Peloponnesus exhibiting the Travels of Anacharsis between the Years CCC.LXIII & CCC.LVI

A map of the Peloponnese Peninsula in southern Greece during the Classical period. Ancient place names are used throughout, and the scale is given in Roman miles, Olympic stadia, and Brittanic miles. The orange lines on the map mark the travels of Anacharsis the Younger according to Jean-Jacques Barthélemy's fictional travelogue, first printed in 1788.

Barthélemy's Anacharsis the Younger is purported to be a descendant of a real Scythian philosopher prince of the same name who lived in the 6th century BC and traveled extensively through Greece, eventually adopting and expounding its culture and ideals. In Greek literature, Anacharsis came to represent the idea of the 'enlightened barbarian' who achieved wisdom through travel and study, overcoming his savage origins. He appears often in classical Greek writings, many of which ignore the truth of his life in favour of poetic of philosophical ideals.

Barthélemy's travelogue continues this tradition, using a descendant of Anacharsis to provide an idealized view of the manners, customs, glories, and government of the Ancient Greek states. The fictional journey covers the years 363-337 B.C.E., during which Anacharsis visits Athens, Byzantium, Corinth, Thebes, Lesbos, Egypt, and Persia. He also attends the Olympic Games in 356 BCE and discusses philosophies of government with Aristotle. The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger became a huge success with over 80 editions in at least 10 languages. The book solidified much of our modern European vision of Ancient Greece and led to a huge revival in philhellenism across Europe and in the United States, affecting politics, architecture, and education for decades after its release.

This specific map is derived from Barthélemy's writings but was published in Robert Wilkinson's Atlas Classica, a historical atlas of the world with numerous handsome, copper-engraved maps.

Original colour. [GRC1888]