Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Greek Geography and Geographers
- Time-line
- Prologue: The Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Iliad, 2. 484–760)
- Part I Archaic Period
- Part II Classical Period
- Part III Hellenistic Period
- 9 Dikaiarchos of Messana
- 10 Timosthenes of Rhodes
- 11 Herakleides Kritikos
- 12 Eratosthenes of Kyrene
- 13 Mnaseas of Patara
- 14 Skymnos of Chios
- 15 Agatharchides of Knidos, On the Erythraian Sea
- 16 Hipparchos of Nikaia
- 17 The Nikomedean Periodos [‘Pseudo-Skymnos’]
- 18 Artemidoros of Ephesos
- 19 Poseidonios of Apameia
- 20 Dionysios son of Kalliphon
12 - Eratosthenes of Kyrene
from Part III - Hellenistic Period
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Greek Geography and Geographers
- Time-line
- Prologue: The Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Iliad, 2. 484–760)
- Part I Archaic Period
- Part II Classical Period
- Part III Hellenistic Period
- 9 Dikaiarchos of Messana
- 10 Timosthenes of Rhodes
- 11 Herakleides Kritikos
- 12 Eratosthenes of Kyrene
- 13 Mnaseas of Patara
- 14 Skymnos of Chios
- 15 Agatharchides of Knidos, On the Erythraian Sea
- 16 Hipparchos of Nikaia
- 17 The Nikomedean Periodos [‘Pseudo-Skymnos’]
- 18 Artemidoros of Ephesos
- 19 Poseidonios of Apameia
- 20 Dionysios son of Kalliphon
Summary
This chapter presents new, annotated translations of a geographically focused selection from the fragmentary writings of Eratosthenes of Kyrene (c.280–c.200 BC), arranged as 127 extracts. (Translations of passages from Strabo are adapted with permission from the work of D. W. Roller.) The chapter introduction emphasizes that the modern reception of Eratosthenes gives too much prominence to his measurement of the circumference of the Earth. Insofar as we can rely on the testimony of Strabo, our main source, a more important feature of his geographical work (which was only one part of a massive scientific and literary output) was the further elaboration of his predecessors’ notions of latitude and longitude. This he combined with descriptions of regions across the whole inhabited portion of the Earth, but based on topographical divisions rather than ethnic communities. A new map shows the key points in his division of western Asia into topographical units.
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- Geographers of the Ancient Greek WorldSelected Texts in Translation, pp. 289 - 359Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024