Trade on the Rivers of the Ancient World in Strabo’s “Geography”

Abstract. The choice of the topic of the article is due to the lack of a comprehensive analysis of information about river trade in Strabo’s “Geography” and the system of his ideas about their role in ancient trade. The purpose of the study is to characterize the information in “Geography” about rivers in the context of their importance for the study of trade in the ancient world and to reconstruct the system of Strabo’s ideas about the significance and features of river trade. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive analysis of Strabo’s information and ideas related to trade on the rivers of the ancient world. The relevance is due to the great importance of the analyzed evidence for the study of navigation and trade on rivers in ancient times, the possibility of comparing them with other categories of sources and reconstructing Strabo’s ideas about the role of rivers as trade routes. The work uses the method of comparing data with known information from
other sources, historical-comparative, systemic and statistical methods.
The analysis shows that Strabo’s “Geography” contains mostly reliable and valuable information, although of varying degrees of informativeness for different regions of the ancient world and aspects of river trade, about navigation and transportation of goods along rivers, river ports and tolls. Strabo had a certain system of quite correct ideas about the important role of rivers in antiquity as trade lines and communication routes, factors
influencing navigation and trade along rivers, and close interrelations of river lines with other types of trade routes.

Keywords: riverine trade, ancient world, Strabo, shipping, communication routes, transportation, goods, river ports, river tolls, factors, system of ideas.