SOURCE: An introduction to The Geography of Strabo, Vol. I, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1917, pp. xi-xviii.

In the following essay, Sterrett discusses Strabo’s ancestors, education, political views, and the scope and purpose of his travels.

What is known about Strabo must be gleaned from his own statements seattered up and down the pages of his Geography; this is true not merely of his lineage, for we also learn much by inference concerning his career and writings. Dorylaus, surnamed Tacticus or the General, is the first of the maternal ancestors of Strabo to be mentioned by him, in connexion with his account of Cnossus (10. 4. 10). This Dorylaus was one of the officers and friends of Mithridates Euergetes, who sent him on frequent journeys to Thrace and Greece to enlist mercenary troops for the royal army. At that time the Romans had not yet occupied Crete, and Dorylaus happened...