242 STRABO. [CHAP.
variety of topics and in different peoples, and to get that power of
vividly realising and forcibly representing to others the matters he
treats of, which can only be obtained from ocular inspection, or
at least from familiarity with similar objects. At the same time
his mind was trained in the art of observation; and the result of
this is that he writes, not as a student in his closet, but as one
who was accustomed to notice and to criticise.
A word or two must be added concerning Strabo's philosophical
and political opinions, because these make them-
Phiiosophicai selves felt from time to time in the course of his
Opinions. work. in philosophy, as two of his instructors,
Tyrannion and Xenarchus, were Peripatetic philosophers, it is
somewhat surprising to find that he was himself a Stoic. At what
period of his life he became an adherent of that school we have
no means of ascertaining, but perhaps the change may have been
in part due to his intimacy with the Stoic Athenodorus, who was
first the teacher, and afterwards the adviser, of Augustus. In
consequence of this, his belief in a divinity or in the
Stoic Tenets. , - , , , . .
gods, as far as he possessed any, was pantheistic,
and with him the primal agency which caused the organisation of
the world was Providence—an impersonal force, which produced
the interconnexion of all the parts, and caused its unity and per-
fection1. Accordingly, when the natural features of a country are
found to be adapted to the needs of its inhabitants, and to contribute
to their development, this is characterised as 'conformity to nature*
(6/ioXoyia), and is regarded as the £ work of Providence' (irpovowis
c/ryov)3. The views here expressed, and the terms by which they
are represented, are definitely those professed by the Stoics. In
politics Strabo was a hearty advocate of the Roman
government. He was strongly impressed by the
influence of the fax Romano,—by the safety of life
and property in districts formerly disturbed, the security afforded
to commerce by the extinction of piracy, and the advantages to
civilisation which arose from a central political administration8.
The same feeling caused him to look favourably on
tte concentration of the power in the hands of a
single ruler; indeed he remarks that an empire of
117. i. 36. * 4. 1.14. « 1.1.16.