the Med­ Such knowledge, relating to both terrestrial and celestial iterranean, did not lead to an eclipse of Greek influence. mapping, had been transmitted through a succession of It is true that after the death of Ptolemy III Euergetes in well-defined master-pupil relationships, and the pres­ 221 B.C. a decline in the cultural supremacy of Alex­ ervation of texts and three-dimensional models had been andria set in. Intellectual life moved to more energetic aided by the growth of libraries. Yet this evidence should centers such as Pergamum, Rhodes, and above all Rome, not be interpreted to suggest that the Greek contribution but this promoted the diffusion and development of to cartography in the early Roman world was merely a Greek knowledge about maps rather than its extinction. passive recital of the substance of earlier advances. On Indeed, we can see how the conditions of Roman ex­ the contrary, a principal characteristic of the new age pansion positively favored the growth and applications was the extent to which it was openly critical of earlier of cartography in both a theoretical and a practical sense. attempts at mapping. The main texts, whether surviving Not only had the known world been extended consid­ or whether lost and known only through later writers, erably through the Roman conquests-so that new em­ were strongly revisionist in their line of argument, so pirical knowledge had to be adjusted to existing theories that the historian of cartography has to isolate the sub­ and maps-but Roman society offered a new educa­ stantial challenge to earlier theories and frequently their tional market for the cartographic knowledge codified reformulation in new maps. by the Greeks. Many influential Romans both in the In relation to the geography of Europe, the carto­ republic and in the early empire, from emperors down­ graphic material in the History of Polybius (ca. 200 to ward, were enthusiastic Philhellenes and were patrons post 118 B.C.) provides a first illustration of this ten­ of Greek philosophers and scholars. In the middle of the dency. Born at Megalopolis in the Peloponnese, Polybius second century B.C. the Scipionic circle, a group of prom­ had been active in the political and military life of inent Philhellenes, promoted the study of all things Greece. Taken to Rome as a hostage in 168 B.C., he also Greek; and when in 146 B.C. military rivalry from Car­ demonstrates by his career the importance of Roman thage and Greece was eliminated, Rome wielded the patronage in the continuation and spread of Greek car­ political power, but Greece provided the chief intellec­ tography, for he attracted the attention of L. Aemilius tual output within, and often on behalf of, Roman do­ Paullus and became a close friend of Scipio Aemilianus, minions. Throughout the second and first centuries B.C. who, besides giving him access to public records, took and beyond, it was thus men of Greek birth and edu­ Polybius with him on some of his campaigns to Spain cation-such as Polybius, Crates of Mallos, Hipparchus, and to North Africa. and Strabo-who continued to make fundamental con­ Polybius composed a History in forty books (of which tributions to the development of scientific mapping and the first five books are extant and the remainder are who provided a continuous link with these activities in known through Strabo and other sources) describing the the Hellenistic world and their culmination in the later prodigious rise of Rome in the fifty years between the syntheses of Claudius Ptolemy. Second Punic War and the battle of Pydna (218-168 161 162 Cartography in Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean B.C.).1 Conscious of the importance of a close critical map and put the northern limit of the inhabited world knowledge of the countries in which historical events at the parallel of Ierne (Ireland) (54°N), situated under took place, Polybius devoted part of his work to a geo­ the arctic circle containing the stars always visible from graphical description of Europe. Strabo tells us that mainland Greece and Rhodes (36°N).5 "Polybius, in his account of the geography of Europe, These criticisms by Polybius show the impact of says he passes over the ancient geographers but examines Eratosthenes' work and methods on the subsequent de­ the men who criticise them, namely, Dicaearchus, and velopment of cartography and mapping. In particular, Eratosthenes, who has written the most recent treatise the rigorous application of geometry had come to be on Geography; and Pytheas, by whom many have been considered essential for drawing maps to scale. Polybius misled.,,2 Strabo then gives us an example of such crit­ had applied these principles to Eratosthenes' map and icism, citing Dicaearchus's distances along the dia­ measurements when he undertook his description of Eu­ phragma (p. 152 above), and Polybius's use of rope and, as a result, probably drew a new map, with geometric arguments to prove them erroneous. Dicaear­ reduced latitudinal extent. chus, according to Polybius, had estimated the distance The continuing influence of Greek cartography, as between the Straits of Messina and the Straits of Gi­ reinterpreted by Greeks, within the new framework of braltar at 7,000 