Strabo: Civilising the Mountains

This chapter explores Strabo's Geography , which is written in the early first century CE and offers a breathtakingly wide-ranging picture of the regions and communities of the Mediterranean world. It cites Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae , giving one of the most sensationalistic and emotionally powerful accounts of the infighting of the imperial elite and the constant threat of external invasion in the newly Christian empire. Geography and Res Gestae are among the most intricate and extensive portrayals of mountains surviving from the ancient world. The chapter examines the variety of ways in which ancient traditions of writing about mountains and other kinds of landscape could be used. It discusses how Geography and Res Gestae draw on widespread conventions of depicting mountain warfare and mountain conquest.