Dionysius Periegetes

Dionysius Periegetes (Διονύσιος ὁ Περιηγητής, literally Dionysius the Voyager or Traveller, often Latinized to Dionysius Periegeta) was the author of a description of the habitable world in Greek hexameter verse written in a terse and elegant style. His lifedates, and indeed his origins, are not known, but he is believed to have been from Alexandria and to have flourished around the time of Hadrian (r. 117–138 CE), though some put him as late as the end of the 3rd century.

The work enjoyed popularity in ancient times as a schoolbook. It was translated into Latin by Rufus Festus Avienus, and by the grammarian Priscian. There is a commentary by Eustathius of Thessalonica.

References

• Edward Herbert Bunbury (Ancient Geography, Vol. 2, p. 480) regards the author as flourishing from the reign of Nero (54–68 CE) to that of Trajan (98–117 CE).

Further reading

• Geographici Graeci minores ... 1. Dionysius Periēgētes Graece et Latine cum vetustis commentariis et interpretationibus ex recensione et cum annotatione Godofredi Bernhardy. Lipsiae [Leipzig], 1828; edition by Gottfried Bernhardy.
• Geographici Graeci minores e codicibus recognovit prolegominis annotatione instruxit tabulis aeri incisis illustravit Carolus Mullerus ... 2. Orbus descriptio ... Parisiis [Paris]: Didot, 1861 (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum; v. 26); edition by Carl Müller.

These were reprinted Hildesheim: Olms, 1974 ISBN 3-487-04910-4 (v. 1) and ISBN 3-487-04911-2 (v. 2)

• The surveye of the world, or, Situation of the Earth, Englished by T. Twine [sic, i.e., Thomas Twyne. London, 1572
• John Free: Tyrocinium geographicum Londinense, or, The London geography, consisting of Dr. Free's Short lectures, compiled for the use of his pupils, to which is added by the editor, translated from the Greek into English blank verse, the Periegesis of Dionysius ... from the edition of Dr. Wells, containing the antient and modern science. 2 pts. London, 1789 (with another edition in 1790). The editor to whom the title refers was in fact Beckwith Dodwell Free.
• E. H. Bunbury: A history of ancient geography among the Greeks and Romans from the earliest ages till the fall of the Roman Empire. 2 v. London, 1879

This edition has appeared twice in reprint: Amsterdam: Gieben, 1979 (ISBN 90-70265-11-7) and Osnabrück: Kuballe, 1985 (ISBN 90-6041-110-2). The second edition (1883) was reprinted in 1959 (New York: Dover).

• Ulrich Bernays: Studien zu Dionysius Periegetes. Heidelberg: Winter, 1905.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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