Delphi Complete Works of Strabo - Geography (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 61)

What did the world look like in the days of Jesus?

We actually have a source who is an early contemporary of Jesus and who wrote an account of how they saw the world: the Geography of Strabo of Amaseia.

Strabo wrote in the days of Augustus, perhaps around 20 CE. After setting forth his agreements and disagreements with former geographers, he covers the known world to the ancient Romans, starting with western Europe, going through the rest of Europe, Asia Minor, the rest of Asia, Egypt, and the rest of Africa.

Strabo was from Cappadocia and seemed to have been well-traveled; his information about Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor seem to come from first hand experience. He will give distances as they understood them, sometimes cultural show more information, sometimes historical data.

The greatest detail is provided for Greece. Even though Strabo is Cappadocian and thus “Asian” by birth, he maintains the Greco-Roman posture of seeing Asia primarily in terms of Asia Minor. It’s challenging for us to think of it that way since we look at much more detailed maps and from a different way. But imagine you don’t know much about the world much past the Caucasus, and the Anatolian peninsula was the closest point to you and the gateway to Asia for you.

It’s very interesting to see how Strabo, and by extension, Greeks and Romans in Augustus’ day, saw the world.

The Delphi Classics edition is well-formatted and provides either just the English translation or the dual Greek and English; I enjoyed the latter so I could check what the original was at various points. show less