This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the prose Anaplous Bosporou (Upstream Voyage on the Bosporos) by one Dionysios of Byzantion, written around the middle of the 2nd century AD. As the chapter introduction shows, this striking prose work is ‘perhaps the most detailed description of a landscape to have survived from the ancient world’, and expresses Dionysios’ admiration for his homeland. It also preserves a host of invaluable topographical details along both shores of the Thracian Bosporos and in the Golden Horn (especially the locations of sacred places), as well as information about fisheries. A new, detailed map shows many of the localities mentioned, with an inset showing the area immediately around Byzantion in more detail.

This chapter presents a revised, annotated translation of the Periplous (Circumnavigation) erroneously attributed to Skylax of Karyanda (Chapter 2 of this volume) but most likely written in 338–335 BC (conceivably by Dikaiarchos of Messana, Chapter 9), together with selected testimonia and fragments arranged as seven extracts. The translation reflects recent improvements to the Greek text. The chapter introduction characterizes the author’s conception of continental divisions and of the inhabited world as a sequence of ethnic regions. His focus on coastal topography, baldly enumerated, may reflect the aim of calculating the ‘length’ of each continent. This idiosyncratic work may have been intended for circulation only within Aristotle’s Peripatos (Lyceum); its impact seems to have been limited, other than perhaps upon Dikaiarchos and the late antique Euxine (Chapter 36). A new map summarizes the author’s clockwise ‘progress’ round the Mediterranean and Black Sea, while a second shows the key points in his portrayal of Greece and the Aegean.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of various surviving works by Markianos of Herakleia, who is probably the man of that name who lectured at Constantinople just before and just after AD 400. The chapter introduction shows that it is to him that we owe one of the two collections of geographical works that survive from antiquity (perhaps built on foundations laid by Menippos); its sole surviving copy, though incomplete, includes several works translated in the present volume. The main work presented here is the partly extant abridgement of Markianos’ Circumnavigation of the Outer Ocean, dealing first (book 1) with the lands from eastern Africa to western China, and then (book 2) with the coasts of the northern Atlantic. To this are appended over 40 citations of Markianos by Stephanos of Byzantion and others, as well as the theoretical opening sections of Markianos’ epitome (précis) of Menippos (the whole epitome is in Chapter 21 of this volume). His perceptive preface to Ps.-Skylax is printed in Chapter 7. At many points, such as when discussing how to present distances that display systematic errors, he shows himself to be one of the most self-aware and methodologically astute of ancient writers, as well as exceptionally widely read. New maps explain his presentation of the Far East and northern Europe.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the principal testimonia and fragments of Aristeas of Prokonnesos (archaic period), arranged as six extracts. His lost Arimaspeia, in three books of epic hexameters, told of his journey beyond the Black Sea in the company of Apollo and, some said, in the form of a bird or a disembodied soul. It took him to the Issedones, who told of peoples beyond them: the dangerous, one-eyed Arimaspoi, at war with gold-guarding griffins; the unreachable Hyperboreans, prominent in the mythical geography of the Greeks. The detailed chapter introduction examines Aristeas’ grounding in the Greek experience of the Black Sea, his wider importance across the colonial Greek world, including the far west, and his relationship to Pythagoreanism and Orphism in those parts. Scepticism about Aristeas developed much later; but he is best viewed as a respectable aristocrat from a respected polis (city-state).

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the anonymous, but substantial, Hypotypōsis (Outline) of Geography which, like the shorter outline by Agathemeros (Chapter 29 of this volume), was probably written as a new preface to Arrian’s collection of geographical works; it is thought to date from the last third of the 6th century AD and may be by the same author as the Circumnavigation of the Euxine (Chapter 36). The author begins with general principles about the Earth and the continents, before surveying the regions of the oikoumene (inhabited portion of the Earth) systematically, then the ‘gulfs’ of the outer Ocean. After a discussion of the wind rose, the dimensions of the principal seas are given, followed by the climatic zones and details of Lake Maiotis (the Sea of Azov). The chapter introduction shows that the text represents an expansion and update of Agathemeros, incorporating a Ptolemaic understanding of the world.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of testimonia and fragments of Hekataios of Miletos (late 6th–early 5th century BC), selected with a focus on geographical material and arranged as 111 extracts. The chapter introduction situates him within the context of the ‘Ionian Renaissance’, and identifies a determination to systematize the world and its place in the cosmos, as well as to rectify the mistakes of one’s predecessors. Characteristic of his two books is an interest in inland areas, not just coasts, and in a wide span of Europe and Asia–apparently based on personal observations–as well as a response to Homeric geography. His depth of coverage, as well as the choice of a clockwise ‘tour’ beginning in the western Mediterranean, were influential upon his successors.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the geographical testimonia and fragments of Mnaseas (active c.225–c.200 BC), arranged as 53 extracts. The chapter introduction reviews the evidence for his origin (Patara rather than Patrai) and date, and the structure of his geography (at least three books on Europe, followed by at least two on Asia and probably more than one on Africa or ‘Libye’). His work is characterized by a lively interest in mythology, including unique versions of some myths, to which he may have applied a rationalizing approach. The relative frequency with which he is cited suggests that his reputation was high.

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the famous treatise Airs, Waters, and Places (c. late 5th century BC), attributed, perhaps incorrectly, to the medical writer Hippokrates of Kos. The treatise sets out a model of how environment and seasonal conditions promote specific physiological conditions in the human body, and assesses the relationship between nature and custom as determinants of the physiology, ethical character, and social organization of Asian peoples, focusing on a comparison between European and Asian Skythians. A final passage identifies the greater variability among Europeans. The chapter introduction suggests a nuanced view of the controversial closing pages of the work: the author does not consistently regard Europeans as superior, but–perhaps under the influence of Athenian power–emphasizes the importance of understanding political systems.

This chapter presents new, annotated translations of a geographically focused selection from the fragmentary writings of Eratosthenes of Kyrene (c.280–c.200 BC), arranged as 127 extracts. (Translations of passages from Strabo are adapted with permission from the work of D. W. Roller.) The chapter introduction emphasizes that the modern reception of Eratosthenes gives too much prominence to his measurement of the circumference of the Earth. Insofar as we can rely on the testimony of Strabo, our main source, a more important feature of his geographical work (which was only one part of a massive scientific and literary output) was the further elaboration of his predecessors’ notions of latitude and longitude. This he combined with descriptions of regions across the whole inhabited portion of the Earth, but based on topographical divisions rather than ethnic communities. A new map shows the key points in his division of western Asia into topographical units.