Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Strabo's Geography was not well known in ancient and medieval times. It was never the subject of literary or scientific study. There was no need to write commentaries on it as on the poets, orators, and philosophers. Nevertheless the medieval manuscripts of Strabo do contain meagre scholia, and for one reason or another some of them are valuable. Moreover as a whole they throw light on the history of Greek scholarship in an important but obscure period. It seems desirable therefore to edit them entire, to examine their relationships, and point out their significance.
1 Some of the scholia are included in the critical apparatus on Strabo by Kramer, G., Strabonis Geographica (3 vols., 1844-52).Google Scholar
2 Kramer, preface; Roellig, E., ‘De codd. Strabonianis qui libros I-IX continent,’ Diss. Philol. Halenses 7 (1886) 275–396; Allen, T. W., ‘MSS of Strabo at Paris and Eton,’ Class. Quart. 9 (1915) 15-26, 86-96; Diller, A., ‘Codex B of Strabo,’ Am. Journ. of Philol, 56 (1935) 97-102; Sbordone, F., ‘Eliminatio codicum e recensio dei libri VIII e IX della Geografia di Strabone,’ Rendiconti dell’ Accad. di Napoli 24-25 (1951) 289-331. I have changed two of Kramer's sigla in order to provide sigla for primary MSS he did not use. Kramer's B is Laur. 28-5, a late and worthless MS. Kramer's z is Laur. 28-15, my n2.Google Scholar
3 Diller, A., ‘Notes on Greek Codices of the Tenth Century,’ Trans. Am. Philol. Assoc. 78 (1947) 184–8.Google Scholar
4 Ullmann, R., ‘Lectiones Strabonianae,’ Symb. Oslo. 5 (1927) 67–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Diller, A., ‘Codices Planudei,’ Byz. Zeitschr. 37 (1937) 295–301; ‘The Oldest MSS of Ptolemaic Maps,’ Trans. Am. Philol. Assoc. 71 (1940) 62-7 with plate III.Google Scholar
6 Diller, A., ‘The Vatopedi MS of Ptolemy and Strabo,’ Am. Journ. of Philol. 58 (1937) 174–84; The Tradition of the Minor Greek Geographers (1952) 10-4 with plate B.Google Scholar
7 Capovilla, G., ‘Studi sul Noricum,’ Misc. Galbiati I (1951) 213–411 with plates V and VI.Google Scholar
8 Mercati, G., Scritti d'Isidoro Ruteno (Studi e Testi 46, 1926) 67.Google Scholar
9 Foerster, R., ‘Cyriacus von Ancona zu Strabon,’ Rhein. Mus. 51 (1896) 481–91; Sabbadini, R., ‘Ciriaco d'Ancona e il Peloponneso,’ Classici e Umanisti (Fontes Ambrosiani 2, 1933) 1-48, esp. 24, 43.Google Scholar
10 Bk VII alone has a brief argument in CBv, which is repeated in the margin beside the longer argument in A 152r. Sch. 198B in textu also occurs in CBv, suggesting that ß may have been a denuded derivative of Σ. Cf. also sch. 694C in textu. I discussed these two glosses in ‘A Note on Strabo XV 694,’ Class. Philol. 41 (1946) 47f. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Kramer (supra, note 1) I pp. lxxvii-ix.Google Scholar
12 Kramer III 453-582; C. Müller, Geographi graeci minores II (1861) 529–636. On the MSS of Chr. see Diller, Tradition (supra, note 6) 3, 11, 30.Google Scholar
13 Omont, H., Platonis codex Parisinus Fac-similé en phototypie, A. (1908); Alline, H., Histoire du texte de Platon (1915); Post, L. A., The Vatican Plato and its Relations (1934); Greene, W. C., Scholia Platonica (1938).Google Scholar
14 The basic codices of the Studite group are Leningrad 219 (Gospels, an. 835), Moscow 117 (Basil. Caes., 880), Vatic. 1660 (Menologium, 916) and Vatic. 1671 (Menologium, undated). See the reproductions in Lake and Lake, Dated Greek Minuscule MSS (10 vols. and indices, 1934-45); also Lefort and Cochez, Album palaeographicum codicum graecorum (1932).Google Scholar
