SOURCE: “Strabo: The Greek in the World of Caesar” in Greek Byways, The Macmillan Company, 1932, pp. 223-59.

In the following essay, Glover examines Strabo’s family history and his views on religion, philosophy, history, geography, and science.

His book is the swan-song of Hellenism.

W. W. Tarn.

Amaseia was a city of Asia Minor, in the kingdom of Pontus, a very strong city (c. 547).¹ It stood in a deep broad gulley through which flowed the river Iris. A high precipitous rock, with the river at the foot of the precipice, on the one side, and twin cliffs rising sheer above it on the other “towering magnificently”—the site seemed designed by Nature and by Providence² for a fortress and a city; and it was both. Walls linked the river to the peaks, there was an abundant natural water-supply, and the city was adorned with the palaces and...