Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kolossourgia. ‘A colossal statue of a work’
- 2 Reflections of philosophy: Strabo and geographical sources
- 3 Who is a barbarian? The barbarians in the ethnological and cultural taxonomies of Strabo
- 4 Gender at the crossroads of empire: locating women in Strabo's Geography
- 5 Strabo and Homer: a chapter in cultural history
- 6 Strabo's use of poetry
- 7 Strabo's sources in the light of a tale
- 8 The foundation of Greek colonies and their main features in Strabo: a portrayal lacking homogeneity?
- 9 Ανδρες ἔνδοξοι or ‘men of high reputation’ in Strabo's Geography
- 10 Comparing Strabo with Pausanias: Greece in context vs. Greece in depth
- 11 The European provinces: Strabo as evidence
- 12 Amasya and Strabo's patria in Pontus
- 13 Cappadocia through Strabo's eyes
- 14 Greek geography and Roman empire: the transformation of tradition in Strabo's Euxine
- 15 Josephus' hidden dialogue with Strabo
- 16 Temporal layers within Strabo's description of Coele Syria, Phoenicia and Judaea
- Bibliography
- Index of geographical names
- Index of personal names
13 - Cappadocia through Strabo's eyes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kolossourgia. ‘A colossal statue of a work’
- 2 Reflections of philosophy: Strabo and geographical sources
- 3 Who is a barbarian? The barbarians in the ethnological and cultural taxonomies of Strabo
- 4 Gender at the crossroads of empire: locating women in Strabo's Geography
- 5 Strabo and Homer: a chapter in cultural history
- 6 Strabo's use of poetry
- 7 Strabo's sources in the light of a tale
- 8 The foundation of Greek colonies and their main features in Strabo: a portrayal lacking homogeneity?
- 9 Ανδρες ἔνδοξοι or ‘men of high reputation’ in Strabo's Geography
- 10 Comparing Strabo with Pausanias: Greece in context vs. Greece in depth
- 11 The European provinces: Strabo as evidence
- 12 Amasya and Strabo's patria in Pontus
- 13 Cappadocia through Strabo's eyes
- 14 Greek geography and Roman empire: the transformation of tradition in Strabo's Euxine
- 15 Josephus' hidden dialogue with Strabo
- 16 Temporal layers within Strabo's description of Coele Syria, Phoenicia and Judaea
- Bibliography
- Index of geographical names
- Index of personal names
Summary
In this paper, I investigate the ways in which Strabo's personal experience in Cappadocia – his travels there, his interests and his family history – shape his account of the region. The result is a description which exceeds what we have from other sources concerning Cappadocian history in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods, but one which has to be understood in the context of Strabo's own perspective.
Strabo describes Cappadocia, the vast area between the Taurus mountains and the Pontus sea, after first having described Armenia. Ancient history connected Cappadocia with Armenia. In Strabo's work, this link emerges from the time of the Achaemenid domination. Horse breeding, important for the economy and the military needs of the Persians, was an occupation common to both regions; and, at the time of Strabo, both Cappadocia and Armenia still observed Persian rites. The names of the dynasts, above all in Cappadocia, prove that, at least in the aristocratic class, a real process of Iranianisation had taken place.
Cappadocia, unlike Armenia, was divided into two Persian satrapies, out of which two Hellenistic kingdoms, Pontus and Cappadocia, were created in the third century bce. Therefore, within the Cappadocia stretching between the Taurus and the coast of the Pontus, characterised by a substantial Persian cultural background still evident in Strabo's time, another Cappadocia existed. This was the kingdom founded around 250 bce by Ariarathes III, the first to proclaim himself king of the Cappadocians (12.1.2).
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- Information
- Strabo's Cultural GeographyThe Making of a Kolossourgia, pp. 200 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005