The rhetoric of the North and Strabo's imperial ethnogeography

Abstract

Strabo's Geography is one of the frst historical sources which demonstrate the process of construction of “northern” stereotypes in the Roman Empire. On the one hand, it is a compendium of previous geo-political theories, and, on the other hand, Strabo's method of compilation corresponds to the political tendencies of the Augustan age. The term “North” refers to the geo-ethnological areas that are northern from a “Mediterranean” point of view: starting from Gaul and ranging through Germania up to the northern coast of the Black Sea. The article argues that Strabo's “northern stereotypes” not only answered the political interests of the Augustan age and in some way infuenced certain discourses, but were also used as an instrument of imperial ideology for enhancing the legitimacy of Roman power.