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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2016
Geography is a broad and diverse area of study, a large tree with many branches. The different branches are so different that they tended even in antiquity – with less subject specialization and more polymaths – to be pursued by different people. The main types are (i) human geography, focusing on the landscape of human life, (ii) physical geography, focusing on the land, sea, and sky, and (iii) mathematical geography, focusing on mathematical modelling of aspects of physical and human geography. Where geography and biology meet, we now have ecology and environmental science. This tends in ancient authors to be dealt with under biology and agriculture. The more sophisticated works, such as Theophrastos’ works on botany, consider the effect of geology, soils and microclimates on plant physiology and growth.
Ptolemy practised mathematical geography, and his reconstructed maps often feature as frontispieces in modern books on the history of geography. He scorns human geography of the type written by his predecessor Strabo, much as Thoukudides scorns his predecessor Herodotos’ type of history. We won’t push the analogy while noting that Ptolemy’s Geography is about as much fun to read as a telephone book, which it resembles, strongly. Strabo, for his part, complained that his predecessor Poseidonios’ On the Ocean has too much mathematics and astronomy in it for geographers like himself (so too for would-be writers of geography like Cicero).
1 e.g. modern categories of urban and regional geography, historical geography, cultural geography.
2 e.g. modern geomorphology, geology, oceanography, and meteorology.
3 e.g. modern cartography, GIS (Geographic information systems), and spatial interaction.
4 Strabo 2.2.1. See Heiberg 1922 p. 79. Strabo also criticizes Poseidonios for being too ‘physical’ (e.g. 1.3.12) and theoretical in the Aristotelian mould (e.g. 2.3.8).
5 For example, following a discussion of optical illusions and atmospheric phenomena, he tells the story of Hostius Quadra’s mirrored bedroom and what perverted things went on there, NQ 1.16; in 3.17-18 he describes the slow death of a fish (a red mullet) on a diner’s plate; in 4A pref. 17 Caligula’s tortures and brutality; in 6.1-2 numerous ways to die from natural causes; and in 7.31 self-castration, among other things.
6 Such scenes in ancient literature are usually assumed to have been included for their moralizing role (though that is not the usual explanation for such scenes in modern films), but that hardly explains the precise form that they take.
7 The latter association probably arose because most epicentres were underwater, causing tsunami; for an ancient explanation of the association see Seneca NQ 6.23.4.
8 Seneca has received quite a lot of attention in the last two decades, although much more of it is concerned with his literary works (tragedies, letters, and the like) or with the difference between the morals he professes and his actual behaviour, than with his Natural Questions. Rosenmeyer 1989 has attempted to link the two areas of Seneca’s activity. For an introduction to Stoicism see Sandbach 1975 or Sharpies 1996.
9 There is full discussion of this map in Dilke 1985 pp. 41-53.
10 This obviously relates to governors who were not born into the area they govern, as appropriate for the Roman empire.
11 Strabo’s view on the unprofitability of invading Britain is interesting in this regard; 2.5.8 Cl15 end-Cl16. Meeting the needs of state is also illustrated by Arrian’s Periplous of the Euxine (voyage round the Black Sea) which is written in the form of a letter to the emperor Hadrian; Arrian was legate of Cappadocia, probably when he researched if not wrote it. The same Arrian wrote the best ancient history of the expedition of Alexander the Great (the Anabasis), a description of India (the Indika) and a handbook on military tactics (the Tekhne Taktika), amongst other things.
12 See Sheikh ‘Ibada al-Nubi 1997.
13 See Rihll 1993.
14 Conveniently (and translated) in Schoff (ed.), Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations p. 42.
15 History of Ancient Geography, Preface p. xi, emphasis added.
16 For example, it is only since the eruption of Mount St Helens (1980) that we have finally understood the type of eruption which corresponds with and explains the ancient descriptions of Vesuvius’ catastrophic eruption and the archaeological evidence of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
17 Except, of course, for a brief mention of Eratosthenes’ calculation of the circumference of the earth, raised, of course, in the context of astronomy, p. 98, mentioned again on p. 144. Lindberg does say that Capella failed to understand Eratosthenes’ method, but he does not indicate that Capella is not even consistent: his character Geometry gives a figure of 252,000 stades (596), whilst later Astronomy says (858) that Geometry had said 406,010 stades! For an assessment of Capella see Stahl 1971.
