Strabo was born in 63 BC in Amasia of Pontus; he was a geographer and historian. He traveled through many regions of Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy.

He wrote a historical work in forty-seven books, which from the fifth book onwards continued the History of Polybius up to his own days; from this only a few fragments survive.

However, his work Geographica has survived in seventeen books; it is the most important geographical manual we have from antiquity, containing descriptions of countries and peoples, with information from firsthand observation and from indirect sources.