Strabo was born in 63 BC in Amasya, 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 continued the History of Polybius from the fifth book onward until his own times; only a few fragments of this work survive. However, his work Geographica is preserved in seventeen books; it is the most important geographical manual we have from antiquity, containing descriptions of countries and peoples, with information from personal observation and indirect sources.