A Historical and Topographical Guide to the Geography of Strabo

Strabo's Geography, completed in the early first century AD, is the primary source for the history of Greek geography. This Guide provides the first English analysis of and commentary on this long and difficult text, and serves as a companion to the author's The Geography of Strabo, the first English translation of the work in many years. It thoroughly analyzes each of the seventeen books and provides perhaps the most thorough bibliography as yet created for Strabo's work. Careful attention is paid to the historical and cultural data, the thousands of toponyms, and the many lost historical sources that are preserved only in the Geography. This volume guides readers through the challenges and complexities of the text, allowing an enhanced understanding of the numerous topics that Strabo covers, from the travels of Alexander and the history of the Mediterranean to science, religion, and cult.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Abbreviations; Maps: 1. The ancient world as known to Strabo; 2. The inhabited world (Oikoumene); 3. The geographical extent of the books of the Geography; The guide to the Geography: Book 1; Book 2; Book 3; Book 4; Book 5; Book 6; Book 7; Book 8; Book 9; Book 10; Book 11; Book 12; Book 13; Book 14; Book 15; Book 16; Book 17; Bibliography; Index of passages cited; General index.

About the Author :
Duane W. Roller is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Ohio State University. He has published numerous books and articles, including Cleopatra: A Biography (2010) and Ancient Geography (2015). His publications also include The Geography of Strabo (Cambridge, 2014), the first full English translation of Strabo's only complete work in many years.

Review :
The publication of this guide concludes one of the major achievements of contemporary classical scholarship: the first complete English translation in almost a century of Strabo's Geography that reflects current scholarship on its text and content. Strabo's Geography is one of the most important surviving works of ancient Greek scholarship. It is the principal source for the history of ancient geography and Greek knowledge of the cultural and historical geography of the inhabited world from India to Britain. Roller published his translation, The Geography of Strabo, in 2014. In this massive new volume, he provides a detailed exegesis of Strabo's text; each of the 17 chapters is devoted to one book of the Geography, explicating paragraph by paragraph Strabo's geographical, zoological, botanical, historical, and mythical allusions. Three maps, a comprehensive bibliography, and indexes of ancient sources cited in the text and proper names complete the work. Additional maps would have been desirable, but their absence does not detract from the value of this outstanding work. All university and college libraries. Choice