15 Bodleian MS 17179 (D'Orville 301), Lake and Lake II pl. 94, 104, et al. See Waddell, W. W., The Parmenides of Plato (1894) xcix. The majuscule script in the margins of the Paris Plato group is very similar to that in cod. Vatic. 1594 of Ptolemy's Almagest. See the reproductions in Heiberg, J. L., Claudii Ptolemaei opera II (Teubner 1907), and Knobel, E. B., Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars (Washington 1915) pl. IV. This codex bears the name of the astronomer Leo (Heiberg p. xxxii), who was a slightly older contemporary of Photius, but the minuscule script looks more recent to me than the Paris Plato minuscule. On Leo see Theoph. cont. 185-92, 197, 232, and Lipshits, E. E., ‘The Byzantine Savant Leo Mathematicus’ (in Russian), Viz. Vrem. 27 (n.s. 2, 1949) 106-49.Google Scholar
16 Allen, T. W., ‘A Group of Ninth-Century Greek MSS,’ Journ. of Philol. 21 (1893) 48–55, in spite of his title, says (p. 50) the age of these codices ‘may be set down as the end of the IXth or the beginning of the Xth century.’ In Class. Quart. 22 (1928) 75 he is still more positive and says the Paris Plato may be no older than the Bodleian (an. 895) or the Vatican Plato. Actually the Vatican Plato was copied in part from the Paris Plato (Post [supra, note 13] 12f.).Google Scholar
17 Also in T of Plato; see the plate in Waddell (supra, note 15) cxxii. Also in Laur. 70-3 of Herodotus, which also has the 33 lines characteristic of the Paris Plato group; see Wattenbach and von Velsen, Exempla codicum graecorum (1878) pl. 31.Google Scholar
18 Gardthausen, V., Griech. Palaeographie (2 1913) II 410-5.Google Scholar
19 Alline (supra note 13) 187f.Google Scholar
20 Diller, Tradition (supra note 6) 6 n. 25.Google Scholar
21 Hobein, H., Maximi Tyrii philosophumena (1910) xxviiif.Google Scholar
22 Dain, A., Les manuscrits (1949) 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 There are two current methods of citing Strabo — by the pages of Casaubon's second edition of 1620 and by the chapters and sections introduced progressively by Bréquigny (1763), Tzschucke (1798), and Kramer (1852). The latter method is cumbersome and not precise (the sections are often too long). The former may be improved by using the letters ABCD provided in the edition of 1620 to divide the pages into four parts. Muller has used these letters in his edition of Chr. (supra, note 12), and a similar method is of course well known for Plato and other texts.Google Scholar
24 Dr. Ernest Honigmann, of Brussels, suggested this identification to me by letter in 1939. ‘Le γ, comme le ǧ turc, n'est pas prononcé; cf. Anna Comnène, Alexiade, éd. Reifferscheid, t. II p. 287.32, Tvϱάγɩov = Tvϱάɩov, aujourd'hui Turaǧon.’Google Scholar
25 Sch. Str. 124A, 259C, 277C, 306B, 578C, etc. Aly, W. in La Parola del Passato 5 (1950) 229f. describes our scholia as ‘Reste eines Kommentars … im 6. Jh. entstanden.’ There is nothing to indicate a more elaborate commentary than we have now, and the scholia just cited and many others cannot be as early as the sixth century.Google Scholar
26 Kugeas, S., ‘O Καισαϱείας Ἀϱέθας (Athens 1913).Google Scholar
27 Sch. Plat. Soph. 216A, Greene (supra note 13) 446.Google Scholar
28 Greene xix-xxv.Google Scholar
29 Severyns, A., Recherches sur la Chrestomathie de Proclos. Première Partie : Le Codex 239 de Photius. Tome I: Étude paléographique et critique (1938) 279–95, 339-57.Google Scholar
30 Lexicographical scholia belonging to the Hesychius-Photius complex are found, though sometimes very sparse, in Palat. 398 (see sch. Str. 198D, 224B), in Marc. 196 (given in Norvin's editions of Olympiodorus), in Marc. 246 (in Ruelle's edition of Damascius), in Paris. 1962 (in Hobein's Maximus Tyrius p. xxix), in Laur. 80-9 + Vatic. 2197 (in Kroll's Proclus In Plat. Rempubl. II 369-83).Google Scholar
