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Ethnography's Freak Show: The Grotesques at the Edges of the Roman Earth

1999; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0048671x0000182x

2202-932X

Rhiannon Evans,

Classical Antiquity Studies

Blemyis capita absunt, uultus in pectore est. Satyris praeter effigiem nihil humani. Aegipanum quae celebratur ea forma est. haec de Africa. Pomponius Mela Chorographia 1.48 The Blemyes lack heads: their faces are in their chests. There is nothing typical of humans about the Satyrs, apart from their superficial appearance. The Aegipanes have the shape described in stories. So much for Africa. How useful are Roman geographical texts? Outrageous claims like the one cited above have invited scepticism concerning the scientific value of geographies and ethnographies produced by Roman authors. To a large extent, the importance attributed to a geographical text will depend on what is being sought from that text. For example, O.A.W. Dilke tells us that, ‘We are fortunate in possessing all seventeen books of the Geography of Strabo,’ and that Strabo ‘shows good critical power in assessing earlier geographical writers and giving us a verbal picture of the known world of the time.’ However, ‘a contrast with Strabo's work is provided by the very simple and popular Chorographia of Pomponius Mela,’ of which Dilke expresses die view that it would have been preferable had Juba II's work survived.