| This thesis shows how Strabo moves from the idea of the 'inhabited world' as a continental island to its conceptualisation as a geometric shape, described as 'like a chlamys (i.e. a cloak)', projected onto the earth's surface so as to encompass the habitable parts of the continental landmass and its associated islands. The northern boundary of Strabo's 'inhabited world' stretches from Ierne to the supposed mouth of the Kaspian; the southern boundary stretches from the west coast of Libya to Taprobane.;Strabo's descriptions of the continental coastline, and individual parts of the 'inhabited world', are sometimes self-contradictory and sometimes incompatible with his conceptualisation of the 'inhabited world' as a whole. For example, Strabo is inconsistent in his views on the extent of the continental landmass beyond the northern and southern boundaries of the 'inhabited world'; and in his treatment of the shape of Indike, the dimensions of Asia, the shape of Libya, the shape and position of north-west Europe, and the course of the Nile.;Clearly, Strabo is using a number of different literary (and possibly cartographic) sources, which he melds together imperfectly. This thesis shows how the vagueness which sometimes characterises Strabo's language has the effect of downplaying the irreconcilable nature of some of his information. Inconsistencies in Strabo's work also throw an interesting light on the question of whether or not Strabo accompanied his written work with a chart. If he did, it cannot have been consistent with everything he writes in the Geography. If he did not, what are the modern representations, entitled 'The Inhabited World of Strabo' or similar, supposed to represent? As fixed entities, they obscure the fluctuating nature of some of Strabo's ideas.;The development of Strabo's ideas on the 'inhabited world'--and also on the nature of geography and its relationship to the other branches of knowledge on which it depends--needs to be placed in the context of what was probably a long period of composition. Autobiographical notices in the Geography and the dates of some of the events to which Strabo refers, suggest that composition could have extended from c.26 B.C. to A.D. 23 or later. |
