ABSTRACT
Strabo considers the knowledge of distances not only as an indispensable element of "chorography", but also as an essential criterion for evaluating the quality of scientific works. Throughout his work Strabo pays much attention to measurement data. It is interesting to note that Strabo has no single unit of measurement. Writing in Greek for a Greek readership, the stade is, of course, by far the most-attested measurement. In five special cases, Strabo uses the unit "cubit" to express the height of objects, and once the unit "foot" to define the smallest diameter of the rim of a volcano. Measurement data, more than the accompanying text, are susceptible to all kinds of errors. During the process of transmission, scribal errors do occur quite often in regard to numbers. Timosthenes' book On Harbours, which must have included many distances and, therefore, could have served as his main source, does not prominently feature in Strabo's Geography.
