Το ταξίδι στον αρχαίο κόσμο

by Lionel Casson

Το βιβλίο αυτό είναι μια μοναδική από άποψη πληρότητας μελέτη για τα ταξίδια στους αρχαίους χρόνους. Χρονολογικά, αρχίζει από τις μετακινήσεις των κατοίκων της Αιγύπτου και της Μεσοποταμίας μετά το 3000 π.Χ. και φτάνει ώς τα ταξίδια των χριστιανών προσκυνητών του 6ου αιώνα. Θεματικά, καλύπτει όλα τα βασικά σημεία: ποιοι ταξίδευαν και για ποιο λόγο (ιδίως αν δεν ήταν έμποροι ή κρατικοί υπάλληλοι σε αποστολή)· πώς μετακινούνταν σε ξηρά και θάλασσα και με τί μέσο· τις ανέσεις του ταξιδιώτη (πανδοχεία, καπηλειά, εστιατόρια), και πάνω απ' όλα τη φύση του αρχαίου τουρισμού: τα δρομολόγια, τις περιοχές και τα αξιοθέατα που συγκέντρωναν την προτίμηση των ταξιδιωτών, τα μουσεία, τους ξεναγούς, τους ταξιδιωτικούς οδηγούς, τη συμπεριφορά του περιηγητή.

Η μελέτη είναι βασισμένη είτε στις ίδιες τις αρχαίες πηγές, από τις οποίες παρατίθενται άφθονα αποσπάσματα, είτε σε πρότυπα έργα που αντλούν το υλικό τους από τις φιλολογικές, αρχαιολογικές, επιγραφικές, παπυρολογικές και νομισματικές πηγές. Όλες οι σχετικές παραπομπές καταγράφονται εξαντλητικά στη βιβλιογραφία, η οποία, μολονότι παρακολουθεί και τεκμηριώνει το κείμενο λέξη προς λέξη, επισυνάπτεται κατά κεφάλαια στο τέλος, ώστε να ρέει απρόσκοπτα η αφήγηση. Επίσης, για κάθε χρονική περίοδο προτάσσεται σύντομη ιστορική εισαγωγή, ώστε να κατατοπίζεται ο μη ειδικός αναγνώστης. Το αποτέλεσμα είναι ένα ανάγνωσμα μυθιστορηματικής υφής, που κερδίζει χρώμα και ζωντάνια χάρη στα συνεχή ―πολλές φορές χιουμοριστικά― παραθέματα από έργα συγγραφέων όπως ο Ηρόδοτος και ο Αριστοφάνης, ο Λουκιανός και ο Παυσανίας, ο Κικέρων, ο Οράτιος, ο Μαρτιάλης, οι Πλίνιοι (Πρεσβύτερος και Νεότερος), αλλά και ο Λιβάνιος και ο Συνέσιος.

Ο Λάιονελ Κάσσον (1914-2009) ήταν ομότιμος καθηγητής Κλασικής Φιλολογίας στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Νέας Υόρκης και είχε συγγράψει πολλά βιβλία για τον αρχαίο κόσμο. Από τα πιό γνωστά είναι η μελέτη του για τα πλοία και τους ναυτικούς της αρχαιότητας (Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, 1971).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Ancient History, Ancient, Research, Greece

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Lionel Casson was a classicist, professor emeritus at New York University, and a specialist in maritime history. He earned his B.A. in 1934 at New York University, and in 1936 became an assistant professor. He later earned his Ph.D. there during 1939. In 2005 he was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America Gold Medal.

Reviews

[Manray9 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lionel Casson’s Travel in the Ancient World is a masterpiece. The book is clearly the product of a learned man with close familiarity with all the sources of the Classical era – Herodotus, Pausanias, both Plineys, Cicero and many others. Despite the scholarly nature of Travel in the Ancient World, the late Professor Casson writes with a droll touch which makes the book exceedingly readable and never stuffy. He starts, appropriately, reviewing travel in ancient Mesopotamia, then the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and the early Christians in the Holy Land. He looks at how people travelled, by which modes of transportation, evaluates inns, restaurants, travel clothing, baggage, where travelers went and why, souvenir hunting, and the invention of sightseeing – with a chapter dedicated to Pausanias’ Guidebook of Greece, the sole surviving travel book from Classical times, dubbed by Casson the Baedeker of the ancient world.

