A New Presentation of Selected Greek Geographers

: 241­257 A NEW PRESENTATION OF SELECTED GREEK GEOGRAPHERS D. Graham J. Shipley Abstract: The Selected Greek Geographers project, recently launched, will publish a selection of ancient Greek geographical authors in English translations with short historical commentaries. The paper sets out the rationale for a new presentation of these geographical texts, and compares it with other on-going projects such as the Budé Géographes grecs and Fragmente der griechischen Historiker V. A paragraph of the author's draft translation of Pseudo-Skylax is compared with previous versions, and a sample of commentary in SGG style offered for consideration. Finally, a longer extract from the translation (§§1­10) is analysed.* An international initiative was launched at the American Philological Association conference in January 2007, which I am developing with encouragement from Richard Talbert and the University of North Carolina Press. The project, Selected Greek Geographers, aims to publish a wide selection of ancient Greek geographical authors in English translations with short historical commentaries. Broadly speaking, the selection will be based on Carl Müller's Geographi Graeci minores (GGM) of 1855­61. We refer to the project as Selected Greek Geographers or SGG, since the `minor' in the traditional phrase `minor Greek geographers' seems an unfortunate qualifier today, being liable to convey a false impression of the relation between these ancient geographical texts and others. Müller's two huge volumes remain the starting-point for much research on ancient geography. They were not the first compendium of the so-called minor geographers; but their sound organization, range, and * This is a lightly rewritten version of a paper read (by Richard Talbert, in my absence) at the American Philological Association conference at San Diego in January 2007. I am grateful to Peter Green for encouragement to publish...