18 - Artemidoros of Ephesos

Summary

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.