18 Purcell 1996; this volume of papers by diverse hands is devoted to environment and culture.
19 There is a good discussion of these, with extracts in English translation, in Dilke 1985 chapter 9.
20 The text and testimonia concerning Pytheas have been edited and translated by Roseman 1994.
21 Indeed, this observation needed more effort to believe: Herodotos didn’t.
22 As Rusten notes in the new Loeb edition (1992), this section (along with sections 6-10) seems to have been misplaced during transmission of the text, and to belong not to the obsequious character but to some other such as the man of petty ambition, on which see continuation of the main text.
23 See Strabo 1.2.6, naming Kadmos and Pherekydes with Hekataios as early prose writers. Pliny NH 7.205 and Suda s.v. Ферстѕ name only the first two, but the latter contradicts himself and names Hekataios with Pherekydes s.v. ‘Екатшоѕ Ήγησάνδρου.
24 On Hekataios see Bunbury 1879 vol. 1 chapter 5. Hekataios was a resident of a Greek city under Persian rule; given his role in the Ionian Revolt (499-3), the gathering of this information might be considered ‘intelligence’.
25 The name means ‘cross-eyed’, but does not necessarily mean that his eyesight was impaired. Pliny reports the case of another called Strabo who reputedly could see ships passing out of the harbour of Carthage while standing in Lilybaeum in Sicily (123 Roman miles away), NH 7.85.
26 Another work of the same title is attributed to Agatharkides.
27 Modern Bahruch, 21°42∲N, 72°59∲E.
28 Periplous p. 183 n. 45.
29 Eratosthenes’ computation of the circumference of the earth is discussed in many places. See Cohen and Drabkin 1966 pp. 149-53 for the primary sources.
30 1.14.5-6, conveniently in Barnes 1987 p. 99. Herodotos made a similar observation in Egypt, 2.12; Strabo tells us of more observations by others, e.g. of cockle and scallop shells in Armenia and Phrygia observed by Xanthos of Lydia (C5 B.C.), and vast numbers of shells seen thousands of stadia from the coast of Egypt observed by Eratosthenes and Strato, 1.3.4. Theophrastos’ lost work On Things Turned to Stone perhaps concerned fossils.
31 Although attributed to Theophrastos, and Theophrastos certainly wrote a work with this name, the authenticity of the treatise which has survived to us is now doubted; see Cronin 1992.
32 Recently published with the Syriac fragments, the Syriac and Arabic translations, and an English translation and commentary, by Daiber 1992.
33 See Aristotle Meteorology 2.7-8, Strabo 1.3.16-20, and Seneca NQ 6.4-31 for reviews of earlier philosophies, and places and things said to have been ripped apart in the same way, though usually lacking the geological detail of the Philostratos passage. The earliest reference to Tempe being torn apart by an earthquake is Herodotos 7.129. Another example of the interpenetration of ‘arts’ and ‘science’ is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Pythagoras can be found giving a lecture on geology, 15.66-71, 262-356.
34 As any cook (and Pliny, NH 10.75) knows, but Aristotle does not mention, bad eggs float - so make sure it is a fresh egg. Test by immersion in fresh water: if it sinks, it’s fresh. Then try it in a strong brine. The same experiment is repeated in [Aristotle] Plants 2.2,824al5-26, which also goes on to talk about the Dead Sea, calling it such.
35 Meteorology 2.3. What was for him ‘fabled’ is probably the Dead Sea.
36 See e.g. Meteorology 2.8: ‘it has been known to happen that an earthquake has continued until the wind that caused it burst through the earth into the air.’ Aristotle’s underground winds sometimes burst out not just violently but also on fire. Hence for him earthquakes and volcanoes were very closely related.
37 Which came down in the MS tradition under the name of Virgil, but is now thought by most not to have been written by him; the author was perhaps Seneca’s correspondent Lucilius Junior, Procurator of Sicily. Goodyear 1965 pp. 56-9 discusses all ascriptions that have been offered in his Aetna edition with introduction and commentary (but no translation). The text with translation is in the Loeb ‘Minor Latin Poets’ volume trans. J. W. and A. M. Duff. It should be noted that the MSS of this text are pretty corrupt and the apparatus extensive, so the text should be checked before any great weight is placed on a particular word or line.
