Geographica (Strabo)

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The Geographika is an extensive work by Strabo, spanning 17 volumes, and can be regarded as an encyclopedia of the geographical knowledge of his time; except for parts of Book 7, it has come down to us complete. 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 the author to dismiss more recent writers, such as Herodotus, who were often eyewitnesses to what they reported; a preoccupation with minute, often captiously argumentative, criticism of these other writers; a peculiarly Greek aprioristic attitude to facts, seeking to derive them from the pure exercise of reason: in sum, one would prefer more geography and less argumentation. These byways, however, do provide modern scholars with valuable historical information on the methods of ancient geography and on many older geographers whose works have not come down to us.

Some thirty manuscripts of Geographika or parts of it have survived, almost all of them medieval copies of copies, though there are fragments from papyrus rolls which were probably copied out ca AD 100‑300. Scholars have struggled for a century and a half to produce an accurate edition close to what Strabo wrote. A definitive one has been in publication since 2002, appearing at a rate of about a volume a year.

[edit] Editions

Kramer, Gustav, ed., Strabonis Geographica, 3 vols, containing Books 1-17. Berlin: Friedericus Nicolaus, 1844-52.
Jones, Horace L., ed. and tr. The Geography of Strabo. 8 vols, containing Books 1-17. Harvard University Press and Heinemann, 1917-32

[edit] Papyri

P. Köln 1. 8, in B. Krebber and R. Hübner, eds, Kölner Papyri 1 (1976) 27-32.
Krebber, B. Naustologoi bei Strabon: ein neues Papyrusfragment (P. Colon. inv. nr. 5861). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 9 (1972) 204-221.
Krebber, B. Corrigenda. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 10 (1973) 188.
Merkelbach, R. Methone - Methana. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigaphik 10 (1973) 194-96.
P. Oxyrhynchus 3447, in A. Bülow-Jacobsen and J.E.G. Whitehorn, eds, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 49 (1982) 47-73, (numerous fragments containing text from Geography 9.1.14 - 9.5.22).
P. Oxyrhynchus 4459 in M.W. Haslam and others, eds, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 65 (1998) 71-75. (two fragments, containing text from Geography 2.5.20-24).