This chapter presents a new, annotated translation (approximating English iambics) of the sophisticated poem, preserved in its entirety under the title Oikoumenes periegesis (Guided Tour of the Inhabited World), which was written in skilful Homeric hexameters by Dionysios of Alexandria between AD 130 and 138. The chapter introduction establishes the date of the work, which includes a tribute to Hadrian’s companion Antinoös, and its relationship to other possible works by Dionysios. Its sources may include Strabo, though it is difficult to sift Strabo’s geography from that of his sources. The poem—Hesiodic in conception, Homeric in language, with many echoes of hellenistic poets—is mostly framed in terms of west–east movement, with a north–south progression within each part of the oikoumene. It remained popular in literate society between the 4th century and the late Middle Ages, being translated into Latin twice, copied frequently, annotated intensively, and printed in Greek as early as 1512. The translation replicates the acrostics within the poem, including a fourth one newly discovered.

This chapter presents a new annotated translation (in loose English iambic pentameters) of the two surviving passages of a didactic poem by one Dionysios son of Kalliphon (early to mid-1st century BC), describing mainland Greece and the Aegean in coastal sequence. The chapter introduction evaluates the evidence for the poem’s date, the Stoic influences upon it, and its debts to Artemidoros and Apollodoros; and offers new prosopographical evidence suggesting that the poet was born into intellectual circles at Athens. The work–perhaps a private tribute to an Old Greece that was being overwhelmed by Roman power–left no discernible legacy and has excited surprisingly little scholarly interest. The translation replicates the acrostic that identifies the author’s name.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the philosophical treatise Peri kosmou (often known by the Latin title De mundo), written in approximately the 1st century AD (a much-disputed date) and preserved among the works of Aristotle. The chapter introduction emphasizes the literary polish of the work, and the remarkable way in which it draws accurately upon a late hellenistic understanding of geography, the earth sciences, and cosmology in order to sustain its open-minded, but fundamentally Aristotelian and anti-Stoic, theological position and stimulate readers to immerse themselves more deeply in its philosophy.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments (mostly from Pliny the Elder) of various works by Augustus’ client king Juba II of Mauretania (active c.27 BC–AD 23/4), selected with a focus on geographical material. This is the first such collection of his geographical writings. The chapter introduction emphasizes his links with the former Ptolemaic dynasty through his queen, Kleopatra Selene (daughter of Mark Antony and Kleopatra VII), links which the royal couple kept up through iconography and patronage within their kingdom. Juba’s outstanding literary output can be seen as another reflection of this connexion, aimed at integrating Mauretania into the Greco-Roman cultural sphere and conferring distinction upon the kingdom. His geographical writing embodied travels and researches extending as far as Egypt and western Asia, and was based on a close appreciation of earlier writers including Agatharchides (Chapter 15 of this volume). His wide-ranging cultural and scientific interests are well represented in the extracts, particular highlights being the course of the Nile (believed to have its source within Mauretania), the fauna of the Canary Islands, and the discovery and naming of the plant family Euphorbiaceae, the spurges. A new map illustrates the range of Juba’s geographical interests, spanning the whole longitudinal range of the Roman empire south of the Mediterranean.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the late 6th-century AD expansion and update of Arrian’s Euxine (Chapter 27 of this volume), probably by the same writer as the Hypotypōsis (Chapter 35). In the translation, the many passages deriving almost verbatim from Ps.-Skylax, the Nikomedean Periodos, Arrian, and Menippos are marked as such (following the practice of Diller). The introduction argues that the work merits closer attention than it has received, not least for what it tells us of population movements between the 2nd and 6th centuries. An appendix contains the late Anametresis of the Oikoumene or Perimetros of the Pontos. A new map, matching that for Arrian, includes place-names that had changed since Arrian’s time.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of the geographical writings of the philosopher Dikaiarchos of Messana (late 4th BC), arranged into 15 extracts. The chapter introduction identifies his innovative focus upon physical geography. A new map illustrates Dikaiarchos’ concept of a central parallel of latitude bisecting the inhabited portion of the world; in devising this, he may have been building upon Eudoxos of Knidos (Chapter 6 of this volume). He may have pioneered the measurement of the heights of mountains using triangulation, and the use of noonday shadows to estimate the circumference of the Earth, a technique which Eratosthenes famously took further (Chapter 12) and which in effect adopts the concept of a meridian of longitude.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation (approximating English pentameters) of the anonymous iambic poem sometimes called (without any evidence) ‘Pseudo-Skymnos’ but here ‘the Nikomedean Periodos’ (127/6–74 BC). The surviving, first part of the poem, whose ‘journey’ is arranged clockwise from the western Mediterranean, takes us a little way into the Black Sea. For the next part, dealing with the Black Sea, we have 38 fragments, all but one of which are from the Pseudo-Arrianic Circumnavigation of the Black Sea (Chapter 36 of this volume). Of the remainder we have no trace. The chapter introduction revisits the controversy about the identity of the poem’s author: possibly Apollodoros of Athens, though that suggestion is less secure than has been thought (despite the claimed reading of Apollodoros’ name in a damaged passage of the manuscript); possibly the otherwise unknown Pausanias of Damascus (if he existed). The poem, dedicated to a king Nikomedes of Bithynia, displays the influence of Ephoros and Eratosthenes, as well as responding to Homer. Though innovative, the work had little influence (though the late antique Euxine, Chapter 36 below, repeatedly quotes from it) but remains an important source for scholars investigating Greek colonial foundations in the West. A new map indicates the ‘route’ followed in the poem.

