This chapter presents new, annotated translations of the testimonia and fragments of Timosthenes of Rhodes (active 282–246 BC), arranged as 37 extracts. An appendix contains a new translation of Aristotle’s discussion of the winds at Meteorologika, 2. 6. The chapter introduction addresses the difficulty of linking references to Timosthenes to the various book titles of which we have reports, but argues that we should not automatically divorce him from the Timosthenes who wrote about the Pythian Melody of Delphi. His distinctive contribution to geography was in assembling detailed navigational data, particularly specific local topography useful to ship-captains. Typically of literary writers, however, he enlivened his technical material with information about local cultures. His legacy was considerable, probably visible, for example, in the Roman-period Stadiasmos (Chapter 31 of this volume).

This chapter presents a new, annotated translation of the anonymous Stadiasmos, written no later than the 3rd century AD but possibly as early as the 1st, whose surviving extracts add up to a gazetteer of towns, harbour facilities, and distances from Tunisia around the eastern Mediterranean as far as the southern Aegean. The chapter introduction discusses the author’s use of technical terms and their meanings, and the work’s relationship to the Latin Maritime Itinerary, suggesting that in light of its detailed navigational content it was probably a ‘piloting manual’ rather than a desk-based study for an ‘armchair geographer’ or an administrative document. Four new maps show a selection of places along the coasts described.

The entwinement of Attica and Boiotia brought with it challenges and opportunities. This geographical entanglement will be analysed to understand how the geological situation influenced neighbourly relations. The entwinement ensured considerations of proximity were always at the forefront of decision-makers’ minds. It also created a distinct relationship between the Athenians and Boiotians. Scholarship previously focused on border disputes as the governing mode of interaction in the borderlands, yet the lived experience was different, as this investigation shows. Analysis of the Mazi and Skourt plains, and the adjacent lands of Plataia and Oropos, demonstrates that these contested lands were not the cause of hostilities, but often a consequence of a pre-existing war; that is, territorial disputes were the result rather than the cause of enmity. Boiotia’s maritime connectivity through its harbours provided another strategic consideration for the Athenians, whose interest in the region was partially predicated on the function of these harbours as strategic hubs in the Corinthian Gulf. Finally, Boiotia’s role as a buffer is investigated and how that influenced neighbourly relations. The security it provided Athens meant that the latter consistently aimed to obtain Boiotia as a shield for its hinterland, whether through force or willingly.

Chapter 4 shows that tensions about the applicability of knowledge were never more pronounced than when it came to geographical information. The Gazeta newspaper used its networks of knowledge to attempt to create a new ‘Description of Guatemala’ that would not just counter erroneous claims about the Americas peddled by some European philosophers, but also critically examined existing sources and formats of geographical knowledge. They rejected geography as a universal science that related places across the globe to each other, and instead prioritised information from current statistics as well as local historical archives. Individual reformers also contributed even more practical geographies that reported their own experience of travel. Geography and chorography was considered useful only in so far as it would help to increase trade and prosperity. It followed that securing transport connections through road and harbour works that would allow for an exploitation of natural wealth was the most important application of such knowledge. Reformers attempted to rewrite the geography of the Audiencia’s trade routes, and thought of their projects as integrating specific places more firmly into the geography of the region.