... forthcoming in 2008, an article by the author of this website. The article, “The Chambers of the Dead and the Gates of Darkness,” looks at a passage (14.5.4) of the Geography where Strabo departs from his normally pro-Augustan line. I have tried both to analyse the passage in the light of Strabo’s political present, and to see what this passage tells us about the pressures to which he was subject. My treatment will show, I hope, how vividly Strabo writes and how he can be used as a lens through which to view historical events of the early principate. In this particular case, the event in question is the prosecution for conspiracy, and death, of Licinius Murena. The article will appear in the journal Mnemosyne.

… the sixth volume of Strabons Geographika, edited by Stefan Radt and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen. With volumes one to four, we received the first complete critical edition of all seventeen books of the Geography since the mid-nineteenth century! With volumes five to six, we now have commentary on books one to eight of the Geography, with volumes seven and eight (commentary on books nine to seventeen) due to appear in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Volumes nine and ten (due to appear in 2010 and 2011) will contain editions of various epitomised manuscripts of the Geography and an index, respectively. For full details, see Editions of Strabo’s Geography.

… update on the posting of H.L. Jones’ English translation of Strabo’s Geography on Bill Thayer’s website, LacusCurtius. This website conveniently provides, online, books one to ten and books fifteen to seventeen of Strabo’s Geography as translated by H.L. Jones. That leaves books eleven to fourteen unavailable (as yet) through LacusCurtius – but note that these four books are available though Perseus.

Several articles over the last five years or so raise the question of how to interpret comments made by Strabo over particular areas or sites. For example:

... a contribution by Stephen Mitchell from 2002, ‘In Search of the Pontic Community in Antiquity,’ in Representations of Empire. Rome and the Mediterranean World, eds. A.K Bowman, H. Cotton, M. Goodman, S. Price (35-64, esp. 48, 50-51). Mitchell argues that ‘Pontus’ was the official name of the Roman province formed in 63 BCE after King Mithridates VI Eupator had lost the greater part of his kingdom to the Romans. Mitchell suggests that this name, ‘Pontus,’ was familiar to Strabo through the nomenclature of the Roman province, and that Strabo retrojects the name when using it to describe the independent kingdom which preceded the province. Mitchell argues that Strabo’s retrojection is anachronistic since there is no evidence that Mithridates’ kingdom had ever been called ‘Pontus’ by contemporaries; and quite a lot of evidence that its inhabitants were simply considered ‘Cappadocians.’

A passage of Strabo is seen by Mitchell (54 n. 132) as a potential problem to his argument, viz. 12.1.4, C 534: ‘one part they named specifically ‘Cappadocia’ and ‘[Cappadocia] by the Taurus’ and, by Zeus, ‘Greater Cappadocia’; the other [they named] ‘Pontus,’ and some [named it]‘Cappadocia by Pontus.’ Mitchell understands Strabo to be saying that the name ‘Pontus’ dates back to the original formation of the Mithridatid kingdom. This is contrary to Mitchell’s thesis and Mitchell thus supports an earlier suggestion that Strabo’s words have been corrupted.

Strabo’s words may not, however, be as contrary to Mitchell’s thesis as he has supposed. Strabo can be understood as simply listing the various names that have been applied by various writers, up to his own day. In other words, ‘they’ in Strabo’s statement may refer simply to writers, including recent ones. Strabo’s words need not be seen as an obstacle to Mitchell’s thesis that the name ‘Pontus’ was applied only retrospectively, and inaccurately, to the Mithridatid kingdom by Roman writers.

For other passages where Strabo deals with Roman provincial names, see Pothecary in Strabo’s Cultural Geography. The Making of a Kolossourgia (2005). 

... an article from 2004 on the settlement of Pleuron in Greece by Michael Lippman shows how a misreading of Strabo 10.2.4 has led to a misreading of the history of Pleuron. The article, ‘Strabo 10.2.4 and the Synoecism of ‘Newer’ Pleuron,’ appears in Hesperia 73: 497-512. The article has a useful appendix on the meaning of the verb sunoikivzw.  

... my attention has recently been drawn to a Spanish contribution, from 2001, by Alicia Canto, ‘Sinoicismo y stolati en Emerita, Caesaraugusta y Pax: Una relectura de Estrabón 3.2.15,’ Gerión 19: 423-476. Canto argues for the retention of the term stolavtoi found at 3.2.15 and, in Canto’s view, unnecessarily emended by Kramer (1844-52); she provides an explanation of the term. For an English abstract, click here and scroll down the page.

Also noteworthy …

... forthcoming, a paper on the Black Sea region by David Braund, ‘Polemo, Pythodoris and Strabo: Friends of Rome in the Black Sea Region’ in the soon-to-be-published Roms auswärtige Freunde, edited by A. Coskun and H. Heinen.

... a 2006 collection edited by Giusto Traina, called Studi sull'età di Marco Antonio [Rudiae. Ricerche sul mondo classico 18], Galatina: Congedo Editore. See in particular C. Franco, ‘Tarso tra Antonio e Ottaviano (Strabone 14.5.14),’ 313-339.

... published in December 2005 by Cambridge University Press, Strabo’s Cultural Geography. The Making of a Kolossourgia. Click here for the table of contents. Based on the papers delivered at the 2001 Bar Ilan conference on Strabo, this volume has been edited by Daniela Dueck, Hugh Lindsay and Sarah Pothecary to emphasise the cultural context of Strabo’s work. For full details, see the entry on the Cambridge University Press website. You can order a copy online.

... regularly updated, the Ancient World Mapping Center website is run from the University of North Carolina and is dedicated to cartography and geography within the field of ancient studies. The website includes updates for the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World.