Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation: Hanno, the King Nikomedes Periodos, and Avienus

This volume is a translation and commentary on the works of three geographers from Greco-Roman antiquity: Hanno of Carthage, from around 500 BC; the author of the Periodos Dedicated to King Nikomedes, from the last half of the second century BC; and Avienus, from the fourth century AD.

The modern translations of texts in this book represent 1,000 years of Greco-Roman geographical scholarship, and thus provide an overview of the discipline from its beginnings to late antiquity. Readers will learn about the development of Greek geography, and the earliest adventures outside the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, as far south as the tropics and north toward the Arctic. These explorations make for fascinating stories about early human endeavors into an unknown world.

Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation offers specialists new information about Greek exploration and a modern translation of significant ancient texts, while non-specialist scholars and undergraduate students with an interest in Greco-Roman literature and ancient geography will also find the volume useful and accessible.

Duane W. Roller is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the Ohio State University, USA, having received a Ph.D in Classical Archaeology from Harvard University, USA, and is the author of Cleopatra: A Biography, Cleopatra’s Daughter and Other Royal Women of the Augustan Era, and Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World.