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Strabo: The Geography

The Author, the Manuscripts

As with most ancient authors, not that much is known of Strabo, and the Loeb edition's introductory material, by the translator Horace Leonard Jones, is about as good as one can get. The Loeb edition also provides a thorough bibliography, including a very summary discussion of the principal manuscripts of the Geography: that too will eventually find its way onsite, except for some few addenda made by the Loeb editors in the later reprintings and therefore still under copyright. Further good information, especially on editions and translations, may be found on Sarah Pothecary's site.


The Text of Strabo on LacusCurtius

The entire work is online in English translation. I don't plan to enter the original Greek text: those, now few, who read Greek will very likely have access to TLG.

As almost always, I retyped the text rather than scanning it: not only to minimize errors prior to proofreading, but as an opportunity for me to become intimately familiar with the work, an exercise which I heartily recommend. (Well-meaning attempts to get me to scan text, if success­ful, would merely turn me into some kind of machine: gambit declined.)

I ran a first check immediately after entering each book; then I proofread the text word by word, a check which is meant to be final. In the little table of contents below, the sections are therefore shown on blue backgrounds, indicating that I believe the text of them to be completely errorfree; red backgrounds would mean that they still needed that final proofreading. As elsewhere onsite, the header bar at the top of each chapter's webpage will remind you with the same color scheme. Should you spot an error, however . . . please do report it.

Books 6‑14 of the Geography have also been online for some time at Perseus, in both the original Greek and an English translation.

Edition Used

Loeb Classical Library, 8 volumes, Greek texts with facing English translation by H. L. Jones: Harvard University Press, 1917 thru 1932. The text is in the public domain: that of the earlier volumes because the copyright has lapsed; that of the later volumes, pursuant to the 1978 revision of the U. S. Copyright Code, because the copyrights expired and were not renewed at the appropriate times, which would have been in various years up to 1960. (Details here on the copyright law involved.)

Both chapters (large numbers) and sections (small numbers) mark local links, according to a consistent scheme; you can therefore link directly to any passage. Similarly, for citation purposes, the Loeb edition pagination and the frequently used traditional pagination of Casaubon's 1620 edition — down the right-hand and left-hand side of the page respectively — are both indicated by local links in the sourcecode. It should be noticed that the latter usually don't coincide with the sections and chapters, so that if for example your nineteenth-century text refers to "p. 67" you may have to look both at the end of Book I and at the beginning of Book II.

Book Subject page numbers
Casaubon Loeb
1

I.1: Strabo's preface, on the scope and usefulness of geography

1‑14 I:  3

I.2.1‑23: zzz

14‑30 49

I.2.24‑40: zzz

30‑47 111

I.3: zzz

47‑62 173

I.4: zzz

62‑67 231
2

II.1.1‑19: zzz

67‑77 253

II.1.20‑37: zzz [Proofread, but still missing several geometrical figures inserted by the editor]

77‑90 289

II.1.38‑41: Eratosthenes is often wrong, but Hipparchus' corrections are worse.

90‑94 345

II.2: zzz

94‑96 361

II.3: zzz

96‑104 367

II.4: zzz

104‑109 399

II.5.1‑17: zzz

109‑121 419

II.5.18‑43: zzz

121‑136 467
3

III.1: Iberia

136‑141 II:  3

III.2: Iberia

141‑151 19

III.3: Iberia

151‑156 61

III.4: Iberia

156‑167 79

III.5: The islands of Iberia: Baleares, Cassiterides, Gades

167‑176 123
4

IV.1: Transalpine Gaul: Narbonensis

176‑189 163

IV.2: Transalpine Gaul: Aquitania

189‑191 213

IV.3: Transalpine Gaul: Lugdunensis

191‑194 221

IV.4: Transalpine Gaul: W Lugdunensis and Belgica

194‑199 235

IV.5: Britain, Ireland, and Thule

199‑201 253

IV.6: Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy)

201‑209 263
5

V.1: Northern Italy proper (roughly Emilia-Romagna)

209‑218 299

V.2: Tyrrhenia and Umbria (Tuscany, Umbria, and the N Marche)

218‑228 333

V.3: The Sabine lands and Latium

228‑240 375

V.4: Picenum (S Marche) and Campania

240‑251 427
6

VI.1: zzz

252‑265 III:  3

VI.2: Sicily

265‑277 55

VI.3: Iapygia

277‑285 103

VI.4: Summary remarks on Italy and the expansion of Rome

285‑288 137
7

VII.1: Germany

289‑292 151

VII.2: Germans and the Cimbri or Cimmerians

292‑294 165

VII.3: Mysia, Dacia, and the Danube (SE Europe)