stades. This line can be considered the Roman society is also shown by references to the famous base of an obtuse-angled triangle with Narbo (Nar­ terrestrial globe of Crates of Mallos (fl. 150 B.C.), known bonne) as its apex (fig. 10.1). Polybius argued that one to us through Strabo.6 Although born at Mallos in Cil­ side of the obtuse angle, from the Straits of Messina to icia, Crates spent most of his life in Pergamum, as head Narbo, measured more than 11,200 stades, the other a of the newly established library, one of the institutions little less than 8,000. Since the perpendicular dropped to challenge the supremacy of Alexandria. He was in from Narbo to the base is 2,000 stades, "it is clear from 1. Polybius also took up Eratosthenes' idea that the regions near the principles of elementary geometry that the length of the equator had a more temperate climate than the ones near the the coast-line from the Strait [of Messina] to the Pillars tropics. Writing a book called The Inhabited World below the Equa­ [via Narbo; totals 19,200 stades] exceeds the length of tor, known to us through Geminus, Introduction to Phenomena, the straight line through the open sea by very nearly five Polybius applied the tenets of spherical geometry to this problem; see Geminus, Introduction aux phenomenes, ed. and trans. Germaine Au­ hundred stadia.,,3 Thus the distance from the Straits of jac (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1975), 16.32. The main argument in favor Messina to the Straits of Gibraltar along the diaphragma of Eratosthenes' hypothesis is that the sun, around the time of the is at least 18,700 stades instead of the 7,000 given by solstices, lingers for a long while over the tropics, burning the country, Dicaearchus.4 This brief example clearly shows the part but at the equinoxes it passes quickly over the equator. The basis for geometric reasoning played in Polybius's assessment of this interpretation is that in its annual apparent motion along the the map drawn by Dicaearchus. ecliptic, the sun, though moving at constant speed, appears to us to be almost motionless as it approaches and recedes from a tropic (the days, longer than those at the equator, are almost the same length for forty days). These conclusions are likely to have been illustrated by Narbo diagrams. For a general work on Polybius, see Frank William Wal­ 8,0 &ca es bank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clar­ N- endon Press, 1957-79). Straits of 18,700 stades Straits of 2. Strabo Geography 2.4.1; see The Geography of Strabo, 8 vols., Gibraltar Messina trans. Horace Leonard]ones, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Har­ FIG. 10.1. POLYBIUS'S ESTIMATE OF THE LENGTH OF vard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1917-32). Also THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN. Whereas Dicaearchus see Strabo, Geographie, ed. Fran~ois Lasserre, Germaine Aujac, et al. stated a distance of 7,000 stades from the Straits of Gibraltar (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1966-). to the Straits of Messina, Polybius used basic geometry to show 3. Strabo Geography 2.4.2 (note 2). See also Walbank, Polybius, that it was, in fact, at least 18,700 stades. 1:371 (note 1). 4. The actual distance between the Straits of Messina and the Straits of Gibraltar is about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers). As for Europe in general, Polybius likewise severely 5.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Strabo the Geographer: His Name and Its Meaning1)
    Mne/1002/Pothecary/691-704 11/18/99 5:26 PM Page 691 STRABO THE GEOGRAPHER: HIS NAME AND ITS MEANING1) SARAH POTHECARY The geographer Strabo is referred to in the sources and manu- scripts2) by that name alone, ‘Strabo’ or, in Greek, Strãbvn.3) The Greek name Strãbvn, meaning ‘cross-eyed’, is first held by Greeks of the pre-Roman period.4) The Roman cognomen5) ‘Strabo’, also meaning ‘cross-eyed’, subsequently becomes established in the Roman 1) I gratefully acknowledge the comments of Peter Fraser, Heikki Solin, Bruce Robertson, and Luc Bertrand of Ackermans & van Haaren. The views here expressed are my own. An early draft of this paper was read at the annual meet- ing of the Classical Association of Canada in Ottawa on May 30th 1998. The fol- lowing abbreviations of standard works are used: Latin Cognomina = Iiro Kajanto, The Latin Cognomina (Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum, 36:2; Helsinki 1965); Lexicon = P.M. Fraser and Elaine Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (Oxford 1987-); L’Onomastique latine = Noël Duval, ed., L’Onomastique latine, Paris 13- 15 Octobre 1975 (Paris 1977); Pape-Benseler = Wilhelm Pape, Wörterbuch der griechi- schen Eigennamen, 3rd edition, rev. Gustav Benseler (Braunschweig 1884); Roman Onomastics = A.D. Rizakis, ed., Roman Onomastics in the Greek East. Social and Political Aspects. Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Roman Onomastics, Athens, 7-9 September 1993 (Athens 1996). 2) Book 9 of the 5th century ms. (the ‘Palimpsest’) of the Geography begins STPABVNOS Y; in some later mss., Strabo’s name is given in summaries pre- served at the beginning of books and apparently copied from earlier mss.
