The Romans and us: Strabo's 'Geography' and the construction of ethnicity

The aim of this article is to study how ethnographic descriptions and categories in Strabo's "Geography" might be used in the construction of representations of ethnicity. Departing from, in particular, R. Cohen's approach of ethnicity as constructed through nesting dichotomizations, Strabo's text is studied on the basis of the dichotomies of civilised--uncivilised, Greek--barbarian, and Roman--non-Roman. Special attention is given to Strabo's view of the various stages of evolution of human culture, which intersects with the idea of simple dichotomies, as well as to the particular aspect of city-identities. In the end, the problem turns out to be rather complicated, involving the question of the definition of Romanness in social practice and the emergence of particular provincial identities within the context of the Roman Empire.