Scylax of Caryanda

Navigator and geographer

Flourished: Sixth century b. c.e.; Caryanda, off Caria near Halicarnassus Category: Geography; expansion and land acquisition

Life The Greek historian Herodotus reported that in about 515 b. c.e., Darius the Great sent Scylax of Caryanda (SI-laks of KAR-ee-an-duh), an island off Caria near Halicarnassus, and others whom he trusted on a journey. They traveled from northern India down the Indus River eastward to the sea and thence westward, in the thirtieth month, to the isthmus of Suez; after this circumnavigation, Darius conquered the Indians and made use of this sea.

Exactly where Scylax traveled is impossible to determine, but he appears to have based his Periplus, a geographical work, at least in part on his own experience. Herodotus knew Scylax in connection with India, the Indian Ocean, and geographical authority, and so did geographer and protohistorian Hecataeus of Miletus in the sixth or fifth century b. c.e. and philosopher Aristotle in the fourth century b. c.e. There are numerous texts entitled Periplus, and Scylax’s may have been the first; however, it survives only in fragments quoted by others. An extant fourth century b. c.e. Periplus, was probably borrowed on Scylax’s authority for its descriptions of the coasts of Europe, Asia, and Libya. Strabo’s Geographica (c. 7 b. c.e.; Geography, 1917-1933) may also have used Scylax’s work for its descriptions of an ancient road. The Latin poet Avienus cited Scylax as late as the fourth century c. e.

Influence In writing what was probably the first Greek periplus at the end of the sixth century b. c.e., Scylax created a Greek literary genre that influenced not only merchants and seamen but also geographers and classical letters in general.

Further Reading

Casson, Lionel. The Ancient Mariners. 2d ed. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Kaeppel, Carl. “The Periplus of Scylax.” In Off the Beaten Track in the Classics. New York: Melbourne University Press, 1936.

O. Kimball Armayor

See also: Aristotle; Hecataeus of Miletus; Herodotus; Navigation and Transportation; Science; Strabo.