Mapping the Realm

Abstract

The chapter considers the geographical literature of early Seleucid writers. It is argued that the first generation of Seleucid geographers appropriated the eastern regions of the Seleucid Empire with their works, often prioritizing useful political narratives over geographical accuracy. As literature, these works seem inexorably linked to the ambition of the early Seleucid court, especially its desire to assert its dominance over vast and previously unchartered territories. Patrocles, for instance, wrote a description of the coastal regions of the Caspian Sea and the Asian river system, parts of which appear to be pure invention. However, his puzzling claims evoked the image of a world empire stretching as far as the edge of the Ocean, bolstering the prestige of the Seleucids. Another work on the north-eastern regions of the empire, by Demodamas, establishes an image of transcendental rule, an image which he anchors in a specifically Hellenistic view of the succession of empires. Thirdly, Megasthenes used his Indica to convey the idea of imperial domination through knowledge, expressed in a colonial key and backed up by targeted cultural reimaginations and precise measurements. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenge to Seleucid geography from Alexandria in the form of Eratosthenes, who overturned the Seleucid knowledge of Asia and India while reflecting a distinctly Ptolemaic view of the world.