The World According to Strabo

The title 'Father of Geography' could be given to the Greek philosopher, historian and geographer Strabo. Strabo lived during the transitional period when the Roman Republic developed into the Roman Empire. He is most well known for his 'Geographica', an historical and descriptive account of the people and places living in the different regions of the western world, during his era.

Strabo himself had traveled extensively. He boasted that "Westward I have journeyed to the parts of Etruria opposite Sardinia; towards the south from the Euxine to the borders of Ethiopia; and perhaps not one of those who have written geographies has visited more places than I have between those limits." He used his own extensive geographical knowledge and his wide Greek and Roman educational studies to inform his encyclopedia of geographical knowledge - the Geographica.

I've added a world map based on Strabo's Geographica to my Mappae Mundi collection of world maps. If you click on the date '0' in the map menu you can view an 1814 world map which attempted to map the world based on its description in the Geographica. While it is most definitely not a map of the world dating from the Roman Republic it is a map which attempts to visualize the world as it was known in the west during the time of Christ.

You can also view a more geographical accurate map of the locations mentioned in the Geographica in the Strabo Map. The University of Cambridge Press' interactive map of all the locations mentioned in Strabo's Geographica, the Strabo Map, uses Mapbox to add place-names mentioned in the Geographica to an interactive map.

The map tiles used in the Strabo Map are the same AWMC map tiles, as used in the Pleides gazette of ancient places.