Artemidorus of Ephesus

1. Biography - Sources

The available information on the life and work of Artemidorus is mainly drawn from Strabo and, to a lesser degree, by Athenaeus. Marcianus of Heraclea in the 4th cent. AD compiled an abridgement of Artemidorus’ written work, thus preserving valuable information on his life, as well as assessments on his scientific orientation.1

2. Activity

According to Marcianus, Artemidorus' floruit should be dated to the 169th Olympiad, i.e. between 104 and 100 BC. His embassy to Rome, ordained by his native city, proved a defining event in his life. It appears that he spent a significant period of time in that city, for he got to meet Polybius and become influenced by his thought and work. Apart from Rome, Artemidorus voyaged to other parts of Europe, always within the confines of the Mediterranean Sea: among other places he visited Spain, Gadeira (the modern port of Cádiz in Spain) , and perhaps the north coast of Africa.

3. Geographoumena

During his voyages, Artemidorus collected a wealth of material for areas not particularly well known, areas not widely covered by previous geographers. After completing his voyages he returned to Ephesus and composed a monumental work, which he called Geographoumena. In its eleven volumes it supplied geographical information for a very extensive area. Taking the Mediterranean region as his epicentre, he provided data on the western coasts of the Mediterranean, Gadeira, and Libya as well as Italy. He also included the eastern regions that stretched on to the Hindus River, the easternmost border of the then known world.

Furthermore, according to the German scholar Stiehl, vols. 1-6 contained information on Europe; vol. 7 treated Libya; vols. 8-11 focused on Egypt and Asia. His work was in fact a ‘circumnavigation’ of the Mediterranean Sea; it belonged, that is, to an already well-established geographical genre, which was meant to experience a great flourishment during the Roman period. The kind of information Artemidorus seems to have been especially interested in pertained to the calculation of distances between various places.

An important achievement of Artemidorus was the calculation of the distance between the port of Gadeira and the estuary of the Ganges, which he estimated to 68,545 stadia. Indicatively we can mention some more of his calculations: the distance between the estuaries of Ganges and Euphrates (41,350 stadia), between Euphrates and the city of Mazaca in Cappadocia (2,250 stadia), as well as the distance of the route from Mazaca to Ephesus (3,320 stadia). His interest in this kind of information, which belongs to the genre of stadiasmos, another very popular genre of Late Antiquity, allows us to classify him as belonging to the school of geography which prioritizes the practical aspect of this science (the recording of knowledge useful for commerce, military operations, and human activities in general) over the use of mathematics and astronomy for the study of the Earth, voicing, at the same time, doubts with respect to the validity of such conclusions.

Naturally, Artemidorus did not rely exclusively on his personal observations, but employed the works of his predecessors and contemporaries. Modern scholarship has proven that he based his work on Timaeus' (c. 356-260 BC) and Eratosthenes’(276-194 BC) geographical texts, authors which he corrected or supplemented. For the information he cites about Asia he must have taken into account the work of Agatharchides of Cnidus, which was published soon before Artemidorus started composing his own work. Finally, his general scientific and philosophical outlook was influenced by Polybius (second half of the 2nd cent. BC). Apart from the Geographoumena, Athenaeus claims that Artemidorus had also composed one more work, the Ionika Hypomnemata.

4. Assessment

Artemidorus was an important figure of his era, in the scientific as well in the political field. For his successful embassy to Rome, the Ephesians honoured him by setting up a golden statue of his. With respect to his scientific work, it was employed as a source by later authors, like Strabo, and used as a valuable tool until at least the 4th century, when Marcianus composed its abridgement, thus facilitating its preservation until our time.




1. Strabo; Athenaeus; Marcianus, Epitome 3.