ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Strabo's perception of Rome, Roman culture and Roman power in general. It focuses on how Strabo, and probably other intellectuals of Greek origin, perceived not only Rome but also the relationship between themselves, the Greek-speaking population of the Empire, and their Roman rulers. When Strabo first travelled to Rome in 44 BCE, he may have been a Roman citizen and so would have enjoyed the same legal rights as all other Roman citizens. Strabo may well have been right that Pompey was less attentive to Lucullus' Pontic network. Strabo's reservation about the Romans and their culture is also illustrated in the passage where Strabo questions Eratosthenes' notion of a more relativistic approach to cultural superiority. In his Geography, Strabo uses two opposing definitions of barbarism. Strabo leaves little doubt that Greeks were the Romans' cultural superiors, noting that the Romans were also linguistic barbarians who struggled to understand or pronounce Greek correctly.
