Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 99, Hellenistic Science, Geography and Astronomy. I geography and astronomy. Humanity has always wondered about its place in the universe.

Since our earliest ancestors started to recognize patterns in the night sky,

we have looked to the stars in order to better understand not only the

nature of the cosmos, but also about this pale blue dot that we call Earth. In the Hellenistic

period, astronomy and geography were common topics of study for the many scientific thinkers

working at the time. The campaigns of Alexander fundamentally changed the Greek understanding of the

inhabited world, as explorers sought to chart new lands and peoples they now interacted with

or ruled over, taking them as far as India and Iceland. New developments in mathematics and

access to the records of those like the Babylonians, enabled astronomers to propose rational

explanations behind celestial phenomena, or create astonishingly advanced instruments to calculate

those events. Today's episode will conclude our series on science and technology during the Hellenistic

age, as we talk about the changes in how the thinkers understood the cosmos and the earth

itself. To begin with, let us start with geography. Perhaps our most important source on

Hellenistic geography is Strabo of Amasea, a Greek born to an affluent family in the

Mithridatic kingdom of Pontus in 64 BC.

Following his family's defection to the Roman Republic, Strabo enjoyed a lengthy career traveling around much of the Eastern Mediterranean as a scholar.

And around the turn of the millennium, he composed a massive work, known, appropriately

enough, as the geography.

Across 17 books, he surveys the entirety of the

known world, from Britain to India, providing an account of the landscape and customs of the

peoples who dwelt within them, along with anecdotes and scientific discussions.

Most important for our purposes, he almost single-handedly preserved the writings of dozens of geographers

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