38 It is interesting to compare this with Strabo’s earlier account of Etna in Geography 6.2.
39 He makes disparaging remarks about other sciences, such as astronomy or botany, as being less relevant to man or trivial respectively (e.g. 252-73; 265-70 seems to refer to Theophrastos’ concern with soils), but saves his most satirical comments for mythographers (e.g. 17-23, 74-93) and superficial sightseers who ogle at natural phenomena but do not seek to understand them (569- 600).
40 Paisley and Oldroyd 1979 have a useful table (p. 12) showing the many and varied scientific ideas which have influenced the author of the Aetna.
41 Etna normally erupts basaltic lavas, which have relatively low viscosity, so flow and spread more easily than some other types. Since 1535 Etna has erupted less than 4 cubic kilometres of lava, and the largest single flow within that time was half a cubic kilometre; Cas and Wright 1987 p. 62. At times, however, it has been capable of pushing lava out more than 18 km from the summit, as in 44 B.C. On that eruption, and its effects on atmospheric visibility in Rome and the Caesar comet, with all relevant primary sources in English translation as well as in the original, and a very useful up-to-date bibliography, see Ramsey (classicist) and Licht (physicist) 1997.
42 The temperature of Etna magma was measured at between 1050 and 1125°C over the period 1970-75, Cas and Wright 1987 p. 19 table 2.2.
43 Which were so at variance with received wisdom when Cohen and Drabkin wrote that they omitted them from their sourcebook. Pliny the Younger’s letter to Tacitus, Letters 6.16 is the main source for the Vesuvian eruption and the Elder Pliny’s death. Pliny is now the eponym for a type of eruption the cloud form of which he described as ‘like an umbrella pine’ (plinian, with refinement types sub-plinian, ultra-plinian and phreatoplinian). He would be pleased: ‘I know that immortal fame awaits him if his death is recorded by you’ he said to Tacitus, though it is Pliny the Younger’s record rather than Tacitus’ which assured him of that fame.
44 On which see e.g. Foxworthy and Hill 1982 for an excellent non-technical and illustrated account.
45 David Johnston, who was observing the volcano nearly 6 miles from the summit.
46 For a long time Vesuvius and Pompeii have been an archaeogeological mystery. Bodies found on dense layers of ash indicate that the volcano had been actively pouring pumice and ash into the atmosphere for some time but also that the inhabitants had felt secure enough not to flee. When the end came however, it came so quickly that people were caught wherever they were. Hundreds of people in Herculaneum who had time to run and tried to find refuge in doored arched storage caverns were nevertheless exposed to such surface temperatures that a hand raised to protect the face was burnt to the bone, while the other hand, unexposed to the blast, was not. This was clearly not the kind of eruption where lava flowed sedately downhill or ash rained gently from the skies for months. With the eruption of Mount St Helens the nature of pyroclastic flows and the forces of lateral blast have become much better known to modern volcanology. The St Helens’ blast cloud travelled at speeds of about 220-250 miles per hour, and had a temperature of about 360°C (680°F). The contortions of the bodies were explained by the similar type of eruptions on Monserrat in 1997, in which 19 people died: pyroclastic flows can be so intensely hot and can arrive so quickly that the muscles and ligaments are seared, contracting and making the limbs bend. This is consistent with the archaeological record of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
47 A pyroclastic flow is a flow of hot, dry, fragmented volcanic debris, largely pumice and rock fragments, carried in a fluid medium of heated air and other gases; Major and Scott 1988 p. 5. For a good discussion of ancient volcanic activity, with full reference to the primary sources which tell of the historical effects (e.g. on the ‘gloomy year’ 44 B.C. when the sun seemed dimmed and crops failed, as a result of Etna’s volcanic aerosols in the upper atmosphere), see Stomers and Rampino 1983.
48 Only one specifically geographical work is known, On the Ocean (lost). The fragments are collected in Edelstein and Kidd 1972. His student Geminos wrote a Commentary on Poseidonios’ work on astronomy, and an Epitome of that commentary which survives in the modified form of a textbook. A long excerpt of this Epitome, translated literally, can be found in Farrington 1944 vol. 2 pp. 139-42.
49 Another Stoic, Khairemon, wrote a lost work On Comets, which seems to have been concerned at least partly with their astrological significance; see Origen, Contra Celsum 1.59.
