Strabo
ΣΤΡΑΒΩΝΟΣ ΓΕΩΓΡΑΦΙΚΩΝ
Α΄
I
C 1 1. Τῆς τοῦ φιλοσόφου πραγματείας εἶναι νομίζομεν, εἴπερ ἄλλην τινά, τὴν γεωγραφικήν, ἣν νῦν προῃρήμεθα ἐπισκοπεῖν. ὅτι δ᾿ οὐ φαύλως νομίζομεν, ἐκ πολλῶν δῆλον. οἵ τε γὰρ πρῶτοι θαρρήσαντες αὐτῆς ἅψασθαι τοιοῦτοι δή τινες1 ὑπῆρξαν· Ὅμηρός τε καὶ Ἀναξίμανδρος ὁ Μιλήσιος καὶ Ἑκαταῖος, ὁ πολίτης αὐτοῦ, καθὼς καὶ Ἐρατοσθένης φησί· καὶ Δημόκριτος δὲ καὶ C 2 Εὔδοξος καὶ Δικαίαρχος καὶ Ἔφορος καὶ ἄλλοι πλείους· ἔτι δὲ οἱ μετὰ τούτους, Ἐρατοσθένης τε καὶ Πολύβιος καὶ Ποσειδώνιος, ἄνδρες φιλόσοφοι. ἥ τε πολυμάθεια, δι᾿ ἧς μόνης ἐφικέσθαι τοῦδε τοῦ ἔργου δυνατόν, οὐκ ἄλλου τινός ἐστιν, ἢ τοῦ τὰ θεῖα καὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπεια ἐπιβλέποντος, ὧνπερ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐπιστήμην φασίν. ὡς δ᾿ αὕτως καὶ ἡ ὠφέλεια ποικίλη τις οὖσα, ἡ μὲν πρὸς τὰς πολιτικὰς2 καὶ τὰς ἡγεμονικὰς πράξεις, ἡ δὲ πρὸς ἐπιστήμην τῶν τε οὐρανίων καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ θαλάττης ζῴων καὶ φυτῶν καὶ καρπῶν καὶ τῶν
Geography Book I
The Geography of Strabo
Book I
I
1. The science of Geography, which I now propose to investigate, is, I think, quite as much as any other science, a concern of the philosopher; and the correctness of my view is clear for many reasons. In the first place, those who in earliest times ventured to treat the subject were, in their way, philosophers—Homer, Anaximander of Miletus, and Anaximander’s fellow-citizen Hecataeus—just as Eratosthenes has already said; philosophers, too, were Democritus, Eudoxus, Dicaearchus, Ephorus, with several others of their times; and further, their successors—Eratosthenes, Polybius, and Poseidonius—were philosophers. In the second place, wide learning, which alone makes it possible to undertake a work on geography, is possessed solely by the man who has investigated things both human and divine—knowledge of which, they say, constitutes philosophy. And so, too, the utility of geography—and its utility is manifold, not only as regards the activities of statesmen and commanders but also as regards knowledge both of the heavens and of things on land and sea, animals, plants, fruits, and everything else to be seen in