    [Show full text]
  • Mathematical Discourse in Philosophical Authors: Examples from Theon of Smyrna and Cleomedes on Mathematical Astronomy
    Mathematical discourse in philosophical authors: Examples from Theon of Smyrna and Cleomedes on mathematical astronomy Nathan Sidoli Introduction Ancient philosophers and other intellectuals often mention the work of mathematicians, al- though the latter rarely return the favor.1 The most obvious reason for this stems from the im- personal nature of mathematical discourse, which tends to eschew any discussion of personal, or lived, experience. There seems to be more at stake than this, however, because when math- ematicians do mention names they almost always belong to the small group of people who are known to us as mathematicians, or who are known to us through their mathematical works.2 In order to be accepted as a member of the group of mathematicians, one must not only have mastered various technical concepts and methods, but must also have learned how to express oneself in a stylized form of Greek prose that has often struck the uninitiated as peculiar.3 Be- cause of the specialized nature of this type of intellectual activity, in order to gain real mastery it was probably necessary to have studied it from youth, or to have had the time to apply oneself uninterruptedly.4 Hence, the private nature of ancient education meant that there were many educated individuals who had not mastered, or perhaps even been much exposed to, aspects of ancient mathematical thought and practice that we would regard as rather elementary (Cribiore 2001; Sidoli 2015). Starting from at least the late Hellenistic period, and especially during the Imperial and Late- Ancient periods, some authors sought to address this situation in a variety of different ways— such as discussing technical topics in more elementary modes, rewriting mathematical argu- ments so as to be intelligible to a broader audience, or incorporating mathematical material di- rectly into philosophical curricula.
    [Show full text]
  • Implementing Eratosthenes' Discovery in the Classroom: Educational
    Implementing Eratosthenes’ Discovery in the Classroom: Educational Difficulties Needing Attention Nicolas Decamp, C. de Hosson To cite this version: Nicolas Decamp, C. de Hosson. Implementing Eratosthenes’ Discovery in the Classroom: Educational Difficulties Needing Attention. Science and Education, Springer Verlag, 2012, 21 (6), pp.911-920. 10.1007/s11191-010-9286-3. hal-01663445 HAL Id: hal-01663445 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01663445 Submitted on 18 Dec 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Sci & Educ DOI 10.1007/s11191-010-9286-3 Implementing Eratosthenes’ Discovery in the Classroom: Educational Difficulties Needing Attention Nicolas De´camp • Ce´cile de Hosson Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract This paper presents a critical analysis of the accepted educational use of the method performed by Eratosthenes to measure the circumference of Earth which is often considered as a relevant means of dealing with issues related to the nature of science and its history. This method relies on a number of assumptions among which the parallelism of sun rays. The assumption of sun rays parallelism (if it is accurate) does not appear spontaneous for students who consider sun rays to be divergent.