50 Via Varro; Pliny frequently used Latin translations and epitomes of Greek works, or Latin compilations of data drawn from Greek and Italian sources, e.g. Celsus.
51 On Stoicism and Rome, see Colish 1990.
52 In 67 B.C. Kidd 1988 vol. 1 pp. 16-17 follows Laffranque in preferring the 90s B.C. for Poseidonios’ trip to Spain, but suggests that perhaps he did not publish On the Ocean until the 70s (p. 220). This implies what seems to me to be an implausibly long gap between research and publication for a man who studied, wrote and published on a wide variety of subjects. Strabo 11.1.6 says that Pompey visited Poseidonios during his command against the pirates, and before he campaigned against Mithridates. However, Kidd describes Strabo’s criticisms of Poseidonios here as ‘weird, confused and petty’ (vol. 2 p. 741), and Strabo’s account makes difficulties for the standard chronology of Poseidonios’ life and works. The core of the story is that Poseidonios and Pompey were in personal contact at about the time of the pirate campaign. Perhaps Poseidonios was on the pirate campaign, with the Rhodian contingent in Pompey’s forces. As he is thought to have been born c 135, and visited Rome for the last time in 51 (aged at least 84), the chronology is possible. See also Cicero Tuse. Disp. 2.61, Pliny NH 7.112, and Plutarch Pompey 42.5, Edelstein and Kidd T35, 36-9.
53 See Strabo 3.5.8-9. See also Kidd’s commentary and diagrams, vol. 2 on frg. 217b.
54 1955, p. 121, who adds that five separate books on astrology are attributed to Poseidonios, and that St Augustine studied them. These books are normally known by an alias which is more respectable in the modem world, namely On Divination. Kidd takes a more defensive line on Poseidonios’ astrological interests, Comm. vol. 1 pp. 59-60.
55 This passage contains reference to vinegar being used as fire extinguisher, alternatively mud, alum, or bird-lime, in circumstances where water will not work unless used in huge quantities.
56 6.21.1. Hine ad loc. 2.26 remarks that Seneca’s account of this contemporary event, brief in contrast to those fuller reports by earlier authors of earlier events, should be seen in context: Seneca was in exile on Corsica at the time (A.D. 46) and may have found information-gathering difficult.
57 e.g. 1.3.4-5. The general point is in Aristotle Meteorology 1.14, who also noted that this process ‘takes place so gradually and in periods of time which are so immense compared with the length of our life, that these changes are not observed’, for which we now have the phrase ‘geological time’.
58 On which see p. 113 n. 37 below.
59 See e.g. Aristotle Meteorobgy 1.9 346b-349bl0.
60 See e.g. Aristotle Meteorobgy 2.5 361b32-5 on Orion for a ‘folk-lore’-type correlation and Hipparkhos Frag. L (with commentary) in Dicks, 1960, pp. 54-5 and 111-12, for correlations (and predictions) based on a body of historical records and observations made by Hipparkhos himself.
61 See e.g. Epidemics 1.1, a summary of the year’s weather preceding an epidemic of mumps on Thasos.
62 See e.g. Theophrastos On Weather-signs 22.
63 See e.g. [Aristotle] Problems 26.61.
64 Berthon and Robinson 1991 p. 27.
65 See Needham 1962 §26 pp. 249, 261-79, 314-34. The ‘spoon’ is the Chinese name for the constellation we call Ursa Major, the Great Bear or Big Dipper, which circles the north celestial pole.
66 Augustus’ lost Epitome of the empire and description of Italy suggests that this is where Agrippa’s patron’s interests, if not his own, really lay.
67 See e.g. Metraux 1978 pp. 59-75 on Herakleia in south Italy.
68 Archimedes’ own sphere was taken to the Temple of Virtue in Rome, Cicero Rep. 1.21-2. Strabo 1.3.3 refers to a sphere-lathe, a machining tool for producing perfect spheres.
69 On which see Dilke 1985 chapter 8.
70 See Field 1996 p. 111.
71 See e.g. Strabo 2.5.10-11, C116-7, assuming that people will make a 2D map of at least seven-foot width rather than a more accurate 3D globe of at least ten-foot diameter, of which only ‘a small fraction’ will be the inhabited world.
72 Riley 1995 p. 231 n. 16.