I urge any reader with an interest in the Classical world or travel writing to read Professor casson's book. It is intriguing and worthy of Five Stars.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unique and highly interesting account of the many facets of travel in the ancient world. The author covers; travel from the Bronze age to around the 500's CE, types of travel, reasons for travel, accomodations, major historical attractions, the mail delivery system in ancient times, and many other topics. In general, the book is highly informative, readable, and entertaining. Descriptions of holiday travel, inns and restaurants, the Roman road system, the trade routes of ancient times are quite fascinating. In a very few places the book seems to bog down in perhaps too much detail, but overall, the book is quite good

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read, fascinating, and I now realize that my ideas of the "olden days" (you know, 1200 BC) having very little road travel were completely wrong. REALLY wrong.

So let's not even get into what those nice, smooth, Roman roads did for travel ... minus the cars, it was just as busy as it is these days with world travel, sight seeing, museums, and business around the known world. What were the inns, restaurants, and travel guides like in past days? Read this book.

[B.G. Brainard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author reports that he wrote this book with both the student of the ancient world and the general reader in mind. I think he did a great job on both accounts. His historical introductions to each of the periods discussed are short and to the point. However, he also provides complete documentation whenever possible for those wanting to dig deeper. I think the scholar and armchair traveler alike will find the book informative and entertaining to read.

[Baloota · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative book that tackles the subject in the title with great focus but often goes on side tangents. There is a lot to learn here aside from just "Travel in the Ancient World." This might be the reason why I'm not giving it full 5 stars. Otherwise, great book.

[Carmen C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming, easy to read, and very informative. Casson did a wonderful job at making the material accessible and informative at once. 'Travel in the Ancient World' makes for a fantastic read for anyone interested in the topic.

[Brendan Coster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awefully nerdy, but does an amazing job of going in depth into the when, why's and how's of travel in the ancient world. Mesopatamia gets a brief overview, Ancient Greece quite a bit more, and the meat and potatoes of the book is travel, roads, etc during the Roman era.

My major complaint is that Casson didn't have a point to the book, there's no opinion, there's no advancement of the subject. It's in prose, but it could have easily have been an index with a number map. He states facts and shows examples from historical writings -- he makes an excellent collection of materials, but doesn't take the next step and doesn't 'do' anything with it.

It's a good read, 4 stars for the lack of scholarly application by the author.

[Michael (Mike) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about travel in ancient times - a surprising topic. Did you know that man didn't ride atop a horse until about 1,000 B.C.? It was thought the idea would never catch on. Wheeled traffic was allowed in ancient Rome only AFTER daylight hours. Quadruped drawn wagons were brought in at night to unload goods. Travel was a dangerous endeavor back then. In this book the profession of inn-keeping for the traveler is described as being the "second oldest profession," ahem...I guess they need a place, eh? The book is a good segue for studying the life of Ancient Rome. This was an excellent work in scholarship

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

6th book of the year: Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson. The only book on the subject ever written, I’ve had this in my library for some time now and am glad to have finally read it. Starting with ancient Mesopotamia, then the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and early Christians, this is a thorough look at what it was like to leave the comforts of home. Usually for business, then increasingly for tourism, it was fascinating to understand what it must’ve been like to arrive in an unfamiliar town and, even if you had someone to stay with, not having street names or house numbers, trying to find where you were going to stay was a unique challenge of the period. It also covers snack bars, restaurants, bars, brothels (some were a combination of all the above), roadside inns, taverns, temples, and hospitals. Before jumping in your time machine, remember that traveling mostly sucked, was extremely dangerous, and usually took far longer than anything we would be comfortable with today. Thoroughly engaging, highly recommended!

