Transcriber's note:
Volumes II and III are available from Project Gutenberg athttp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44885 andhttp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44886 respectively.
In this book many city names are spelled in different ways. When thecorrect spelling is obvious these have been corrected for the sake ofconsistency. See the list of modern names at the end of volume III.
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
LITERALLY TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES.
THE FIRST SIX BOOKS
BY H. C. HAMILTON, ESQ.
THE REMAINDER
BY W. FALCONER, M.A.,
LATE FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD.
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
MDCCCLIV.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY.
The present translation of Strabo, the great Geographerof Antiquity, is the first which has been laid before theEnglish public. It is curious that a classic of so muchrenown and intrinsic value should have remained acomparatively sealed book to this country for so manycenturies; yet such is the fact. It is true that the imperfectstate of the Greek text, and the difficulty ofgeographical identification, have always been appallingobstacles; yet, after the acute and valuable labours ofGossellin, Du Theil, Groskurd, and especially of GustavCramer of Berlin, (whose text is followed in the presentvolume,) we might fairly have expected that someEnglish scholar would have ventured to enter the field.But the task, like many in a similar position, has beenreserved for the publisher of the Classical Library, andhe trusts it will be found conscientiously fulfilled.
The translation was, in the first instance, intrusted toMr. H. C. Hamilton, whose knowledge of the subject,and familiarity with the various languages concerned,peculiarly fitted him for the undertaking. His officialduties, however, added to his anxious examination ofevery thing which tended to illustrate his author, preventedhis proceeding with much speed; and it wasonly after the lapse of three years that he had reachedthe end of the sixth book. In the mean time it transpiredthat Mr. W. Falconer, son of the editor of the Oxfordedition of the Greek text, had, after several years ofcare and attention, produced a very excellent translation,meaning to publish it. Under the circumstancesit was deemed advisable to amalgamate the rival undertakings,and it is a source of gratification to the publisherthat the respective translators were each so wellsatisfied with the labours of the other, that they assentedreadily to his proposal of associating their names.
This is all it seems necessary to state here. In thethird volume will be given some account of the life andlabours of Strabo, and of the manuscripts and principaleditions; also a complete index of the places mentionedin the text, accompanied, where possible, by the modernnames.
H. G. B.
SUMMARY.
That geogr