A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

920 STRABO. STRABO.
peius Magnus. (Plutarch, Pomspeius, c. 37, 42.) In the seventeenth and last book Strabo describes
Metrodorus of Scepsis, Hypsicrates of Amisus, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the north coast, of Libya. lHe
and Clitarchus, were also his authorities. For the had seen all Egypt as far as the first cataracts, and
second part he had Patrocles, and Aristobulus, who his description of this country and of its ancient
described the campaigns of Alexander, Eratosthenes, monuments is one of the most complete parts of his
Herodotus, and Posidonius; and for the third the work. Besides the information that he could collect
historians of the Mithridatic War. in Alexandria, he had Eratosthenes, Eudorus,
With the twelfth book begins the description of Aristo, Polybius, and Posidonius. For the AmAsia Minor, and treats of the northern part. monium he had the historians of Alexander, whom
Strabo had not seen all this tract himself, and the Arrian afterwards used; and for Ethiopia the auchief part of his knowledge was derived from oral thority of Petronius, who had carried on war
information and the Greek historians. The de- there, and also Agatharchides and Herodotus. As
scription of Asia Minor is continued in the thir- to the country of the Libyans and the tribes Strabo
teenth book, but is confined to some districts of the says little that is new; but he made use of Eranorth-western coast and the island of Lesbus. He tosthenes, Artemidorus, Posidonius, and Iphicrates,
devotes, as we might expect, a large space to the who wrote a work on the plants and animals of
Troad, which he had doubtless visited, and he Libya.
avails himself of Homer and the researches of Strabo's historical work is mentioned byJosephus
Demetrius of Scepsis. This book contains much (Jewish Antiq. xiv. 7) and by Plutarch. His geogramythological and historical matter for which there phical work is only mentioned by Marcianus of
were ample materials in Ephorus, Hellanicus, Heraclea, at the commencement of his Periplus,
Charon, Menecrates, and many other Greek writers. Athenaeus, and by Harpocration, in his Lexicon of
His dissertation on the Leleges, Cilicians, and Pe- the Ten Orators (AELXaiov, AeuKas). It was largely
lasgi, who once inhabited the coast of Aeolis and of used by Stephanus of Byzantium, in the fifth
Ionia, is chiefly from Menecrates and Demetrius of century. It is not quoted by Pausanias, which is
Scepsis. not surprising; but it is somewhat singular that
The fourteenth book contains the description of Plinius does not refer to it in his Natural History,
the other parts of Asia Minor, Ionia, Caria, the a circumstance which justifies the conclusion that
islands Samos, Chios, Rhodos, the countries Lycia, he was not acquainted with the work. Copies of
Pamphylia, and Cilicia, and the island Cyprus. the geography were probably dear, which will exIn addition to the authorities which he had for the plain its not being much in circulation, though the
thirteenth book, he adds for this book also Phere- expense alone would not have prevented Plinius
cydes of Syros, for the Milesian colonies Anaxi- from getting it. "How much happier are we,"
menes of Lampsacus, and Herodotus, Thucydides, exclaims Groskurd, with true Philhellenic enEphorus, Artemidorus, Eratosthenes, and Posi- thusiasm, "to whom the old Greek authors are
donius. now offered in unlimited abundance and in threeThe fifteenth and sixteenth books contain the silver-groschen-little-volumes (dreisilbergroschendescription of the second great division of Asia,the bindchen)."
southern, or the part on that side of Taurus. The If, then, there were few copies of Strabo, it is
fifteenth book contains.the description of India and something of an accident that the work exists at
Persia, which Strabo never visited. His descrip- all; and it seems probable that the extant MSS.
tion of India is very imperfect as a geographical may all owe their origin to some one that existed
description, but it contains much valuable matter, in the middle ages. This inference appears to folparticularly about the people, which he derived low from the fact of the great corruption of Strabo's
from the historians of Alexander and of the cam- text, and the general agreement of all MSS. which
paigns of Seleucus in India. Patrocles, Aristo- have hitherto been collated in their lacunae and
bulus, and Nearchus, the two last of whom we errors, for slight discrepancies in MSS. naturally
know how to estimate by the aid of Arrian, he result from copying, especially when the copyist is
judiciously made his chief authorities. He also not a critic.' The great lacuna at the end of the
used Megasthenes, Onesicritus, Deimachus, and seventh book is found in all the MSS.; but there
Clitarchus, but he did not put confidence in them. must have been some MSS. on which was framed
For East Persia, or Ariana, Eratosthenes is his the Epitome which occupies the place of the original
thief authority; for West Persia, or Persia Proper, text, now deficient. The valuable MS. now at
he had Aristobulus and Polycletus of Larissa, who Paris (Cod. Par. 1393; in Falconer's edition,
wrote a history of Alexander; and he derived Par. 3) was brought from Asia in 1732, by the
something from Herodotus. Abbe Sevin.
In the sixteenth book he treats of Assyria, with An Epitome or Chrestomatheia of Strabo was
Babylonia and Mesopotamia, Syria with Phoenicia made by an unknown author, probably about A. D.
and Palestine, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and 980. It is printed in the second volume of Hudthe coast of Ethiopia, and Arabia. His chief au- son's Minor Geographers, and in the editions of
thorities for Assyria, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia, Falconer and Koray. This epitome, which has all
were some of the historians of Alexander, and the faults inherent in an epitome, and some that
Eratosthenes, Posidonius, and Herodotus: for the are not unavoidable, extends to the whole work,
other parts, Eratosthenes, Posidonius, and Artemi- and is of some use, as it has been made from a
dorus. His description of Arabia and the adjacent MS. different from any that exist. Another
coast of Libya is founded on Eratosthenes and epitome, still in MS., was made by the monk
Artemidorus, but Artemidorus derived materials Maximus Planudes about 1350; and excerpts from
for his description of the Red Sea from Agathar- the first ten books made by Pletho, the teacher of
chides of Cnidos. Strabo also obtained oral in- Cardinal Bessarion, are still in MS. The excerpts
formation about Arabia from his friends Aelius were collated by Siebenkees, and used in the SieGallus and the Stoic Athenodorus. benkees-Tzschucke edition.