31 Ziegler, K. in RE 39 (1941) 667–737.Google Scholar
32 Alline 258-80, Greene xxvii-ix.Google Scholar
33 Gr, H.égoire and Lascaris, M. in Byzantion 21 (1951) 260.Google Scholar
34 Cf. Ζαχαϱίον μητϱοπολίτου Χαλϰηδόνος πεϱì χϱόνον in cod. Marc. 258 fol. 324v. This Zacharias was one of the addressees of Photius’ letters (PG 102) and probably a former disciple.Google Scholar
35 Wendel, C. in RE 40 (1950) 2202–53.Google Scholar
36 Severyns (supra, note 29) 261-77.Google Scholar
37 Diller, A., ‘The Text-History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus,’ TAPA 66 (1935) 296–313.Google Scholar
38 Klinkenberg (supra, on sch. Str. 818D) 40-2. Klinkenberg's theory that a notice of Agathias has fallen out of the Bibliotheca, rejected by Maas, P. in Byz. Zeitschr. 23 (1914) 265, is excluded by the fact that Photius’ statement of the total number of his codices (279) tallies with the present Bibliotheca (Ziegler [supra note 31] 691-3).Google Scholar
39 Phlegon's Olympiades in Bibl. 97 and Palat. 398 fol. 234v-236r (FGrHist 257 T 3 + F 12 and F 1), a significant case, as the work was rare by the ninth century. It is noteworthy that Euagrius, the last author to cite Phlegon before Photius, cites Strabo, Phlegon, Diodorus, Arrian all together (Euagr. Hist. Eccles. I 20, FGrHist 156 F 174, 257 F 24, supra on sch. Str. 270C). It looks as if the library to which Photius had access was already taking shape in the sixth century. Stephanus Byzantius cites Strabo, Phlegon, Arrian, but not Diodorus.Google Scholar
40 Ziegler (supra note 31) 677.Google Scholar
41 See sch. Str. 14D, 159B, 161C, 198B, 270C, 272C, 308C, 537D, 651D, 689A, 780A, 812A.Google Scholar
42 See on sch. Str. 270C, 746A.Google Scholar
43 See on sch. Str. 818D. Arrian is cited by name in Chr. 11.22 (Anab. IV 15.4, VII 13.2), and there are other traces in Chr. 11.28 (III 29.2), 12.49 (VII 18.5, V 24.5), 13.24 (I 29.3), 14.32 (I 23.8). Arrian (Anab. III 16.8) is quoted in a scholium on Proclus Comm. in Plat. Tim. I p. 468 Diehl, which surely came from cod. Paris. Suppl. 921, a member of the Paris Plato group.Google Scholar
44 Bidez, J., Philostorgius Kirchengeschichte (1913) 4–150.Google Scholar
45 Compare Suda Στϱάτων (sic) Άμασεὺς φɩλόσοφος· γέγονεν έπὶ Τιβεϱίου Καίσαϱος, ϰαὶ ἒγϱαψε γεωγϱαφίαν ἐν βιβλίοις ﻍ (sic). This notice may well come from the Photian Paris Plato milieu; for Hesychius’ Onomatologus was reworked in the middle of the ninth century and was known to Photius and in the Paris Plato. Cf. Chr. 1.20 (above) and see Ziegler (supra note 31) 715 and Schultz, H. in RE 16 (1913) 1323f. Google Scholar
46 The discussion of the problem of the Slavs in Greece has been voluminous and still continues vigorously. I shall cite only one recent treatment, where the sources are given at length: Bon, A., Le Péloponnèse byzantin (1951) 27–70. As a curiosity I may mention the treatment by Dodwell, H., ‘Dissertatio de Strabonis epitomatore et aetate qua vixerit,’ in John Hudson, Geographiae veteris scriptores graeci minores II (1703) 168-91.Google Scholar
47 Müller (supra note 12) II 494-509; Diller, Tradition (supra note 6) 3, 11, 15. The anonymous Hypotyposis was long edited erroneously as a second book of Agathemerus’ Hypotyposis. Google Scholar
48 Lucas Holsten in 1628 (Diller, Tradition, 54 z43).Google Scholar
49 Hoffmann, S. F. W., Arriani periplus etc . (1842) p. ix; Müller 507; Berger in RE 1 (1894) 743.Google Scholar