294‑308 173

VII.4: The Tauric Chersonese (Crimea)

308‑312 229

VII.5: Illyria and Pannonia

312‑318 249

VII.6: Eastern Dacia and the north shore of the Propontis

318‑320 275

VII.7: Epirus

320‑329 285

Fragments

329‑331 321
8

VIII.1: Greece, generalities

332‑334 IV:  3

VIII.2: The Peloponnesus

335‑336 13

VIII.3: Elea

336‑358 19

VIII.4: Messenia

358‑362 107

VIII.5: Laconia

362‑368 125

VIII.6: Argolis

368‑383 149

VIII.7: Ionia

383‑388 207

VIII.8: Arcadia

388‑389 227
9

IX.1: Attica

390‑400 239

IX.2: Boeotia

400‑416 277

IX.3: Phocis

416‑425 341

IX.4: Locris

425‑429 377

IX.5: Thessaly

429‑444 395
10

X.1: Euboea

444‑449 V:  3

X.2: Acarnania

449‑462 23

X.3: Aetolia

462‑474 75

X.4: Crete

474‑484 121

X.5: The Greek islands (Sporades and Cyclades)

484‑489 161
11

XI.1: Preliminary remarks about Asia

490‑492 183

XI.2: The shore of the Black Sea from the Maeotian Lake to Colchis

492‑499 191

XI.3: Asian Iberia

499‑501 217

XI.4: (Asian) Albania

501‑503 223

XI.5: The Caucasus and the country of the Amazons

503‑506 233

XI.6: The western approaches to the Caspian Sea

506‑508 243

XI.7: Hyrcania

508‑510 249

XI.8: East of the Caspian Sea: the Sacae and the Massagetae

510‑514 259

XI.9: Parthia proper

514‑515 271

XI.10: Aria and Margiana

515‑516 277

XI.11: Bactria

516‑520 279

XI.12: Cis-Tauran Asia and the Taurus

520‑522 295

XI.13: Media

522‑526 303

XI.14: Armenia

526‑533 317
12

XII.1: Cappadocia

533‑535 345

XII.2: Cataonia and Melitene

535‑540 351

XII.3: Pontus, Paphlagonia, Lesser Armenia

540‑563 371

XII.4: Bithynia

563‑566 455

XII.5: Galatia

566‑568 467

XII.6: Lycaonia

568‑569 473

XII.7: Pisidia

569‑571 479

XII.8: Arcadia

571‑580 485
13

XIII.1.1‑27: The Troad and Ilium

581‑595 VI:  3

XIII.1.28‑45: Dardania; Ilium again

595‑603 59

XIII.1.46‑70: The Achaeium, Scepsis, Assus, Adramyttium, Teuthrania

604‑616 91

XIII.2: Lesbos and its minor islands

616‑619 139

XIII.3: The Aeolian cities

619‑623 149

XIII.4: Pergamum, Sardis, Catacecaumene, Hierapolis

623‑631 163
14

XIV.1: Ionia

632‑650 197

XIV.2: Caria

650‑664 263

XIV.3: Lycia

664‑667 311

XIV.4: Pamphylia

667‑668 323

XIV.5: Cilicia

668‑681 327

XIV.6: Cyprus

681‑685 373
15

XV.1.1‑25: India, basic geography

685‑696 VII:  3

XV.1.26‑38: India, animals

696‑703 43

XV.1.39‑73: India, people

703‑720 67

XV.2: Ariana, Gedrosia, and Carmania

720‑727 129

XV.3: Persia proper

727‑736 155
16

XVI.1: Leucania

736‑749 193

XVI.2: Syria — Commagene, Syria proper, Seleucia, Coelesyria (Palestine), Phoenicia

749‑765 239

XVI.3: zzz

765‑767 299

XVI.4: zzz

767‑785 307
17

XVII.1.1‑10: Egypt and Ethiopia

785‑795 VIII:  3

XVII.1.11‑24: Egypt, continued

795‑804 43

XVII.1.25‑54: Egypt, continued

804‑821 77

XVII.2: Ethiopia and Egypt, conclusion

821‑824 141

XVII.3: Libya (North Africa)

824‑840 155

Inconsistencies in the English Translation

Somewhat understandably, since Prof. Jones' edition and translation of Strabo appeared over the course of fifteen years, he fell into a few minor inconsistencies that do not represent any inconsistencies in the Greek text. I've let them stand, but the reader should be aware of them. In addition to fairly frequent inconsistencies of capitalization, hyphenation, diacriticals, and rendering of proper names by Greek-like or Latinate forms, the main ones I noticed:


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