AFTER having described as much of the western parts of Europe as is comprised within the interior and exterior seas, and surveyed all the barbarous nations which it contains, as far as the Don1 and a small part of Greece, [namely, Macedonia,]2 we propose to give an account of the remainder of the Helladic geography. Homer was the first writer on the subject of geography, and was followed by many others, some of whom composed particular treatises, and entitled them ‘Harbours,’ ‘Voyages,’ ‘Circuits of the Earth,’3 or gave them some name of this kind, and these comprised the description of the Helladic country. Some, as Ephorus and Polybius, included in their general history a separate topography of the continents; others, as Posidonius and Hipparchus, introduced matter relating to geography in their writings on physical and mathematical subjects. It is easy to form an opinion of the other writers, but the poems of Homer require critical consideration, both because he speaks as a poet, and because he describes things not as they exist at present, but as they existed anciently, and the greater part of which have been rendered obscure by time. We must however undertake this inquiry as far as we are able, beginning from the point where our description ended. It ended with an account of the Epirotic and Illyrian nations on the west and north, and of Macedonia as far as Byzantium on the east. After the Epirotæ and Illyrii follow the Acarnanes,4 the Ætoli, the Locri-Ozolæ, then the Phocæenses and Bœoti, Grecian nations. Opposite to these on the other side of the strait is Peloponnesus, which comprises the Gulf of Corinth,5 interposed between, and determining the figure of the latter, from which it also receives its own. Next to Macedonia6 are the Thessalians,7 extending as far as the Malienses,8 and the other nations, situated on both sides of the isthmus.
1 The ancient Tanais.
2 These words are interpolated. Casaubon.
3 λιμένες, περίπλοι, περιοσοι γῆς.
4 The territory of the Acarnanes is still called Carnia, south of the Gulf of Arta. The rest of the countries mentioned by Strabo no longer retain the ancient divisions, Bœotia is the modern Livadhia. G.
5 The Gulf of Lepanto.
6 Makedunea.
7 The ancient Thessaly is the modern Vlakea.
8 The neighbourhood of the Gulf of Zeitun—the ancient Maliac Gulf.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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