Strabo (pronounced "STRAH-bone"; Greek: Στράβων, romanized: Strábōn; born 64 or 63 BC, died around 24 AD) was an ancient Greek geographer who lived in Asia Minor during the time when the Roman Republic was changing into the Roman Empire. He is most famous for his work Geographica, which provided detailed descriptions of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. In addition, Strabo wrote historical works, but only small parts of these writings remain, as they are found in the writings of other authors.

Early life

Strabo was born into a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus around 64 BC. His family had been active in politics since at least the time of Mithridates V. Strabo was related to Dorylaeus through his mother. Other family members, including his grandfather on his father's side, had worked for Mithridates VI during the Mithridatic Wars. As the war ended, Strabo's grandfather gave up several fortresses in Pontus to the Romans. Strabo wrote that "great promises were made in exchange for these services," and because Persian culture remained in Amaseia even after Mithridates and Tigranes were defeated, scholars have wondered how the family's support for Rome might have changed their standing in the community and if they were given Roman citizenship as a reward.

Education

Strabo received education from several important teachers who specialized in different subjects during his youth. He noted that many of his teachers were respected individuals in their own cities, where he traveled across the Mediterranean. His earliest education took place in Nysa (modern Sultanhisar, Turkey), where he studied rhetoric under Aristodemus, a well-known teacher and the grandson of Posidonius. Aristodemus had previously taught the sons of a Roman general who controlled Pontus. This shows that Greek scholars often taught members of the Roman elite during this time. Aristodemus led two schools—one in Nysa and one in Rhodes. The school in Nysa focused on studying Homeric literature and ancient Greek epics. Strabo admired Homer’s poetry, possibly because of his time with Aristodemus in Nysa.

Strabo was also influenced by Hecataeus and Aristotle.

At about 21 years old, Strabo moved to Rome in 44 BC and remained there, studying and writing until at least 31 BC. He studied philosophy with Xenarchus, a respected teacher in Augustus’s court who followed the ideas of Aristotle. Later, Strabo developed an interest in Stoic philosophy, likely because of his teacher Athenodorus, who also taught Augustus. In Rome, he also studied grammar with Tyrannion of Amisus, a wealthy and famous scholar. Tyrannion was a friend of Cicero and taught his nephew, Quintus. Though Tyrannion was a Peripatetic philosopher, he was also an expert in geography, a subject important to Strabo’s future work.

Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who lived in Rome since 44 BC, was Strabo’s final major teacher. Athenodorus taught Strabo philosophy, shared his knowledge, and introduced him to connections with the Roman elite. Unlike Xenarchus and Tyrannion, who followed Aristotle’s ideas, Athenodorus was a Stoic and likely influenced Strabo to shift away from their teachings. Athenodorus also shared firsthand knowledge about parts of the Roman Empire that Strabo might not have otherwise known. Strabo’s first major work, Historical Sketches (Historica hypomnemata), written in Rome around 20 BC, is mostly lost. It aimed to describe the history of the known world after the Roman conquest of Greece. Strabo and other ancient writers mentioned the work, but only a small piece of it remains—a fragment of papyrus now held by the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46).

Career

Strabo traveled widely during his lifetime. He visited Egypt and Kush, traveled as far west as the coastal area of Tuscany, and as far south as Ethiopia. He also explored Asia Minor and lived in Rome. Traveling across the Mediterranean and Near East was common during this time, especially for scholars, because of the peace during the reign of Augustus (27 BC–AD 14). In 29 BC, while traveling to Corinth (where Augustus was present), Strabo visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile to Philae. There is little record of his travels until AD 17.

It is unclear exactly when Strabo wrote his work Geography, but the text itself suggests it was completed during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some scholars believe the first drafts were written around 7 BC, while others think they began around AD 17 or 18. The latest event mentioned in Geography is the death of Juba II, king of Mauretania, in AD 23, which Strabo described as happening "just recently." He likely worked on Geography for many years, revising it over time. The work is a detailed record covering political, economic, social, cultural, and geographic information about most of Europe and the Mediterranean, including Britain and Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Germania, the Alps, Italy, Greece, the Northern Black Sea region, Anatolia, the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Geography is the only surviving text that provides information about both Greek and Roman peoples and regions during Augustus’s reign.

If "just recently" means within one year, Strabo likely stopped writing in AD 24 or the following year, when he is believed to have died.

Work

Strabo is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which described people and places from different parts of the world that were known during his time.