    [Show full text]
  • Geography Introduction
    Geography Student Handbook CSUS Geography, Fall 2005 Geography Student Handbook contents ONE WELCOME TO GEOGRAPHY Part Welcome Geography Students 1 Reception 2 Keeping the Department Informed 2 Faculty Profiles and Contact Information 3 Maps 4 Campus 4 Bizzini Hall (Classroom Building) 2nd Floor 5 GIS Lab 6 Bio-Ag 7 TWO WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY? 8 Definitions 8 Areas of Geographic Study 9 General Readings in Geography and Teaching 10 THREE YOUR PROGRAM 11 Advising 11 Registration 12 Geography Courses (from Catalog) 13 BA Geography Worksheet (regular tract) 14 BA Geography with Applied Concentration Worksheet 15 Geography Minor Worksheet 16 Liberal Studies with Geography Concentration Worksheet 17 Social Science with Geography Concentration Worksheet 17 General Education Worksheet 18 Plagerism and Academic Dishonesty 19 Readings – Coping with Classes 20 Internships 21 FOUR GEOGRAPHY’S FACILITIES 22 Laboratories 22 The Field 22 GIS Lab 23 Bio-Ag 23 The Bridge 24 Study Abroad 25 Other Facilities 26 FIVE LIFE AFTER CSUS 27 Occupations 27 Graduate School 28 Letter of Reference 29 1 one - welcome to geography “Of all the disciplines, it is geography that has captured the vision of the earth as a whole.” Kenneth Boulding WELCOME GEOGRAPHY STUDENTS! This student handbook provides a way for you to track your degree progress and helps you navigate a path, not only to complete your degree, but to seek a profession in geography or attend graduate school. It serves as a convenient source for general information about the discipline of geography, department and campus resources, and who to contact with various questions. This handbook does not replace the personal one-to-one contact between yourself and your advisor.
    [Show full text]
  • The Geography of Ptolemy Elucidated
    The Grography of Ptolemy The geography of Ptolemy elucidated Thomas Glazebrook Rylands 1893 • A brief outline of the rise and progress of geographical inquiry prior to the time of Ptolemy. §1.—Introductory. IN tracing the early progress of Geography it is necessary to remember that, like all other sciences, it arose from “ small beginnings.” When men began to move from place to place they naturally desired to tell the tale of their wanderings, both for their own satisfaction and for the information of others. Such accounts have now perished, but their results remain in the earliest records extant ; hence, it is impossible to begin an investigation into the history of Geography at the true fountain-head, though it is in some instances possible to guess the nature of the source from the character of the resultant stream. A further difficulty lies in the question as to where the science of Geography begins. A Greek would probably have answered when some discoverer first invented a method for map- ping out the distance between certain places, which distance conversely could be ascertained directly from the map. In accordance with modern method, the science of Geography might be said to begin when the subject ceased to be dealt with mythically or dogmatically ; when facts were collected and reduced to laws, while these laws again, or their prior facts, were connected with other laws—in the case of Geography with those of Mathematics and Astro- nomy. Perhaps it would be better to follow the latter principle of division, and consequently the history of Geography may be divided into two main stages—“ Pre-Scientific” and Scientific Geography—though strictly speaking, the name of Geography should be applied to the latter alone.
    [Show full text]
  • From Columbus to Acosta: Science
    FromColumbus to Acosta: Science, Geography,and the New World KarlW. Butzer Departmentof Geography,University of Texasat Austin,Austin, TX 78712, FAX 512/471-5049 Abstract.What is called the Age of Discovery peoples probably put observers with rural evokes imagesof voyages,nautical skills, and backgroundson an equal footingwith those maps. Yet the Europeanencounter with the steeped in traditionalacademic curricula.Last Americasalso led to an intellectualconfronta- butnot least,the essaypoints up the enormity tionwith the naturalhistory and ethnography of the primarydocumentation, compiled by of a "new" world.Contrary to the prevailing these Spanishcontributors during the century view of intellectualstasis, this confrontation after1492, most of it awaitinggeographical re- provokednovel methods of empiricaldescrip- appraisal. tion, organization,analysis, and synthesisas KeyWords: Acosta,Columbus, ethnography, geo- Medievaldeductivism and Classicalontogen- graphicalplanning, gridiron towns, historyof sci- ies proved to be inadequate. This essay ence, landforms,L6pez de Velasco, naturalhistory, demonstrateshow the agentsof thatencoun- New World landscapes, Oviedo, relaciones ter-sailors, soldiers, governmentofficials, geograficas,Renaissance, Sahagun, Spanish geogra- and missionaries-madesense of these new phy. landsand peoples; ithighlights seven method- ological spheres, by examiningthe work of The worldis so vastand beautiful,and containsso exemplaryindividuals who illustratethe di- manythings, each differentfrom the other. verse backgrounds,abilities,
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Outside the Sphere Views of the Stars from Aristotle to Herschel Thinking Outside the Sphere