This extract from the Homeric Catalogue of Ships in Iliad book 2 (specifically the Achaean section) stands as a prologue to the collection of texts, reminding us that much ancient Greek geographical writing is a response to Homer, whom authors tended to exalt as the originator of geography. The passage enumerates, with obvious omissions, the allies from Greece and the Aegean who took part in the siege of Troy, arranged in regional ethnic groups, each with its own leader, and names a variety of settlements within each region (or island), the majority of which still existed in the subsequent historical periods. It illustrates the early use of regional identifiers within mainland Greece (and some of the islands), putting down a marker about the longevity of these culture regions throughout the whole ancient history of Greece.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of Hipparchos of Nikaia (active 162–128 BC), arranged as 46 extracts. The chapter introduction reviews Hipparchos’ wide-ranging and original achievements in mathematics, astronomy, and climatology, his rigorous (but occasionally over-sceptical) criticisms of Eratosthenes’ geographical work, and his development of superior models of climatic zones and latitude. Though not a geographer as such, his advances in the mathematical underpinnings of geography were influential.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of an unusual treatise, commonly known by the Latin name De fluviis, preserved among the works of Plutarch and probably written between AD 100 and 250. The chapter introduction discusses the work’s date and authorship; notes the author’s preference for stories about Greece and places to the east as far afield as India, as well as his tendency to misidentify his literary sources when he does not actually invent them; and explains the repetitive organization of its 25 sections. These offer mythological explanations (often erotic, homicidal, or suicidal) for changes of names in rivers and mountains, as shaped by the recurrent themes of retribution and vindication of those who suffer injustice. On a factual level, the geography is lamentable, but the author’s examples of stones and plants with miraculous properties—often related to the fates of the individuals in the stories, though sometimes to the intrinsic properties of the rivers they feature—are sometimes confirmed by other sources. Presumably ‘the author knew his audience’.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the short Hypotypōsis (Outline) of Geography by one Agathemeros son of Orthon, written around AD 125–50, probably as a new preface to Arrian’s collection of geographical works (like the later Hypotypōsis in Chapter 35). The chapter introduction identifies its value as a summative account of hellenistic views of geography, showing as yet no influence from Ptolemy and citing no sources later than Poseidonios. The work outlines the succession of geographers, different versions of the wind rose, and the main parts of the inhabited world and its dimensions, and closes with a catalogue of islands. It is important as a source of information about Artemidoros and other earlier writers.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the extensive summaries and paraphrases of books 1 and 5 of Agatharchides’ lost work On the Erythraian Sea (written c.145 BC) that were made by Diodoros (book 3), Strabo (book 16), and especially Photios (Bibliotheke, codices 213 and 250). Additional testimonia and fragments are arranged as five extracts. The chapter introduction reviews Agatharchides’ career, his writings, and his scholarly milieux in Alexandria and later (probably) Athens, and upholds the view that On the Erythraian Sea was a self-contained work, not part of a larger whole. The geographical and ethnographic material in this work–a historical work–is distinctive for being based on information from Ptolemaic commanders and explorers, and remarkable for its sympathy with some of the Ptolemies’ oppressed subjects. Agatharchides’ depiction of these peoples implies an evolutionary scheme of development–from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists to farmers–such as Dikaiarchos (Chapter 9 of this volume) had suggested in his philosophical works. The surviving summaries include remarkable passages on elephant-hunting and the sufferings of gold-miners; but Agatharchides’ work was more often accessed through its reworking by Artemidoros (Chapter 18) than read in its own right. A new map highlights the principal places and peoples mentioned by Agatharchides in East Africa and Arabia.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of the much-travelled Poseidonios of Apameia (c.135–c.51 BC), selected for their geographical content and arranged as 75 extracts. (Translations of passages of Strabo are adapted with permission from the work of D. W. Roller, and a lengthy passage of Priscianus Lydus from the translation by I. G. Kidd.) The chapter introduction notes the bias introduced into our understanding of Poseidonios’ geography by the particular interests of Strabo and Athenaios, the commonest sources of extracts; and demonstrates Poseidonios’ achievement in integrating cosmology, philosophy, and geographical thought. Prominent advances made by his writing are in areas such as the tides, climatic zones, and the interaction of humankind with the natural environment.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the Ora maritima, a poem in Latin iambics preserved incompletely under the name of Avienus (or rather Avienius), who can be identified with a Roman aristocrat of the mid-4th century AD. The translation approximates a metrical form. The extant portion of the poem describes the coast from Brittany to Massalia, citing early sources (not necessarily consulted at first hand) including Himilco of Carthage. The chapter introduction examines the identification of the author with a known aristocrat, and sees the Ora as part of a systematic exposition of the earth, sea, and heavens; it is, furthermore, not a translation but a development of the available material. Avienus adds observations from his reading, or in one place from autopsy, but seems usually to be working off one earlier source, perhaps Apollodoros of Athens (2nd century BC) or the archaic ‘Massaliote periplous’ whose existence has been deduced. If this be the case, the poem preserves valuable knowledge of the Atlantic coasts in early times. A new map shows the principal locations in Iberia that are named in the poem.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the scanty testimonia and fragments of Skymnos of Chios (early 2nd century BC), arranged as eight extracts. The introduction reviews his outputs: works on Europe and Asia totalling at least 16 books, perhaps following an anti-clockwise sequence; possibly also on Libye (Africa). His work extends to Britain and the Black Sea, and evinces an interest in colonial origins, mythical geography, and botany. He has plausibly been identified with a known Skymnos of Chios alive in the 180s. His inclusion is justified because in the 17th century he was proposed as the poet of the Nikomedean Periodos (Chapter 17 of this volume), for which association there is, however, no manuscript evidence and which is impossible on chronological grounds.