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Hello one of the earliest known examples of a foreigner complaining about the

British weather can be found in a book written

two thousand years ago by the Greek scholar Streboe. In Britain, writes Streboe,

it's more rainy than snowy and on days of clear sky fog prevails for so long at a time that throughout the whole day

the sun is to be seen for only three or four hours round about midday.

That passage comes from the Geographical, one of the first and most important works of ancient geography.

It describes almost the entire world known to Greek and Roman scholars at the time,

from Britain to Egypt and India.

It's one of the few lengthy works over the period to

survive in its entirety and reveals that Greek geographers were surprisingly

sophisticated in their knowledge and methods. With me to discuss Trebo's

Geographica are Paul Cartlage, A.G. Lamentis Professor of

Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge, Maria Pretzler, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History

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