    Thinking Outside the Sphere Views of the Stars from Aristotle to Herschel Thinking Outside the Sphere A Constellation of Rare Books from the History of Science Collection The exhibition was made possible by generous support from Mr. & Mrs. James B. Hebenstreit and Mrs. Lathrop M. Gates. CATALOG OF THE EXHIBITION Linda Hall Library Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology Cynthia J. Rogers, Curator 5109 Cherry Street Kansas City MO 64110 1 Thinking Outside the Sphere is held in copyright by the Linda Hall Library, 2010, and any reproduction of text or images requires permission. The Linda Hall Library is an independently funded library devoted to science, engineering and technology which is used extensively by The exhibition opened at the Linda Hall Library April 22 and closed companies, academic institutions and individuals throughout the world. September 18, 2010. The Library was established by the wills of Herbert and Linda Hall and opened in 1946. It is located on a 14 acre arboretum in Kansas City, Missouri, the site of the former home of Herbert and Linda Hall. Sources of images on preliminary pages: Page 1, cover left: Peter Apian. Cosmographia, 1550. We invite you to visit the Library or our website at www.lindahlll.org. Page 1, right: Camille Flammarion. L'atmosphère météorologie populaire, 1888. Page 3, Table of contents: Leonhard Euler. Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum, 1744. 2 Table of Contents Introduction Section1 The Ancient Universe Section2 The Enduring Earth-Centered System Section3 The Sun Takes
    [Show full text]
  • Astronomy and Hipparchus
    CHAPTER 9 Progress in the Sciences: Astronomy and Hipparchus Klaus Geus Introduction Geography in modern times is a term which covers several sub-disciplines like ecology, human geography, economic history, volcanology etc., which all con- cern themselves with “space” or “environment”. In ancient times, the definition of geography was much more limited. Geography aimed at the production of a map of the oikoumene, a geographer was basically a cartographer. The famous scientist Ptolemy defined geography in the first sentence of his Geographical handbook (Geog. 1.1.1) as “imitation through drafting of the entire known part of the earth, including the things which are, generally speaking, connected with it”. In contrast to chorography, geography uses purely “lines and label in order to show the positions of places and general configurations” (Geog. 1.1.5). Therefore, according to Ptolemy, a geographer needs a μέθοδος μαθεματική, abil- ity and competence in mathematical sciences, most prominently astronomy, in order to fulfil his task of drafting a map of the oikoumene. Given this close connection between geography and astronomy, it is not by default that nearly all ancient “geographers” (in the limited sense of the term) stood out also as astronomers and mathematicians: Among them Anaximander, Eudoxus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Poseidonius and Ptolemy are the most illustrious. Apart from certain topics like latitudes, meridians, polar circles etc., ancient geography also took over from astronomy some methods like the determina- tion of the size of the earth or of celestial and terrestrial distances.1 The men- tioned geographers Anaximander, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Poseidonius and Ptolemy even constructed instruments for measuring, observing and calculat- ing like the gnomon, sundials, skaphe, astrolabe or the meteoroscope.2 1 E.g., Ptolemy (Geog.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Beginning Was Economic Geography’ – a Science Studies Approach to Disciplinary History1 Trevor J
    Progress in Human Geography 25,4 (2001) pp. 521–544 ‘In the beginning was economic geography’ – a science studies approach to disciplinary history1 Trevor J. Barnes Department of Geography, 1984 West Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z2, Canada Abstract: Science studies are an increasingly prominent interdisciplinary body of work. Now a diverse literature, one of its most consistent and common themes is a reluctance to accept the standard model of scientific explanation (‘internalism’) that conceives scientific knowledge, and the disciplines with which it is associated, as the product of a rationality that is progressively realized over time. Instead, science studies emphasize the importance of local circumstances in shaping knowledge, which, in turn, makes such knowledge messy and context-dependent. The purposes of this paper are twofold. The first is to provide a selective review of science studies. In particular, the paper recognizes three subtraditions within the larger genre: Mertonian insti- tutionalism, the sociology of scientific knowledge, and cultural studies of science. The second purpose is to begin developing a case study in order to apply such literature, that of the institu- tional origins of economic geography during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and linked to a series of wider social processes around commercial trade and imperialism. To make the case study manageable, I concentrate on only two authors and their respective key books: the Scottish geographer George Chisholm, who wrote the first English-language economic geography textbook, A handbook of commercial geography (1889); and the American geographer J. Russell Smith, author of the first US college text in economic geography, Industrial and commercial geography (1913).
