This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of Timosthenes of Rhodes (active 282–246 BC), arranged as 37 extracts. An appendix contains a new translation of Aristotle’s discussion of the winds at Meteorologika, 2. 6. The chapter introduction addresses the difficulty of linking references to Timosthenes to the various book titles of which we have reports, but argues that we should not automatically divorce him from the Timosthenes who wrote about the Pythian Melody of Delphi. His distinctive contribution to geography was in assembling detailed navigational data, particularly specific local topography useful to ship-captains. Typically of literary writers, however, he enlivened his technical material with information about local cultures. His legacy was considerable, probably visible, for example, in the Roman-period Stadiasmos (Chapter 31 of this volume).

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of Pytheas of Massalia (active c.330–c.320 BC), arranged as 32 extracts. (Translations of passages from Strabo are adapted with permission from the work of D. W. Roller.) The chapter introduction observes the difficulty of assessing Pytheas accurately, given the dominance of Strabo’s testimony, to which alone we owe our knowledge of the criticisms of the Massaliote by Polybios, perhaps arising from class prejudice; but defends his reputation, as recent scholarship has tended to do, and relates him to contemporary activity in Aristotle’s Peripatos (Lyceum). Although Pytheas owed much to earlier Massaliote voyagers, he is an important and original figure, particularly for his application of mathematical astronomy to questions of latitude and the tides. A new map shows the key points in his travels around northern Atlantic coasts and the British Isles, including the possible locations of Thule.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the anonymous Stadiasmos, written no later than the 3rd century AD but possibly as early as the 1st, whose surviving extracts add up to a gazetteer of towns, harbour facilities, and distances from Tunisia around the eastern Mediterranean as far as the southern Aegean. The chapter introduction discusses the author’s use of technical terms and their meanings, and the work’s relationship to the Latin Maritime Itinerary, suggesting that in light of its detailed navigational content it was probably a ‘piloting manual’ rather than a desk-based study for an ‘armchair geographer’ or an administrative document. Four new maps show a selection of places along the coasts described.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation melding the two Latin versions of one text: first, the Expositio totius mundi et gentium (Account of the Whole World and its Peoples); second, the Orbis descriptio (Description of the Globe) preserved under the name of Iunior Philosophus, which includes additional material. The chapter introduction shows how the work, dating to around the mid-4th century AD, is an impressionistic outline of world geography region by region, focused upon the East and characterized by subjective judgements about non-Roman peoples; maybe originally written in Greek or a third language; possibly by someone with commercial interests and a home in the eastern Mediterranean area. The value of the work may lie in what it tells us about semi-popular knowledge of world geography.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of the much-travelled Artemidoros of Ephesos (active 104–100 BC), arranged as 167 extracts. (Translations of passages from Strabo are adapted with permission from the work of D. W. Roller.) This is the first complete collection of the remains of Artemidoros’ geographical writing since the mid-19th century. Extract 167 is a new translation of the so-called Artemidoros Papyrus of early Roman date, which probably preserves a damaged passage from his description of Iberia, but whose authenticity has been challenged (unconvincingly, in the present writer’s view). An appendix contains, for completeness’ sake, the so-called Munich fragment on the Nile, preserved in a 16th-century manuscript but no longer attributed to Artemidoros. The chapter introduction restores Artemidoros to his leading position among Hellenistic geographers, reflected in the frequency of citations by later writers; and argues that the distances within Iberia reported in the Papyrus are related to measurements in Roman miles. A new map shows the Iberian places mentioned in the Papyrus.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the surviving passage of Isidoros of Charax’s Parthian Stations (written around AD 1–14), together with testimonia and fragments (mostly from Pliny the Elder) arranged as 21 extracts. The chapter introduction shows that Isidoros’ geographical work on the far east of the Roman world, commissioned by Augustus, was far more wide-ranging that the short text we have, which lists stathmoi (stations, stopping-points) within Parthia alone. Partly based upon Artemidoros, it is ‘the only surviving example in Greek of a type of record commonly found in Latin’. New maps show the western and eastern halves of this part of Isidoros’ itinerary, spanning from Mesopotamia to eastern Afghanistan.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the purported Circumnavigation by Hanno of Carthage, preserved in one of the two major manuscript collections of Greek geography. It narrates an expedition round the coast of north-western Africa, perhaps as far as Cameroon. Selected testimonia and fragments are arranged as nine extracts. The chapter introduction outlines the main controversies surrounding the text–whether it is a genuine 5th-century BC work; whether it was translated from the Punic; whether it records an actual voyage–while the notes assess details of the content, such as the apparent description of an encounter with gorillas. A new map illustrates the possible extent of the journey.