Although Geographica was not widely used by writers of his era, many copies of the text remained in the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation published around 1469. The first printed version was made in 1516 in Venice. Isaac Casaubon, a scholar who studied and edited Greek texts, created the first critical edition in 1587.

Strabo referenced the work of Greek astronomers Eratosthenes and Hipparchus, recognizing their contributions to geography through math and astronomy. However, he believed that a descriptive approach was more useful than numerical methods. His writings were intended for leaders who were more interested in understanding the cultures and characteristics of regions than in precise measurements.

Because of this, Geographica is a valuable record of the ancient world, especially when its details match information from other sources. Strabo traveled widely, as he wrote: "I have journeyed westward to the parts of Etruria near Sardinia; southward from the Black Sea to the borders of Ethiopia; and perhaps no one who wrote about geography visited as many places as I did between those limits."

It is unclear when Strabo wrote Geographica, but he spent time in the famous library in Alexandria, where he took notes from earlier works. A first version was published in 7 BC, and the final version appeared no later than 23 AD, possibly the last year of his life. It took time for Geographica to be recognized by scholars and become widely accepted.

Alexandria is described in detail in the last book of Geographica, where it is called a busy port city with a strong local economy. Strabo noted the city’s large public parks and wide streets, which could accommodate chariots and horses. He wrote, "Two of these streets are extremely wide, over a plethron in breadth, and cross each other at right angles… All the buildings are connected one with another, and these also with what are beyond it."

Lawrence Kim noted that Strabo supported Roman power in Geographica, praising Rome’s influence in politics and military matters. However, he also tried to highlight Greek cultural importance in other areas.

In Europe, Strabo was the first to link the Danube (which he called Danouios) and the Istros rivers, noting that their names changed at the cataracts, now known as the Iron Gates on the Romanian/Serbian border.

In India, a place he never visited, Strabo described small flying reptiles with snake-like bodies and bat-like wings (a description that matches the Indian flying lizard Draco dussumieri), winged scorpions, and other creatures, both real and mythical.

Charles Lyell, in his book Principles of Geology, wrote about Strabo’s ideas:

Strabo discusses, in the Second Book of his Geography, the opinions of Eratosthenes and other Greeks about a difficult geological problem: how marine shells became buried deep in the earth far from the sea. He mentions Xanthus the Lydian, who suggested that seas had once been larger and had dried up, as many lakes and rivers in Asia had disappeared during droughts. Strabo dismissed this idea and instead considered Strato’s theory, which proposed that rivers depositing large amounts of mud into the Black Sea raised its bed over time. He argued that the Black Sea had once been an inland sea that overflowed to connect with the Sea of Marmara, eventually turning parts of its shore into marshes. Strabo also noted that the Mediterranean might have once opened a passage to the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, and that the abundance of shells near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in Africa could be from a former inland sea that escaped.

Strabo rejected these theories as incomplete and proposed his own explanation. He believed that land and sea levels rise and fall over time, not because seas were once at different heights, but because the ground itself shifts. He argued that earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and sudden changes in the land beneath the sea cause these movements. He wrote, "We must explain these changes by looking at things we can see, like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and sudden rises in the land beneath the sea. These events lift the sea up or cause it to sink back into place." Strabo also noted that large islands and even continents can rise or sink, explaining why some cities and towns have been swallowed by the sea.

In another part of Geographica, Strabo commented on the idea that Sicily was once connected to Italy before being separated by an earthquake. He suggested that the area near the sea now experiences fewer earthquakes because volcanic vents allow pressure to escape. He wrote, "In the past, when volcanoes like Etna, the Lipari Islands, and Ischia were closed, the trapped heat and air might have caused more violent movements." Strabo’s observations about volcanoes acting as "safety valves" to release underground pressure were made long before modern geology recognized this idea.

Strabo also wrote about fossils, mentioning Nummulite (as noted by Celâl Şengör):

One unusual thing I saw near the pyramids must be mentioned. There are piles of stones from quarries in front of the pyramids, and among them are pieces that look like lentils. Some contain substances that resemble half-peeled grains. It is said these are remnants of food turned to stone, but this is unlikely. In my homeland, Amaseia, there is a hill covered in porous stones that look like lentils. Similar questions arise about pebbles found along shorelines and in rivers. While some explanations exist for how these form, the origin of the lentil-like stones near the pyramids remains unclear. I have written elsewhere that near the pyramids, in Arabia, and near the quarries where the pyramids were built, there is a rocky mountain called the Trojan mountain. Beneath it…