    [Show full text]
  • Our Place in the Universe Sun Kwok
    Our Place in the Universe Sun Kwok Our Place in the Universe Understanding Fundamental Astronomy from Ancient Discoveries Second Edition Sun Kwok Faculty of Science The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China This book is a second edition of the book “Our Place in the Universe” previously published by the author as a Kindle book under amazon.com. ISBN 978-3-319-54171-6 ISBN 978-3-319-54172-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54172-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937904 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
    [Show full text]
  • 6 X 10 Long.P65
    Cambridge University Press 0521853060 - Strabo’s Cultural Geography: The Making of a Kolossourgia Edited by Daniela Dueck, Hugh Lindsay and Sarah Pothecary Table of Contents More information Table of contents List of maps page vii List of illustrations viii List of tables ix List of figures x List of contributors xi Acknowledgements xiii List of abbreviations xiv Introduction 1 1 Kolossourgia. ‘A colossal statue of a work’ Sarah Pothecary 5 2 Reflections of philosophy: Strabo and geographical sources Christina Horst Roseman 27 3 Who is a barbarian? The barbarians in the ethnological and cultural taxonomies of Strabo Eran Almagor 42 4 Gender at the crossroads of empire: locating women in Strabo’s Geography Denise Eileen McCoskey 56 5 Strabo and Homer: a chapter in cultural history Anna Maria Biraschi 73 6 Strabo’s use of poetry Daniela Dueck 86 7 Strabo’s sources in the light of a tale Nikos Litinas 108 v © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521853060 - Strabo’s Cultural Geography: The Making of a Kolossourgia Edited by Daniela Dueck, Hugh Lindsay and Sarah Pothecary Table of Contents More information vi Contents 8 The foundation of Greek colonies and their main features in Strabo: a portrayal lacking homogeneity? Francesco Trotta 118 9 3Amdqe| e3mdonoi or ‘men of high reputation’ in Strabo’s Geography Johannes Engels 129 10 Comparing Strabo with Pausanias: Greece in context vs. Greece in depth Maria Pretzler 144 11 The European provinces: Strabo as evidence Sarah Pothecary 161 12 Amasya and Strabo’s patria in Pontus Hugh Lindsay 180 13 Cappadocia through Strabo’s eyes Silvia Panichi 200 14 Greek geography and Roman empire: the transformation of tradition in Strabo’s Euxine David Braund 216 15 Josephus’ hidden dialogue with Strabo Yuval Shahar 235 16 Temporal layers within Strabo’s description of Coele Syria, Phoenicia and Judaea Ze’ev Safrai 250 Bibliography 259 Index of geographical names 276 Index of personal names 282 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org.
    [Show full text]
  • 1.1 Eratosthenes Measures the Earth (Copyright: Bryan Dorner All Rights Reserved)
    1.1 Eratosthenes Measures the Earth (Copyright: Bryan Dorner all rights reserved) How big is the Earth? The mathematician Eratosthenes (276-195 BCE) lived in the city of Alexandria in northern Egypt near the place where the Nile river empties into the Mediterranean. Eratosthenes was chief librarian at the Alexandria museum and one of the foremost scholars of the day - second only to Archimedes (who many consider one of the two or three best mathematicians ever to have lived). The city of Alexandria had been founded about one hundred years earlier by Alexander the Great whose conquests stretched from Egypt, through Syria, Babylonia, and Persia to northern India and central Asia. As the Greeks were also called Hellenes, the resulting empire was known as the Hellenistic empire and the following period in which Greek culture was dominant is called the Hellenistic age. The Hellenistic age saw a considerable exchange of culture between the conquering Greeks and the civilizations of the lands they controlled. It is from about this period that the predominantly geometric mathematics of the Greeks shows a computational aspect borrowed from the Babylonians. Some of the best mathematics we have inherited comes from just such a blend of contributions from diverse cultures. Eratosthenes is known for his simple but accurate measurement of the size of the earth. The imprint of Babylon (modern Iraq) as well as Greece can be seen in his method. He did not divide the arc of a circle into 360 parts as the Babylonians did, but into 60 equal parts. Still, the use of 60 reveals the influence of the Babylonian number system - the sexagesimal system - which was based on the number 60 in the same way ours is based on the number 10.
    [Show full text]