[Kevin Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Casson's book is a must if you are interested in Ancient European travel and the means by which it is done. You will learn a lot and for a rather obscure subject Casson's prose keeps you interested and doesn't dwell on any topic for too long. Compared to almost every other book on the subject he keeps the reader engaged and even if you aren't studying the topic it is phenomenal for anyone interested in seeing both how much and how little has changed over the last few thousand years.

If you are studying the topic in detail, Casson's book a great place to begin research on the topic even despite being written 40 years as you move on to study original sources and more modern papers.

A quick note: The majority of the book is about Roman travel, which considering the considerably larger amount of source material, it makes complete sense.

[Angelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this while I was on summer vacation. A surprisingly relaxing read, given the complicated topic that the book has to cover. The writer makes good points around travel during ancient times, which are fairly simply put for the average reader, while presenting a bunch of new info as well.
In all, a fun book, learned a whole lot about Mediterranean civilizations and I really didn't get lost in the vast amount of information because the writer does a good job separating them according to era and culture. The only drawback I found was during the end of the book, the eastern roman/ Byzantine era is covered a bit loosely and that made it for me at least, tiring to read.
But still, I would recommend it.

[Bonnie_blu · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. I enjoyed the book and think it is a generally good overview of travel in the ancient world (especially Greece and the Roman Empire). However, this book was originally written in 1974, and although the author updated it in 1994, there is almost no difference between the two. In addition, there are more recent books available with more up-to-date information, and I recommend anyone interested in this topic look for recent works.

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid enjoyable read with strong research behind it
Its a pleasant read that mixes in anecdotes in a suitable and relevant way, you'll probably enjoy reading this
One minus is that its fairly eurocentric, alot of references assume you are Western

Suitability: anyone with a broad stroke understanding of Roman history, not appropriate if you don't have a good enough background to recognize most of the most famous emperors and wars

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, really shines a light on the different modes of travel in ancient times. It was surprising how much tourism took place even with the danger/uncertainty of travel. What brought that home was a pilgrim who elected to travel through Anatolia on foot in the winter and add 4 months to his journey vs a 10 day boat trip with high risk of storms.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. It's scholarly yet interesting. He covers all we know about travel in the ancient world, why people traveled, how people traveled, the basic issues that we still deal with today like where do you grab a meal and find a place to sleep. It's amazing how much information we actually have based on ancient travel writers, remains of guidebooks, and maps.

[Andy Gagnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I've said before, I will read anything by this author/professor. His books are dense with information, with a touch of humor that keeps one turning the pages. Travel in ancient times, during the Greco-Roman empires, was not a lot different from today, except a lot more walking.

[Parker Samelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting overview of how travel functioned in Antiquity.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naturally, most authors focus on the greatest monuments of the ancient world. Casson provides an invaluable service by explaining how one would get to and from these already famous places including; mode of transportation, lodging, reading signs, tipping, food and (to appeal to the masses) prostitution.

Practically a Lonely Planet guide to antiquity.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable and easy to read, but provides a wealth of scholarly information on the ancient world. Lionel Casson's presentation of Travel in the Ancient world captures the essence and challenges pertaining to travel from Mesopotamia to Constantine. Anyone with an interest in antiquities or classical studies will enjoy this immensely.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry, but full of really really interesting information about the reality of travel in the Ancient (Western) world. I find it really interesting the ways that people are the same now as they were then. The tacky souvenirs, the graffiti, the 'wish you were here' letters home.

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One very interesting book. Well written and chock full of facts you didn't know. One quibble: the last 40 or so pages seemed rushed as if Casson was tired of the book, or found the material less interesting, thus, so did I.

[David Scarratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, and provides useful background if you usually read event-oriented histories.

[Larissa Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The few tidbits of helpful, interesting information are lost in the bizarre structure, meandering style of writing, and weird, racist bits.

[Ida]

For my second course: Traveling and travelers in the Antique. Skimmed through the last third part. (7/11-22)

Reread for my exam, same course (11/1-23)

[Kyriaki Gkourgkouli · Rating 3 out of 5]

kourastiko.