References in the text suggest that Strabo started writing the manuscript of the Geography in AD 17 or 18 and nished it in AD 23. Events current at that time aVect Strabo's handling of his material. Three particular instances are explored in detail. First, Strabo makes no reference to Germanicus after describing his triumph of AD 17. Germanicus was well known for his subsequent settlement of aVairs in Armenia, Cappadocia and Commagene in AD 18. Strabo mentions all three of these settlements, but does not ascribe them to any one person and thus does not mention Germanicus in connection with them. Strabo's silence re ects Tiberius'
STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY, WRITTEN under Augustus and in the early years of Tiberius's principate (the latest event that Strabo mentions is dated to A.D. 23), contains much historical information. In the course of giving this information, Strabo frequently tells us that such-and-such an event happened KaO' f4tdc. The expression is usually taken to mean "in my lifetime." It was thus understood by B. Niese who, in two seminal articles in the last century, argued that the earliest event thus characterized by Strabo is the reduction in the number of local rulers of Galatia in Asia Minor from twelve to three, which Niese attributed to Pompey and dated to late 63 or early 62 B.C.' He further argued that Strabo's description of interior Paphlagonia as subject to several rulers [ttKpOV Rp6 [tCov, which Niese interpreted as "a little before my lifetime," applies to the situation there after Pompey's recognition of the dynasty of Pylaemenes, which Niese dated to early 64 B.C. Thus, Niese concluded, Strabo was born in late 64 or 63 B.C. This is the standard date now given for the year of Strabo's birth.2 While Niese's conclusions concerning Strabo's birthdate continue to be accepted, both the passages on which he based his argument (12.5.1 C567 and 12.3.41 C562)3 have been the subject of much controversy, among historians of Asia Minor as well as scholars interested in Strabo's dates.4 I seek to resolve that controversy by examining the way in which Strabo uses KaO' r [tda as a temporal expression.5 I argue that it should be interpreted as This article developed out of my 1995 University of Toronto dissertation, "Strabo and the 'Inhabited World'," in which I benefited from the comments of A. Jones, C. Rubincam, A. E. Samuel, B. Inwood, H. von Staden, and C. P Jones. I would also like to thank S. L. Radt and the anonymous referees of this article for their suggestions.
A number of places that feature in Strabo’s description of the Asian peninsula were situated on the ancient road that ran between the Euphrates river and the city of Ephesus. It is likely that Strabo journeyed along the entire thousand-kilometre length of the road, even though he makes explicit reference to his presence in only a few locations. He most probably made the journey as a youth on his way to Roman Asia, in the south west of the peninsula, from Pontus in the north. Decades pass before Strabo, as an old man, writes the Geography and includes in it the memories of places he had visited. The outdated tone of some of his descriptions reflects this passage of time.
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