This full introduction compares geography today and in antiquity, and characterizes its place in modern Classical scholarship. It asks whether Greek geographical writings have been classified correctly, and offers new perspectives on the social context in which they were composed, emphasizing their grounding in lived experience. Concepts such as periplous are explained, but the use of ‘genre’ to account for the forms of prose writing that we possess is questioned. This leads to a discussion of the helpful notion of ‘common sense geography’. The characteristic topics covered by Greek geographers are surveyed, with a particular focus on change and instability. Discussion of techniques of distance measurement on land and at sea, the role of maps in antiquity, and ‘mental mapping’ is followed by a detailed survey of extant geographical writings and of geographical material within ancient philosophy, historiography, and poetry. I complete the chapter with a discussion of the texts selected for the volume, the fragile transmission process by which these mainly short or fragmentary texts have survived, the organization of the volume, and how the translation process has been managed.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the three fragments of a satirical sketch of southern Greek communities, now attributed to one Herakleides Kritikos and probably written between 279 and 239 BC, together with an additional testimonium. An appendix presents a fragmentary papyrus (P. Hawara 80–1) containing a contemporary description of the Piraeus. The chapter introduction recognizes the literary and performative character of the text, its selective use of geographical information (as far as we can judge from the surviving passages, extending from Attica to Thessaly where we have the original ending of the work), its use of irony, and its geopolitical claims about the extent of ‘Hellas’. A new map clarifies the route followed by the first part of the text.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the Circumnavigation of the Erythraian Sea (commonly known by the Latin title Periplus maris Erythraei or PME). Erroneously attributed to Arrian (see Chapter 27 of this volume), it was probably written in the 1st century AD, a generation or two before he was active, by a Greek-speaker from Egypt. The chapter introduction shows how the work is unlike any other that we have, in being a detailed overview of regions east of Egypt from the point of view of an experienced trader (possibly the Sosandros named by Markianos in Chapter 34), though also drawing upon a variety of written sources of disparate character. Consequently, we are presented with a combination of navigational information, useful to those commissioning or planning trade voyages, with enlivening facts such as marvels (paradoxa) that signify to the reader that its author is an educated man. He had perhaps been recruited to write a handbook for merchants, at a time when Roman naval presence in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean was increasing. Most famously, the work contains a plethora of information about specific commodities traded in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, exports from particular ports, and where those goods originated. A detailed map shows many of the ports mentioned in the text, while another clarifies the relationship between the prevailing winds of the Indian Ocean and the maritime itineraries described.

Chapter 1 sets out the main questions and contentions in the book. It explores the concept of freedom and identifies it as a central concept in Athenian democratic ideology in both the private and public spheres. Scholarly debates on the concept of freedom are outlined, with an especial emphasis on Isaiah Berlin’s notion of positive and negative freedom and its application to Athens in subsequent scholarship. Distinguishing democratic freedom from negative and republican versions, I argue that Athenians understood freedom as the ability to do “whatever one wished,” which I classify as a modified version of positive freedom. The focus on citizen agency in accomplishing his will differentiates Athenian democracy from other constitution types and affects its institutional features. The chapter closes with a brief overview of the rest of the chapters.

In an epistle written around the early ninth century, the Babylonian Jewish polemicist Pirqoi ben Baboi chastised Jewish communities around the Mediterranean for adopting certain Palestinian practices that he dubbed “customs of persecution” (minhagey shmad).1 He contended that these customs were not products of the authentic continuous transmission of Jewish tradition extending back to Moses on Mount Sinai, but erroneous corruptions introduced as a result of Roman persecution of Jews. The Babylonian rabbinic tradition, by contrast, was more authentic because Jews had enjoyed consistently peaceable conditions under Persian rule. They were therefore free to practice and preserve traditional Jewish law accurately in an over millennium-long unbroken chain of transmission.

The freedom and power of citizens was buttressed by the exclusionary effects on non-citizens. My reading of Apollodoros’ Against Neaira ([Dem.] 59) in Chapter 5 exemplifies the practical results of the ideology of freedom on all levels of Athenian society. The case calls into question the limits of citizenship and demonstrates how a status transgression can impair the jury’s own power. The prosecution speech alleges that Neaira, a resident foreigner, is guilty of pretending to be a citizen. As a foreign, female sex laborer, Neaira represents the antithesis of the model citizen. Neaira’s arrogation of citizenship privileges, however, gives her a measure of positive freedom and power. In contrast to other readings, I show that power struggles are crucial to analyzing the prosecution’s arguments. The prosecution attempts to show that instead of doing “whatever she wishes,” Neaira deserves to be subject to others doing “whatever they wish” to her. Apollodoros’ characterization of her transgressions as destabilizing citizenship indicates the centrality of autonomy and power to citizen identity. Hence, the importance of positive freedom was not simply theoretical, but practical.