Artemidorus Ephesius [Arabia in…]

Artemidorus of Ephesus, Greek geographer. Book VIII of his 'Geography', written ca. 100 BCE, contained a description of the western coastal regions of the Arabian Peninsula.

Artemidorus’s description of the western Arabian Peninsula is almost entirely taken from the account of Agatharchides and preserved in a long passage of Strabo’s Geography (XVI, 4, 18-19), Artemidorus’s account being the only source of this passage.

A comparison with the texts of Diod. Sic. (III, 42-47) and of Photius (250, 86-103) seems to show that Artemidorus tends to shorten Agatharchides’ text, even if he sometimes relates details omitted by the two other witnesses, and that he only very occasionally completed or rectified the information found in Agatharchides, as when he rectifies the name of the Sabaean capital (“Meriaba” instead of “Sabai/Sabas” in Agatharchides). For Artemidorus, the African coasts of the “Erythraean Sea”, situated between the northernmost corner of the Gulf of Suez and Cape Guardafui, do not belong to Arabia.

Philipp Seubert

References and suggested readings

• Brodersen, K. 1996. Artemidoros [3], in H. Cancik & H. Schneider (eds.) Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike 2: 50.
• Dueck, D. 2012. Geography in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Schiano, C. 2010. Artemidoro di Efeso e la scienza del suo tempo. Bari: Dedalo.
• Stiehle, R. 1856. Der Geograph Artemidoros von Ephesos. Philologus 11: 193–244.

_{Alternate spellings: Artemidorus of Ephesus, Artemidoros, Artémidore d’Éphèse}